Riverside, CA-based Provident Savings Bank this week pulled the plug on its residential mortgage banking operation, citing a “highly competitive” operating environment and “market conditions.” The unit, Provident Bank Mortgage, is a $1.0 billion a year producer.

Almost across the board, conventional and government lenders took it on the chin in terms of originations last year, but two of the largest producers of non-qualified mortgages — the Angel Oak family of companies and Citadel Servicing Corp. — excelled.

The New York Department of Financial Services last week rejected Fidelity National Financial’s application to acquire control of Stewart Information Services’ NY-based title insurance company.

BB&T Corp. and SunTrust Banks late in the week unveiled plans to merge in a deal valued at $66.0 billion, one that will create, pro forma, the nation’s ninth-largest home originator as well as the ninth-largest servicer.

The California-based lender worked out an arrangement to take over 14 branch offices from RPM Mortgage, most of them in New Hampshire, and pick up about $650 million in annual lending capacity.

“We’re in a very challenging and turbulent time,” says a top mortgage consultant who predicts an intense period of industry consolidation through 2019 and perhaps beyond.