Provident Savings Bank, headquartered in California, recently laid off staff in its mortgage unit due to a decline in refinance volume. “During the past six months, we’ve reduced capacity to more closely align to the current opportunities in the market, which reflect an uptick in purchase-money activity, but a significant decline in refinance activity,” said Craig Blunden, chairman and CEO of Provident Financial Holdings, the holding company of the bank. He said the lender reduced its ...