As Los Angeles-based City National pursues private wealth management growth, the bank is leaning on its RBC ownership to convey trust and stability, an executive said. 

“We can be local and highly personalized, and we can deliver with RBC as our parent company,” with its “stability and institutional capabilities,” said Brandon Williams, head of City National’s private bank and wealth management segment.

To that end, City National has rebranded some businesses, swapping the name City National Rochdale – the private bank’s asset manager – for RBC Rochdale. 

“We are amplifying RBC’s brand,” Williams said in a recent interview. “It has a lot of value to our clients.”

City National, bought by the biggest Canadian lender in 2015, made another name tweak recently, dropping “private banking” in favor of “private bank,” Williams said. 

The latter “represents more of a holistic advisory business, versus private banking, which sounds more transactional,” he said. 

Growing the private wealth management business is one of City National’s strategic priorities, said Williams, who has been in his role for about 13 months and has reshaped the segment’s leadership team.

Over the past 10 months, City National’s private bank has hired about 85 people and promoted 80, Williams said. Recent hires have come from Comerica, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and M&T Bank’s Wilmington Trust, he said. In many cases, those hires bring clients with them. 

“If you hire bankers and advisers that are relationship-oriented and client-first, and they're deeply connected to the family and the next generation, you will see that followership from the clients,” Williams said.

Williams wouldn’t put a number to future hires, but said the private bank continues adding talent as part of City National’s investment into the business. He didn’t detail the size of that investment, but said it’s “significant.” 

City National’s private bank has clients across the country and outside the U.S., although its core client base is skewed toward California, Williams said. 

The great wealth transfer that’s taking place is “absolutely part of our business thesis,” Williams said. “There's an opportunity, there's a growing wealth marketplace in our own footprint and other markets as well.”

The $100 billion-asset lender has the largest deposit market share in Los Angeles, with about $35 billion in deposits, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data as of June 30. City National has about $82.4 billion in deposits overall, and $83.9 billion in assets under management. 

RBC CEO Dave McKay and CFO Katherine Gibson, during September investor conference appearances, noted the bank’s openness to tuck-in acquisitions in the U.S. to accelerate growth in wealth management or commercial banking.

City National’s fiscal third-quarter profit rose 60% year over year, to $184 million, according to RBC’s quarterly earnings presentation in August. 

Of course, other lenders are keen to grow their business in this space, particularly on the West Coast. Los Angeles-based Banc of California this month launched private banking services, Providence, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank is pursuing private bank business in California, and RBC’s Canadian rival BMO seeks to expand its business in California.

City National aims to deepen relationships with existing clients and is considering expanding into additional markets, when there’s “client demand and talent alignment,” Williams said. 

Possibilities include Southeastern markets Charlotte, North Carolina, or Nashville, Tennessee; City National added a team of commercial bankers in Charlotte last year, he noted. 

“We're hiring commercial bankers, middle-market bankers, and so as our colleagues are building out that business, there's a natural fit that we can add value to those business owners,” Williams said.