Los Angeles-based City National Bank is making a switch at the top.
The $96 billion-asset Royal Bank of Canada subsidiary named longtime Fifth Third executive Howard Hammond as its next CEO, effective Nov. 27, according to a press release Friday.
But the bank is retaining outgoing CEO Kelly Coffey in a newly created position as CEO of City National Entertainment.
The move will reunite Hammond with former Fifth Third CEO Greg Carmichael, who joined City National last month as its executive chair. Hammond will report to Carmichael.
“Howard brings exceptionally strong experience to City National,” Carmichael said in Friday’s release. “His work at Fifth Third reflects operational excellence, strong risk management, and the ability to transform an organization for the future. He is the ideal leader to take City National to its next stage and prepare the bank for future success.”
Hammond is a 17-year veteran of Fifth Third, having served as the Cincinnati-based lender’s head of consumer banking since March 2021, and before that, as head of retail banking and retail brokerage, according to his LinkedIn profile. He spent his first 14 years at Fifth Third as CEO of securities and institutional services.
“City National has an incredible reputation for putting its clients, colleagues and communities first,” Hammond said in Friday’s release. “I look forward to working closely with Greg, Kelly and the rest of the leadership team to build on the strength of City National and lead the business into the future.”
City National has seen its share of stumbles over the past year. The bank agreed to pay the Justice Department $31 million in January to settle allegations it avoided providing mortgage-lending services to majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Los Angeles County between 2017 and 2020.
It then reported a $38 million loss for the quarter that ran from May to July. And RBC, which acquired City National in 2015, infused $2.95 billion into the bank this year to boost its capital — in a move Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts Mike Rizvanovic and Abhilash Shashidharan called an “internal bailout,” according to Bloomberg.
RBC CFO Nadine Ahn said in September that City National had not prioritized building its U.S. deposits, and heightened interest rates have exacerbated its struggle.
“It’s a hard slog for deposits in the U.S.,” Ahn said at the time. “You have seen liquidity come out of the system to a greater extent than you have in Canada. And the pressure that’s putting on the ability to extend credit is quite substantial.”
Coffey’s assignment to City National’s entertainment front, meanwhile, appears little to disturb the hierarchy there. Martha Henderson is set to remain in her role as vice chair of entertainment banking. JaHan Wang, the bank’s executive vice president of entertainment banking, will report to Coffey.
“For me, banking has always been about clients — the people, businesses and nonprofit organizations we support,” Coffey said. “The entertainment industry is incredibly dynamic, and City National’s role in supporting this community is more important than ever as we remain at the forefront of industry developments and hone our services to meet the evolving needs of our clients.”
Coffey had served as City National’s CEO since February 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before that, she spent nearly six years as CEO of JPMorgan’s U.S. private bank.
In his statement, Carmichael called Coffey’s impact on City National “tremendous.”
“Her client focus has ensured that client-centricity has remained a hallmark of the bank’s culture and that it remains a differentiator for the bank,” he said Friday.
