By Staff Report Tuesday, May 20th, 2014

City National Bank has hired a team of prominent South Coast private bankers as it gets ready to launch an expansion into Santa Barbara County.

The Los Angeles-based bank, one of the largest based in California, said Tuesday that it has hired Leo Hamill, Susan Rogers, Annamarie Cole, Amber Ortiz and Roy Martinez. All are former wealth managers at Union Bank and its predecessor in the region, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust.

The wealth-management team will be based in City National’s Oxnard office, the Los Angeles bank said. The high-profile hires are part of a larger effort by City National to build out its presence in the Tri-Counties. The bank said it plans to add office space in Santa Barbara or Montecito later this year. It currently has four tri-county locations, in Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Oxnard and Ventura, but none in Santa Barbara or San Luis Obispo counties.

“We are pleased to continue expanding to serve this dynamic and growing California region,” Michael Pagano, executive vice president of private client services for City National Bank, said in a statement. “We know these colleagues will deliver exceptional experience and depth of expertise to the Central Coast for all of our existing and new clients.”

City National has assets of just under $30 billion and about $66 billion under management in its private wealth management unit. The 60-year-old financial institution has long specialized in lending and providing asset management services to the entertainment industry and it has expanded from Southern California to the Bay Area, New York, Atlanta and Nashville.

Previously, executives have spoken informally to the Business Times about wanting to find a location on the South Coast.

The company’s shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CYN were priced at $70.07 shortly before the close of trading.