City National Bank is a bank headquartered at City National Plaza in Los Angeles, California. CNB is a subsidiary of the Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada and it is the 38th largest bank in the United States as of 2019. CNB has been dubbed the "Bank to the Stars" due to its extensive relationships with numerous Hollywood entertainment industry clients, and deals with many exclusive and premier clients from various media, including television, film, theater and the arts.
The bank was founded in 1954 by Alfred S. Hart. He hired Benjamin N. Maltz as the first Chairman of the Board. Its offices were in Beverly Hills at 400 North Roxbury Drive until 2004 when its headquarters were relocated to Arco Plaza in Los Angeles. In 1963, when Frank Sinatra's son was kidnapped, the bank put up the $240,000 demanded as ransom money. In 1970, its stock began trading over the counter. In the 1990s, it acquired seven banks: First Los Angeles Bank, Ventura County National Bank, Frontier Bank, Riverside National Bank, Harbor Bank, North American Trust Company, and American Pacific State Bank. In 2000, the bank expanded into Northern California in with the purchase of The Pacific Bank, followed by the acquisition of the Oakland-based Civic BanCorp in 2002. It had also acquired The Pacific Bank in 2000 as well as Reed, Conner & Birdwell and the People's Bank of California in 2001. In 2002, City National opened an office in New York City to serve its California-based clientele who do business on both coasts, as well as prospective clients in Manhattan. In that decade, it continued to acquire more banks: Convergent Capital Management, LLC, Business Bank of Nevada, Convergent Wealth Advisors, Lee Munder Capital Group, Imperial Capital Bank. It then acquired two more banks in 2010: 1st Pacific Bank and Sun West Bank. In mid-2011, the bank opened a branch in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2012, it acquired Rochdale Investment Management and First American Equipment Finance. City National Bank was formerly known as City National Bank of Beverly Hills and changed its name to City National Bank in February 1964. On January 22, 2015, City National announced a "definitive agreement" to be acquired by the Royal Bank of Canada. On April 11, 2017, City National opened its first full-service branch at RBC Plaza in Minneapolis, in conjunction with RBC Wealth Management. On October 25, 2018, City National announced that Kelly Coffey would become its first female CEO from February 2019 becoming only the 4th CEO in the bank's history.
