The Los Angeles-based subsidiary of the Canadian lender is staffing up and “amplifying” RBC’s brand to grow its private bank business, an executive said.

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.

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