City National Bank President Christopher Warmuth is retiring after 18 years at the local finance mainstay, and he will be succeeded by Richard Raffetto, according to the downtown-based bank.
Raffetto, a former U.S. Bancorp and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. executive, will assume his City National role on Aug. 31.
Warmuth joined City National in 2002 and was appointed president in 2005. Since then, City National’s assets have grown from $14 billion to nearly $70 billion, according to the bank. Warmuth will continue to serve on City National’s board following his retirement.
Raffetto has more than three decades of banking experience. In his most recent role as executive vice president at U.S. Bancorp, Raffetto headed that institution’s national-level industrials and services, financial institutions, and public sector banking units.
He also led a broad range of financial product offerings such as credit, capital markets, derivatives, cash management and asset management, as well as managing large credit portfolios, according to City National.
“This is a really exciting opportunity for me personally to leverage all of these experiences at a firm like City National,” Raffetto said in an interview, adding that his experience with credit would be crucial for his new position.
“One of the important roles in this job is to serve as chief commercial banking officer,” he said. “I have been involved in extending credit for virtually my entire career. … After 30 years of working with clients and extending credit, it’s definitely an area of expertise that has been well honed.”
Raffetto said he had been watching City National for many years as a competitor to U.S. Bancorp.
“I’ve seen them literally across the street from where I worked on Sixth Avenue (in New York) for the last 13 years,” he said. “Being someone who has always focused on numbers, when you look at peer metrics, profitability, they’ve been extremely strong.”
In addition to City National’s financial performance, Raffetto said the bank’s leadership team played a significant role in his decision to take on the new position.
“In the New York market, Kelly Coffey has always been a strong player in the industry,” he said. “While I didn’t know her personally, I knew her by reputation. … The strength of the leadership is definitely a major factor I was looking at.”
Coffey, City National’s chief executive, welcomed Raffetto to the bank’s team and expressed confidence in his range of experience and suitability for the role.
“His extensive commercial banking experience, credit expertise and distinctly client-
focused approach to business leadership will advance City National’s goal of delivering a superior banking experience to more clients and communities across the United States,” Coffey said in a statement.
Raffetto said he plans to spend his first 100 days at City National speaking with his new colleagues and clients “analyzing, listening and learning” before making firm decisions about strategic focuses or initiatives going forward.
“I have some ideas,” he said, “but I know that perspective will evolve a bit after those first 100 days.”
Raffetto said he plans to adopt a “servant-leadership” approach with his new team.
“I work for the people who report to me on the org chart,” he said. “To me, leadership is the ability to take people to a place that they might not be able to get to otherwise.”
Raffetto will report directly to Coffey and will be elected to City National’s board of directors, according to the company.
A native of New Jersey, Raffetto is an alumni of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and received his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He is active in philanthropy in New York and says he plans to replicate that involvement in Los Angeles.
“About 70% of the colleagues that work at or have a career path at City National live in the greater L.A. area,” he said. “It’s important for me to get involved in the community and in philanthropy because banks serve their community.”
