California based City National Bank has appointed Ernesto Alvarez to join the bank as a vice president and private client advisor for west Los Angeles.

Mr Alvarez will report to Kevin McCarthy, senior vice president, manager for private client services.

Prior to joining City National, Mr Alvarez was a senior private banker for the Wealth Management Group at Wells Fargo in Encino, Los Angeles, where he served the needs of affluent clients.

Before that, Alvarez worked for Bank of America in Pasadena, a city in Los Angeles county, where he served as a private client advisor, managing existing relationships and helping to gain new ones.

Los Angeles-based City National Corporation is the parent company of City National Bank. It offers banking, trust and investment services through 62 offices, including 15 full-service regional centres in Southern California, San Francisco, Nevada and New York City.

The firm has a staff of 3,000 and had $47.5 billion of assets under management and advice at 31 December 2008.