Wells Fargo & Co. has promoted a local banker to lead its Orange County operations.
Mission Viejo resident Rob Myers took over as regional president for the San Francisco-based bank last month. Myers, who is based in Irvine, oversees about 4,400 employees in 120 branches and offices.
“You’re not going to see a radical shift in strategy and vision,” he said.
Myers wants the bank to gain market share and handle a range of banking for customers, from their personal accounts to their businesses.
Wells serves one of every three homes in the county, something he said he hopes to improve on.
“We want to serve one in two households,” said Myers, a Los Angeles native who has spent the better part of 20 years in the banking industry here.
Wells Fargo is the county’s No. 2 bank with $14.7 billion in local deposits, or 20% of the market, according to the latest Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. figures.
That puts the bank between market leader Bank of America Corp. and newcomer JPMorgan Chase & Co., which entered the county in 2008 after acquiring Washington Mutual Inc. as it teetered on collapse.
Bank of America has $16.2 billion in deposits, or 22.5% of the market. Chase has $6.1 billion, or 8.5%.
Myers takes over one of the largest Small Business Administration lenders in the county. Wells ranked No. 5 on the Business Journal’s May list of SBA lenders with about $10 million in loans.
“Even in a challenging industry there are businesses doing very well,” he said. “We need to identify those businesses, advise those businesses.”
Wells has started a national effort to help small businesses that have been declined loans to improve their chances of being approved, he said.
Myers began his career in 1994 as a personal banker for Wells here. He later served as president for the South Orange County market. Before landing the county’s top job, Myers was the business banking division manager in Southern California.
He graduated from the University of California, Irvine, and earned a business master’s from Pepperdine University.
Myers replaced Hector Retta, a 30-year Wells Fargo veteran who recently relocated back to his native Texas.
In early 2009, Retta took over as local market president from Kim Young, who led the OC operation for a decade before moving to San Diego to oversee branches there, in Imperial County and the Inland Empire.
Meyers reports to Lisa Stevens, California regional president, in Los Angeles.
The promotion is one of several Wells recently made in its local ranks.
In June, the bank reworked executives here and across Southern California in a bid to double its commercial banking in the next five years.
Rob Yraceburu, a division manager for Southern California who had overseen operations in the central part of the state, added oversight of OC, San Diego and the Inland Empire. He’s based in Irvine and replaced the retired Albert “Rick” Ehrke.
Dave Ritchie, regional vice president and head of Wells’ OC regional commercial banking office in Irvine, added oversight of commercial banking offices in Anaheim and San Diego.
Wells’ presence in the county dates back to 1860 when it appointed its first agent here, August Langenberger in Anaheim.
In 1889, Santa Ana agent William Spurgeon led the separation of what now is Orange County from Los Angeles County.
The first Wells branch opened in 1968 in Santa Ana.
At 120 branches and offices, Wells now has the most locations of any bank here. In July, the bank closed a Rancho Santa Margarita branch and transferred its employees to a nearby location.
In April, Wells added 13 branches to its network after consolidating 25 former Wachovia branches. It acquired the North Carolina bank in a 2008 deal for about $15 billion as Wachovia struggled to survive under the weight of bad loans tied to real estate.
