Bank of America has reorganized its Orange County commercial banking operations.
Instead of dividing Orange County into north and south, the bank is realigning its top regional management by the size of their commercial clients in terms of revenue, allowing the market executives to specialize.
“We further defined ourselves. We were all things to all people,” said senior VP Kevin J. Trieber, who under the new plan will handle all of the bank’s OC commercial clients in the $100 million to $500 million range. Senior VP Don Kammerer, previously head of the north OC commercial office, will handle all OC commercial clients in the $10 million to $100 million range.
Sharon Devaney, who had been head of the bank’s South County commercial banking operation for four years, was assigned to the bank’s Premier Banking Group and will lead the newly formed Commercial Partnership Division. That division provides banking services to the owners and executives of the bank’s middle-market commercial clients.
Bank of America has long been No. 1 on the Business Journal’s list of commercial banks, reporting deposits of $7.34 billion and 110 OC branches on the 1999 list. (By comparison, No. 2 Wells Fargo reported deposits of $3.54 billion and 77 OC branches.)
The change allows Kammerer to focus on the smaller companies in the middle market, where he will be doing more traditional commercial lending operations, and Trieber will be able to focus on investment banking and capital services.
“In going through the merger (with NationsBank), we looked at best practices from each institution. I am enthusiastic about the changes, because it will increase our success,” Trieber said.
Trieber attributes some of the changes to Rod Banks, the new head of Bank of America’s commercial banking division in Southern California.
“He looked at California with a fresh eye,” Trieber said.
Banks was hired in March out of Bank of America’s Southern operations. He was the commercial banking executive for Georgia and was in charge of eight commercial banking regions throughout Georgia and Alabama.
“Banks reconfigured the group to make it better. There has been more autonomy than ever before,” Trieber said.
Trieber has been with Bank of America since 1995, when he joined as a senior investment banking product specialist. He was most recently a senior VP for commercial operations in the South Bay and Long Beach. He reports to James Deane, strategy executive for the Commercial Banking Group in Southern California.
“I am quite excited about it (the bank’s changes). The process we’ve been going through is an evolution,” Kammerer said. In his new role, Kammerer will be largely handling traditional commercial loans and lines of credit. He will report to Banks.
Kammerer had been in charge of North County commercial operations since 1992.
“I think the autonomy is much better than in the past” he said. “We have much more senior representation then we’ve had in years.”
Commercial banking decisions regarding Orange County are not made in the Charlotte, N.C., Bank of America headquarters, Kammerer said. “The buck stops with Liam (McGee) and Rod (Banks).”
McGee is the bank’s Southern California president. n
