UnionBanCal Puts 1 Exec in Charge of All Business Units
Shuffling its top management, UnionBanCal Corp. has named commercial-banking specialist Philip B. Flynn to the newly created post of chief operating officer, putting him in charge of all business units at the San Francisco-based bank.
Flynn said Thursday that he would work from Los Angeles, where he has spent his entire 24-year career at UnionBanCal, the parent of Union Bank of California. A specialist in banking for oil companies, he spent three years early this decade as chief credit officer, cleaning up problems spawned by the recession, and last April was named vice chairman in charge of commercial financial services.
The company also announced that Richard C. Hartnack, its high-profile vice chairman for community banking and private banking, would step down. U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis announced Thursday that Hartnack would head its consumer-banking division.
Hartnack praised Flynn, calling him “probably the smartest banker in the state.”
Hartnack was a favorite with some community groups, having led initiatives including a bid to get users of check-cashing services to open bank accounts by having Union get into the check-cashing business.
“In my book he’s been the best,” said Bob Gnaizda, general counsel to the Greenlining Institute, which promotes economic growth in neighborhoods with large minority populations. “He’s positioned the bank to be friendly to the newest immigrants to California and has led the way in banking the unbanked.”
Flynn said Union’s board had spent several months considering a unified management structure. Previously, a business owner might have dealt with separate sides of the bank for commercial and personal services; now both will operate under one umbrella.
Flynn joked that competition in the huge California market was “the same as always -- awful. But we’ve been around for a long time and have great people on both the commercial side and the retail side,” Flynn said. “We think we can keep growing.”
The changes were announced Tuesday. On Thursday, UnionBanCal shares fell 8 cents, to $63.34, on the New York Stock Exchange.
Union Bank is the second-largest bank based in California.
