Woodburn to lead bank’s push into California’s private-wealth space. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has opened a private banking office in San Francisco. Managing director Pamela Woodburn will lead the Toronto-based bank’s first concerted foray into the upper echelons of the Californian wealth market.

The private bank’s move to the West Coast is also meant to “complement the strengths” of RBC Dain Rauscher , RBC’s U.S. brokerage unit, and RBC Capital Markets, its investment banking unit, which also have offices in California, says the bank. RBC’s private bank already has offices in New York and Miami.

Putting it mildly

“California is an attractive market,” says Michael Lagopoulos, president and CEO of RBC Global Private Banking, referring to a state with a famously large and diversified economy as well as a outsized wealth market. “Our private banking services are a good fit for the diverse mix of individuals and families from all over the world who live and conduct business in California.”

In terms of gross domestic product, California is the world’s sixth-biggest producer after the U.S. (as a whole – though it would lead the pack even without California’s prodigious contribution), Japan, Germany, the U.K. and France, says the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation. Come to that, Los Angeles County alone, the world’s sixteenth-most productive place, edges out Russia.

Woodburn will be responsible for the overall growth and management of RBC’s private banking business in California. She has been with RBC since 1993, mostly in Canada. She has worked in brokerage, insurance, financial counseling and estate planning.

RBC had assets of $359 billion on 31 September 2004. Its private banking unit provides financial services to private and corporate clients in more than 150 countries. –FWR