California

Sanford Weill, the retired chairman and chief executive of Citigroup, and his wife, Joan, have pledged $185 million to the University of California at San Francisco to create a new research center.

Corporate governance experts normally recommend splitting the chairman and CEO roles at public companies, but Wells' shareholders let John Stumpf keep both jobs.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., reported a profit of $17.1 million in the first quarter, up 56% from a year earlier, as strong loan growth more than offset higher expenses and an uptick in problem loans. Its earnings per share climbed 50%, to 51 cents.

Illinois, California and New York are all taking initial steps to try to crack down on borrower abuses in the fast-growing digital lending marketplace. The states are facing pressure to intervene because federal agencies have yet to take decisive action.

Lending Club said Thursday that it has hired Sameer Gulati, formerly of McKinsey & Co., to be its chief operations officer and promoted another executive, Scott Sanborn, to president. Both are newly created positions at the nonbank lender.

A spike in lending helped profits rise 7.5% year over year in the first quarter at East West Bancorp in Pasadena, Calif.

Community Bank in Pasadena, Calif., said Tuesday that it has named Lyle Knight, a former CEO of First Interstate BancSystem in Billings, Mont., to its board.

Summit State Bank in Santa Rosa, Calif., has a new chief executive.

Bank Leumi USA has hired two bankers from Citigroup, Elsa Burton and Craig Warden, to help lead its operations in Los Angeles.

OneUnited Bank, a minority-owned institution in Boston, will close two branches in California, or about a quarter of its total branch network.