California

Serving on a bank board is a tough gig, and the fact that a number of bank directors sit on the boards of four or more public companies is raising questions about whether they are too busy to be good watchdogs.

Pacific Premier Bancorp in Irvine, Calif., is planning to close three California branches.

Central Valley Community Bancorp in Fresno, Calif., has agreed to buy the $156 million-asset Sierra Vista Bank in Folsom, Calif., for $24 million, or $5.22 a share, in cash and stock.

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.

Community Bank in Pasadena, Calif., has promoted from within to fill the positions of president and chief banking officer.

PacWest Bancorp in Los Angeles reported higher quarterly profit led by its acquisition of Square 1 Financial in Durham, N.C.

Profits soared at First Republic Bank in San Francisco thanks to lending growth in several categories and its expansion in wealth management.

Wells Fargo, Wall Street's top oil and gas banker, said first-quarter profit fell 5.9 percent as the firm set aside more money for soured energy loans and expenses increased.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and its U.S. subsidiary, MUFG Union Bank, have named Ranjana Clark to the role of San Francisco Bay Area president.

Green Dot has named three new directors, ignoring the slate of nominees recently proposed by activist investor Harvest Capital Strategies.

The findings from the California Department of Business Oversight, which also included data on interest rates and delinquencies, could be a precursor to new state regulations.