Community West Bancshares of Goleta, Calif., has promoted Lynda Nahra to president and chief executive officer of its Goleta National Bank subsidiary
She succeeds Lew Stone, who had held the posts since Community West's founding in 1989. Mr. Stone will remain president and CEO of the holding company and will also be Goleta's executive vice president for special products.
Ms. Nahra has more than 30 years of banking experience. Most recently she was Goleta's executive vice president and chief operating officer. She said in an interview that she will expand the bank's commercial loan staff and refocus marketing efforts on commercial lending.
In October Goleta was reprimanded by federal regulators for keeping high-loan-to-value credits on its books after they had been securitized. Last year it had to write off roughly $8 million in connection with two loan securitizations and, as a result, had to recapitalize.
