Opus Bank in Calif. Splits Retail, Commercial Units

The rapidly growing Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has split its commercial and retail banking operations.

Opus' commercial bank will consist of six banking units: commercial business, commercial real estate, fiduciary, technology, healthcare and merchant banking. The retail bank will be made up of retail and residential lending. Opus' treasury management and payments division will support both the retail and commercial banks.

Michael Allison will lead the commercial bank and Jill Barnes will head the retail bank. Allison was named co-president of Opus in June. Barnes was promoted from executive vice president, and has been given the additional title of chief banking officer and named to Opus' seven-member executive council.

"By delineating Opus' business lines into the commercial bank and the retail … Opus will be better positioned for continued scalable growth, leveraging off of our deeply talented and highly experienced management team across all divisions," Stephen Gordon, Opus' chairman, president and chief executive, said in a news release Wednesday.

Opus has been expanding quickly in the past three years, growing from 5 to 53 locations and increasing its asset base to $3.2 billion from $275 million, according to the news release. It has also added several business lines, including its healthcare, commercial real estate and merchant banking units, in the past several months.