City National Bank Names Vanessa Montañez to Newly-Created Role of Community Lending National Sales Manager

LOS ANGELES — City National Bank today announced that Vanessa Montañez, D.E.L, was named the bank’s first community lending national sales manager. In this new role, she will create and manage a team that is responsible for building strategies and programs to expand mortgage lending to serve historically underserved borrowers through community outreach and financial education. Reinforcing City National’s commitment to serving underserved communities, the team will develop a community loan program aimed to increase homeownership that will start in California and expand to all the communities the bank serves. She will also focus on strengthening partnerships by building relationships with nonprofits and community organizations by working closely with the bank’s Community Reinvestment Act team to provide grants to community-based organizations that offer credit, financial education, homeownership counseling, and foreclosure prevention services nationwide.

“Vanessa will play a key role in strengthening our communities, especially those that are underserved, by helping more people achieve the dream of homeownership. She is a purposeful leader with a strong lending background and highly effective strategic management experience,” said Kelly Coffey, chief executive officer of City National.

Montañez has more than 25 years of experience in residential lending and sales and business development management. Prior to City National, she worked at U.S. Bank, where she served as vice president for the national strategic markets and diverse segments. In that capacity, she was responsible for the development and execution of targeted market strategies to increase sales production and market shares for affordable lending in the West region.

“I am excited to have joined City National with the incredible opportunity to make an impact on sustainable homeownership,” says Montañez, senior vice president and community lending national sales manager. “Our goal is to expand the mortgage lending business by serving historically underserved borrowers through outreach, education, great programs, and excellent service. Imagine buying a home and building generational wealth through homeownership where our children will live in a better community, build security, and have access to higher education all because it started with a home.”

She reports to Paul Weiss, executive vice president of Residential Lending, and is located in downtown Los Angeles.

Montañez is active in the community and serves on the board of directors for Rebuilding Together City of Angels and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Regional Corporate Board of Governors for the Southwest Region. She is also an advisory board member for the Montebello Housing Development Corporation and is the past president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Minorities in Mortgage Business of America.

Montañez earned her doctorate of executive leadership (D.E.L) with honors from the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia and her master’s degree in business administration from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from National University in San Diego.

Click here for an image of Montañez.