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A Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) logo is seen on Bay Street in the heart of the financial district in Toronto, Jan. 22, 2015.Mark Blinch/Reuters

Royal Bank of Canada is expanding the role of wealth-management head Doug Guzman, adding oversight of the bank’s U.S.-based wealth businesses and its City National Bank subsidiary.

Starting in February, Mr. Guzman will be head of U.S. wealth management, in addition to his current job as group head of wealth, insurance, and investor and treasury services, according to an internal memo. Once regulators approve the change, he will also be named chair of City National.

The larger role for Mr. Guzman comes as Russell Goldsmith, the chairman and former chief executive officer of City National whose family ran the bank for more than 40 years, prepares to retire at the end of the month. Mr. Goldsmith has been chairman since 1995.

The current CEO of Los Angeles-based City National, Kelly Coffey, who took over from Mr. Goldsmith in 2019, will report to Mr. Guzman. So will the CEO of RBC’s U.S. wealth-management operations Michael Armstrong.

Mr. Guzman joined RBC in 2005, after a stint at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and has previously served as RBC’s head of global investment banking.

RBC has invested heavily in expanding its U.S. operations in recent years. City National has US$91-billion in assets, compared with about US$36-billion when RBC acquired the California-based bank in 2015. RBC CEO Dave McKay said last month that it is positioning City National to increase its assets to US$150-billion. RBC said it also has the sixth-largest full-service wealth advisory company in the U.S. by assets under administration.

“The momentum of these two franchises combined with RBC Capital Markets create a strong foundation in the U.S. market,” Mr. McKay said in the staff memo.

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