Banc of California announced this week that it hired Kris Gagnon to serve as the company’s chief credit officer.

Gagnon joins Banc of California from CIT Bank, formerly known as OneWest Bank, where he served in the same role.

Prior to working at CIT Bank, Gagnon served in various senior leadership roles at Bank of America for 30 years, including serving as enterprise credit risk executive, chief risk officer of the global corporate and commercial bank, and as chief credit officer for the commercial banking, leasing and global treasury services division.

At Banc of California, Gagnon will lead the company’s enterprise credit organization, including responsibility for underwriting, credit policy, credit administration and special assets.

“The addition of Kris Gagnon to Banc of California is yet another example of the substantial recruiting opportunity we are seeing across our markets and demonstrates our continued ability to attract California's top banking talent to the company,” Doug Bowers, Banc of California’s president and CEO, said.

“Kris has a deep set of commercial banking experiences centered in key credit roles for numerous institutions. Additionally, he has expert knowledge of the Southern California market as well as diversified business sectors and verticals,” Bowers continued.

“Kris brings with him a vast set of experiences in building and refining commercial credit policies, systems and administration,” Bowers concluded. “Kris will be a key leader in supporting the organic commercial banking efforts across our business units.”