City National Bank awarded Certified Lenders Program status, will speed borrower loan review.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1994--In recognition of the quality of City National Bank's lending practices, its Small Business Administration (SBA) loan program has been upgraded to Certified Lenders Program (CLP) status by the federal government.

The higher ranking guarantees that the federal government will take no longer than three working days to review loan applications from City National, under the government's SBA 7(a) loan program, compared with the usual 14 to 30 days.

"City National is honored to receive the CLP distinction," said Kristine Chung, vice president and manager of the bank's SBA Loans Department. "This will allow us to provide our customers with better, expeditious SBA lending services, which in turn will greatly assist and benefit the local small business community."

City National was upgraded to CLP status based on 2 1/2 years of accurate, complete and quality analysis of SBA loan applications. Of the 103 banks participating in the SBA guaranteed loan program, under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles district office, only 12 banks currently have the CLP status.

During the first nine-month period of 1994, the bank funded 77 small-business loans, totaling $13.6 million. These included disaster loans, California Export Finance Office Loans, State of California guaranteed business loans, as well as SBA 7(a) and SBA 504 loans.

City National Bank, a $2.9 billion federally chartered commercial bank with headquarters in Beverly Hills and offices in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, is the principal subsidiary of City National Corp. (NYSE:CYN).

CONTACT: City National Bank, Beverly Hills

              Jim Dunnigan, 310/888-6636
                or
              Pondel Parsons & Wilkinson, Los Angeles
              Craig A. Parsons, 310/207-9300