Union Bank Adds Development Finance Division Head

SAN FRANCISCO-Union Bank N.A. has promoted senior vice president Annette Billingsley, a long-time executive at the bank with more than 20 years of experience in real estate finance to head the community development finance division, which is based in Walnut Creek, CA.

Billingsley, who started in her new position in the fourth quarter of 2009, oversees the bank’s debt and equity investments in affordable housing across the US, which total more than $2 billion.

She replaces Jim Francis, who co-founded the group in 1995, and has been promoted to lead the bank’s consumer asset management division. Billingsley explains that she sees significant opportunities for the division to continue to grow in the coming year due to “a team with unparalleled experience,” due to the division’s “network of close relationships with some of the country’s most talented developers, and because of the bank’s “strong balance sheet.”