BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s strategic realignment of its private banking and wealth management operations continued on Monday by addition, in contrast to last week’s reshuffling by subtraction.

The firm hired veteran banker Edgar Murcia to manage its private banking business California, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest, and promoted Carolyn Kozlowski to the newly-created role of national escrow sales manager in Pittsburgh.

Murcia, a longtime Los Angeles resident, is based in Los Angeles and will report to Joan Bird, managing director of BNY Mellon Wealth Management’s West, Central and Mid-Atlantic private banking groups.  

Murcia’s hiring follows “several key hires for a range of positions as we continue expanding client services in this region,” David Emmes, West Coast president for BNY Mellon Wealth Management, said in a statement.

More hires are expected  in the next several months to help “strengthen BNY Mellon’s national presence,” Emmes added.

Murcia has worked with Citigroup in both Florida and California for over 20 years.  In his last position at Citigroup, Murcia was regional manager and credit director for the West US Law Firm Group. Prior to that he was regional manager and senior credit officer for the firm’s West US Private Bank, where he directed lending to high net worth clients of Smith Barney.   

Kozlowski will be responsible for setting strategies for escrow sales, marketing and client service practices and will oversee the escrow sales team. She also reports to Bird.

Escrow services were described as “a growing and significant new source of deposit balances and revenue,” in private banking by Bill Sappington, BNY Mellon’s executive director of private banking.

Kozlowski’s appointment signals expansion of escrow services” to all of our major markets,” he said.

In 2007 Kozlowski was charged with developing the escrow business in the Pittsburgh market and generated more than 50 percent of the firm’s escrow revenue in 2009 alone. Her previous experience includes business development roles for trusts, investment management and private banking.

The two announcements on Monday came on the heels of last week’s news that  BNY Mellon Wealth Management is closing nine of its private banking offices in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey as part of what a spokesperson called its “strategic realignment.”