Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2012

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Note 1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Organization

City National Corporation (the “Corporation”) is the holding company for City National Bank (the “Bank”). The Bank delivers banking, trust and investment services through 79 offices in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay area, Nevada, New York City, Nashville, Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia. As of March 31, 2012, the Corporation had five consolidated investment advisory affiliates and one unconsolidated subsidiary, Business Bancorp Capital Trust I. Because the Bank comprises substantially all of the business of the Corporation, references to the “Company” mean the Corporation and the Bank together. The Corporation is approved as a financial holding company pursuant to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999.

Consolidation

The consolidated financial statements of the Company include the accounts of the Corporation, its non-bank subsidiaries, the Bank and the Bank’s wholly owned subsidiaries, after the elimination of all material intercompany transactions. It also includes noncontrolling interest, which is the portion of equity in a subsidiary not attributable to a parent. Preferred stock of consolidated bank affiliates that is owned by third parties is reflected as Noncontrolling interest in the equity section of the consolidated balance sheets. This preferred stock was liquidated or redeemed in full by the Bank in the third quarter of 2011. Redeemable noncontrolling interest includes noncontrolling ownership interests that are redeemable at the option of the holder or outside the control of the issuer. The redeemable equity ownership interests of third parties in the Corporation’s investment advisory affiliates are not considered to be permanent equity and are reflected as Redeemable noncontrolling interest in the mezzanine section between liabilities and equity in the consolidated balance sheets. Noncontrolling interests’ share of subsidiary earnings is reflected as Net income attributable to noncontrolling interest in the consolidated statements of income.

The Company’s investment management and wealth advisory affiliates are organized as limited liability companies. The Corporation generally owns a majority position in each affiliate and certain management members of each affiliate own the remaining shares. The Corporation has contractual arrangements with its affiliates whereby a percentage of revenue is allocable to fund affiliate operating expenses (“operating share”) while the remaining portion of revenue (“distributable revenue”) is allocable to the Corporation and the noncontrolling owners. All majority-owned affiliates that meet the prescribed criteria for consolidation are consolidated. The Corporation’s interests in investment management affiliates in which it holds a noncontrolling share are accounted for using the equity method. Additionally, the Company has various interests in variable interest entities (“VIEs”) that are not required to be consolidated. See Note 16 for a more detailed discussion on VIEs.

Use of Estimates

The Company’s accounting and reporting policies conform to generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) and practices in the financial services industry. To prepare the financial statements in conformity with GAAP, management must make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and income and expenses during the reporting period. Circumstances and events that differ significantly from those underlying the Company’s estimates and assumptions could cause actual financial results to differ from those estimates. The material estimates included in the financial statements relate to the allowance for loan and lease losses, the reserve for off-balance sheet credit commitments, valuation of stock options and restricted stock, income taxes, goodwill and intangible asset impairment, securities impairment, private equity and alternative investment impairment, valuation of assets and liabilities acquired in business combinations, subsequent valuations of acquired impaired loans, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) indemnification assets, valuation of noncontrolling interest and the valuation of financial assets and liabilities reported at fair value.

The Company has applied its critical accounting policies and estimation methods consistently in all periods presented in these financial statements. The Company’s estimates and assumptions are expected to change as changes in market conditions and the Company’s portfolio occur in subsequent periods.

Basis of Presentation

The Company is on the accrual basis of accounting for income and expenses. The results of operations reflect any adjustments, all of which are of a normal recurring nature, unless otherwise disclosed in this Form 10-Q, and which, in the opinion of management, are necessary for a fair presentation of the results for the periods presented. In accordance with the usual practice of banks, assets and liabilities of individual trust, agency and fiduciary funds have not been included in the financial statements. These unaudited consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011.

The results for the 2012 interim period are not necessarily indicative of the results expected for the full year. The Company has not made any significant changes in its critical accounting policies or in its estimates and assumptions from those disclosed in its 2011 Annual Report other than the adoption of new accounting pronouncements and other authoritative guidance that became effective for the Company on or after January 1, 2012. Refer to Accounting Pronouncements for discussion of accounting pronouncements adopted in 2012.

Certain prior period amounts have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation.

Accounting Pronouncements

During the three months ended March 31, 2012, the following accounting pronouncements applicable to the Company were issued or became effective:

·In April 2011, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) issued Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) 2011-03, Transfers and Servicing (Topic 860): Reconsideration of Effective Control for Repurchase Agreements (“ASU 2011-03”). Accounting Standards Codification (“ASC”) Topic 860, Transfers and Servicing, provides the criteria for determining whether a transfer of financial assets under a repurchase agreement is accounted for as a secured borrowing or as a sale. In a typical repurchase transaction, an entity transfers financial assets to a counterparty in exchange for cash with an agreement for the counterparty to return the same or equivalent financial assets for a fixed price in the future. Under the guidance, an entity that maintains effective control over transferred assets must account for the transfer as a secured borrowing. ASU 2011-03 eliminates the requirement for entities to consider whether a transferor has the ability to repurchase the financial assets in a repurchase agreement for purposes of determining whether the transferor has maintained effective control. The ASU does not change the other criteria applicable to the assessment of effective control. Adoption of ASU 2011-03 on January 1, 2012 did not have a material effect on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

·In May 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-04, Fair Value Measurements (Topic 820): Amendments to Achieve Common Fair Value Measurement and Disclosure Requirements in U.S. GAAP and IFRSs (“ASU 2011-04”). ASU 2011-04 represents the converged guidance of the FASB and International Accounting Standards Board on fair value. The new guidance establishes a common framework for measuring fair value and for disclosing information about fair value measurements. While ASU 2011-04 is largely consistent with existing fair value measurement principles, it does expand disclosure requirements and amends certain guidance. Under the revised guidance, the highest and best use and valuation premise concepts only apply to measuring the fair value of nonfinancial assets. The highest and best use of a nonfinancial asset is one that is physically possible, legally permissible and financially feasible. The valuation premise guidance provides that the highest and best use of a nonfinancial asset is either on a stand-alone basis or in combination with other assets as a group. The ASU provides a framework for considering whether a premium or discount can be applied in a fair value measurement, and provides a model for measuring the fair value of an instrument classified in shareholders’ equity. ASU 2011-04 requires entities to make an accounting policy election regarding fair value measurements of financial assets and liabilities, such as derivatives, for which the exposure to market or counterparty credit risks is managed on a net or portfolio basis. The Company elected to continue measuring derivative instruments that are subject to master netting agreements on the net risk exposure at the measurement date.

The expanded disclosure requirements include more detailed disclosures about the valuation processes used in fair value measurements within Level 3 of the fair value hierarchy, and categorization by level of the fair value hierarchy for items that are not measured at fair value in the statement of financial position but for which fair value is required to be disclosed in accordance with ASC Topic 825, Financial Instruments. The Company adopted ASU 2011-04 for first quarter 2012 reporting. Adoption of the new guidance did not have a significant impact on the Company’s consolidated financial statements.

·In June 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-05, Comprehensive Income (Topic 220), Presentation of Comprehensive Income (“ASU 2011-05”). ASU 2011-05 revises the manner in which entities present comprehensive income in their financial statements. The new guidance requires entities to report components of comprehensive income in either (1) a continuous statement of comprehensive income or (2) two separate but consecutive statements. Under the two-statement approach, the first statement would include components of net income, which is consistent with the income statement format used today, and the second statement would include components of other comprehensive income. In December 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-12, Comprehensive Income (Topic 220), Deferral of the Effective Date for Amendments to the Presentation of Reclassification of Items out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in ASU 2011-05 (“ASU 2011-12”). ASU 2011-12 indefinitely defers the provision of ASU 2011-05 that would have required entities to present reclassification adjustments out of accumulated other comprehensive income (“AOCI”) by component in both the statement in which net income is presented and the statement in which other comprehensive income is presented. ASU 2011-05 and ASU 2011-12 became effective for the Company for first quarter 2012 reporting. The Company elected to report components of comprehensive income in two separate but consecutive statements. The new guidances were applied retrospectively for all periods presented.