Opus Bank launched a Public Finance division, which will provide senior financing to municipalities including cities, counties, school districts, water and sanitation agencies, special districts and charter schools along with essential service not-for-profit organizations in the healthcare, public services and education sectors.

In connection with the launch, Dmitry Semenov joined Opus as senior managing director, head of Public Finance to lead the new division.

“Opus has achieved considerable success developing relationships and providing banking deposit products, services and solutions to local municipalities in and around our footprint and distribution. The formation of our new Public Finance division is a natural synergistic extension of that success,” said Stephen H. Gordon, founding chairman, CEO and president of Opus Bank.

Semenov joins Opus Bank most recently from Umpqua Bank, where he served as vice president of Public Finance and focused on developing client relationships with local municipalities, government agencies and education and healthcare systems. From 2009 to 2011, Semenov served as assistant vice president of Commercial Real Estate with River City Bank, where he managed a commercial real estate loan portfolio, managed work-outs, negotiated financing modifications and performed in-depth analysis on a portfolio of special credits. Previously, he spent more than a decade working in finance and entitlement sectors of the real estate development industry with a focus on delivering public infrastructure and services to new communities, and was the planning director for a new city that was being designed to accommodate 150,000 residents and 60,000 jobs.

“We are pleased to welcome Dmitry as he joins Opus to lead our Public Finance division. We expect that under Dmitry’s leadership, Opus’ Public Finance division will achieve considerable success building and growing its client base as we further leverage our deep banking presence up and down the West Coast,” Gordon said.