With its headquarters in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens Financial Group is a $161 billion commercial bank holding company and one of the ten largest organizations of its kind in The United States. Citizens Financial is owned by The Royal Bank of Scotland which, having acquired the bank in 1988, has used the Citizens Bank brand as an entry into the American market.
With approximately 1,618 branches and estimated 3,557 ATMs, Citizens Financial employs around 24,000 people.
Citizens Subsidiaries and Divisions
Citizens subsidiaries and divisions include; RBS Citizens, N.A, Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, Charter One, Citizens Bank, Citizens Automobile Finance, Citizens Capital, Inc, CCO Investment Services Corp, CCO Mortgage, RBS Business Capital, RBS Card Services, RBS Worldpay and RBS Asset Finance.
Citizens Financial Services
The following areas are Citizens key corporate and institutional services: asset based lending, asset finance, automobile dealer finance, cash management, foreign exchange, global transaction services, government banking, interest-rate risk management, international banking, investment management services, private equity, private placements, syndications, trade services and specialized industry lending.
RBS Americas
All the Royal Bank of Scotlands companies operating in North and South America are included within RBS Americas. These companies include Citizens Financial Group Inc, Global Banking and Markets Americas and Global Transaction Services Americas. It is believed that based on assets, RBS Americas has the size and strength of the fifth largest bank in the USA.
History of Citizens Financial Group
In 1828, Citizens Financial started out as the “High Street Bank” in Rhode Island. Back then it served as a small community bank. In 1871, following a second charter by the Rhode Island Legislature, the Citizens Saving Bank was established which was to eventually become the Citizens Trust Company. This led to expansion and the opening of 29 branches in Rhode Island. In 1954 the bank acquired The Greenville Trust and Citizens Financial Group was established as a holding company.
In 1985 Citizens changed from a mutual savings bank to a federal stock savings bank. In that year Citizens Financial group was established as the holding company for Citizens Savings Bank and Citizens Trust Company which evolved into Citizens Bank.
1988 was the year in which Citizens accepted a takeover offer from the Royal Bank of Scotland – an attempt by the Scottish bank to launch itself into the US market. Following the RBS takeover, Citizens was able to acquire a number of smaller banks within the New England area and so became the second largest bank in that part of the US.
In 2001, Royal Bank of Scotland purchased the retail banking division of Mellon Financial Corporation leading to expansion of Citizens beyond the New England area. Three years later, following the purchase of the Cleveland based Charter One Bank, Citizens was reputed to be the ninth largest bank in the United States. At that point in time Citizens was considered to contribute approximately 25% of RBSs profits.
In 2004 Citizens was able to issue and market its own credit cards – following the RBS purchase of the credit card division of the Peoples Bank.
In 2007 the individual member banks of Citizens Financial Group (not including Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania) were merged into RBS Citizens, N. A. An announcement followed in 2008 that Citizens was selling 18 of its branches in upstate New York to make way for 57 new branches downstate.