Office address: One Citizens Plaza, Providence, RI 02903
Website: citizensbank.com/investing-and-wealth-management/services/overview
Year established: 1828
Company type: financial services and banking
Employees: 17,000+
Expertise: retail banking, commercial banking, wealth management, private banking, investment advisory, estate planning, trust services, mortgage lending, insurance, business succession planning
Parent company: N/A
Key people: Bruce Van Saun (CEO), Brendan Coughlin (president), Aunoy Banerjee (CFO), Paul Casey and Michael Cherny (heads of wealth management), Michael Hans (chief investment officer), Matthew Ruffalo (head of investment solutions)
Financing status: corporation
Citizens Financial Group (CFG) is a bank that operates around 1,000 branches across 14 US states from its base in Providence. The bank's wealth division offers retirement planning, investment advisory, estate planning, and trust services. Citizens Private Wealth works with high- and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families on complex financial needs.
CFG opened its doors in 1828 as High Street Bank in Providence, Rhode Island. It launched Citizens Savings Bank in 1871 and grew steadily over the next century.
The bank reached 29 branches across Rhode Island by 1981 with about $1 billion in assets. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) bought Citizens in 1988 and fueled a wave of deal-making.
Citizens Financial grew fast under RBS, picking up Bank of New England in 1990 and US Trust Corporation in 2000. It then added Charter One Financial in 2004 and became one of the largest regional banks in the US.
The bank also pulled off the largest commercial bank IPO in US history in 2014 under ticker CFG. RBS sold its remaining shares by 2015, and Citizens Financial became fully independent.
The bank moved quickly after independence, acquiring wealth firm Clarfeld Financial Advisors in 2018. It also added investment bank JMP Group in 2021 and bought HSBC's East Coast retail branches that year.
The company completed its purchase of Investors Bancorp and DH Capital in 2022. CFG launched Citizens Private Bank in 2023 with offices in San Francisco, Boston, New York, and Palm Beach.
CFG landed a 12-person team from JPMorgan in 2024 that had managed over $5 billion in client assets. The addition boosts Citizens' reach in California as the bank builds its ultra-high-net-worth practice.
In 2025, Citizens Financial Group hired a three-person NY team that oversaw $1.5 billion in client assets. The hire deepens Citizens' presence in the Tri-State area as it scales its national wealth business.
Citizens Wealth Management brings financial planning, investment advisory, and private banking together under one firm:
Citizens Financial also offers online calculators for retirement, college savings, and insurance needs. Citizens Private Client members get perks like deposit rate boosters and mortgage discounts.
Citizens states that a customer-centric mindset and inclusion drive its culture. The bank ties employment decisions to merit, capability, and performance. Colleague recognition is also part of the culture and four core values:
The company says it backs career moves in any direction for colleagues. Citizens Financial offers benefits and resources across several areas of life:
Citizens Financial Group also says it promotes fair banking for LGBTQ+ customers year-round. The bank funds and volunteers at local Pride events and community programs.
Bruce Van Saun leads Citizens Financial Group as chair and CEO. He previously worked as group finance director at RBS and spent 11 years at Bank of New York Mellon. Van Saun earned a summa cum laude degree from Bucknell University and an MBA from the University of North Carolina.
Several leaders work alongside Van Saun to guide Citizens Financial's wealth strategy:
The bank backs strong governance through its leadership team and board of directors. Citizens Private Wealth and Citizens Private Bank combine services to meet complex client needs.
In early 2024, the company brought in Michael Cherny and Tom Metzger from JPMorgan to lead its wealth push. The bank tapped Cherny to run its affluent client strategy after he managed a $60 billion region at JPMorgan. These moves help Citizens serve clients left without a private bank after the 2023 bank failures.
Citizens Financial Group then named Morgan Stanley veteran Paul Casey as head of wealth management in that same year. Casey ran more than $90 billion in client assets at Morgan Stanley's flagship New York office.
The hire rounds out CFG's leadership team as it builds a full-scale wealth operation. The bank has since kept up that pace with new advisory teams in New York and a growing footprint across the Tri-State area.
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Cetera also extended its 2025 Commonwealth recruitment streak, while Citizens Private Wealth stepped into the retirement planning space with a 401(k)-focused advisory team.
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The specialists formerly affiliated with Citizens will bridge a gap among much-needed objective expertise to independent RIAs and their business owner clients. "The client business owner today ... does not have access to objective and independent valuation services," co-founder Tim Bello told InvestmentNews.
The firm expands its Tri-State presence with a veteran advisor group from New York, while LPL and Osaic also report smaller additions in Texas and the Hudson Valley.
Led by two experienced advisors, the team brings more than 40 years' combined experience as they enrich the firm's profile in Florida's high-net-worth and UHNW market.
Citizens Financial Group has added a top advisor with nearly $1B in assets from JPMorgan, along with another key hire for its Boston office.
The monster hire, historic in the scale of assets involved, helps America’s largest bank push deeper into the coveted ultra-high-net-worth arena.
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The firm's addition of the California-based team of 12 extends its ambitious push into the ultra-high-net-worth space.
Paul Casey is joining to head the bank’s wealth management arm, with a mandate that spans from mass affluent to ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Firms are opening up diversity programs to all, which may erase progress.
The bank has recruited two JPMorgan execs to help build out its private banking and wealth management businesses.
The firm will expand its operations in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Palm Beach, Florida.
