Citizens Financial Group, Inc. provides a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and institutions.
The company’s products and services are offered through branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia and retail and commercial non-branch offices, though certain lines of business serve national markets.
Business Segments
The company operate through two primary business segments: Cons...
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. provides a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and institutions.
The company’s products and services are offered through branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia and retail and commercial non-branch offices, though certain lines of business serve national markets.
Business Segments
The company operate through two primary business segments: Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking.
Consumer Banking
Consumer Banking serves consumer customers and small businesses, with products and services that include deposits, mortgage and home equity lending, credit cards, small business loans, and wealth management and investment services largely across the company’s 14-state traditional banking footprint. The company also offers education and point-of-sale finance loans in addition to select digital deposit products nationwide. Citizens Private Bank integrates wealth management and banking services to serve high- and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, as well as businesses.
Consumer Banking operates a multi-channel distribution network with a workforce of branch colleagues, branches, including in-store locations, and ATMs. The company’s network includes approximately 1,000 specialists covering lending, savings and investment needs, as well as a broad range of small business products and services. The company serves customers on a national basis through telephone service centers and its online and mobile platforms where the company offers customers the convenience of depositing funds, paying bills and transferring money between accounts and from person to person, as well as a host of other everyday transactions.
Commercial Banking
Commercial Banking primarily serves companies and institutions and strives to be a trusted advisor to the company’s clients and preferred provider for their banking needs. The company offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as syndicated loans, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities.
Commercial Banking is organized around client segments and their banking needs. Corporate Banking, Commercial Real Estate, Capital Markets and Advisory, and Treasury Solutions work together to understand client needs and provide comprehensive solutions to meet those needs. The company acquires new clients through a coordinated approach to the market, leveraging deep industry knowledge in specialized banking groups and a geographic coverage model.
Corporate Banking serves commercial and industrial clients and corporate clients in the United States. In several areas, such as Aerospace, Defense and Government Services, Communications, Transportation and Logistics, Food and Restaurants, Human Capital Management, and Gaming the company offers a more dedicated and tailored approach to better meet the unique needs of these client segments.
Commercial Real Estate provides customized debt capital solutions for middle-market operators, institutional developers, investors, and REITs. Commercial Real Estate provides financing for projects primarily in the multi-family, office, industrial, retail, healthcare and hospitality sectors.
Capital Markets and Advisory serves clients through key product groups, including Corporate Finance, Capital Markets, and Global Markets. Corporate Finance provides advisory services to middle-market and mid-corporate clients, including mergers and acquisitions and capital structure advice. The team works closely with industry-sector specialists within capital markets to advise the company’s clients. Corporate Finance also provides acquisition and follow-on financing for new and recapitalized portfolio companies of key sponsors, with services meeting the unique and time-sensitive needs of private equity firms, management companies and funds, and underwriting and portfolio management expertise for leveraged transactions and relationships. Capital Markets originates, structures and underwrites credit and equity facilities targeting middle-market, mid-corporate and private equity sponsors. They focus on offering value-added ideas to optimize their capital structures, including advising on and facilitating mergers and acquisitions, valuations, tender offers, financial restructurings, bond and equity underwriting, asset sales, divestitures and other corporate reorganizations and business combinations. Capital Markets also provides sales and trading across loan, fixed income and equity products, as well as other brokerage services, including equity research. Global Markets provides foreign exchange, interest rate and commodities risk management services.
The Treasury Solutions product group supports Commercial Banking and certain small business clients with treasury management solutions, including domestic and international products and services related to receivables, payables, information reporting and liquidity management, as well as commercial credit cards and trade finance.
Business Strategy
The key elements of the company’s strategy are to maintain a high-performing, customer-centric organization; develop differentiated value propositions to acquire, deepen, and retain core customer segments; build excellent capabilities designed to help it stand out from competitors; operate with financial discipline and a mindset of continuous improvement to self-fund investments; and modernize its technology and operational models to improve delivery, organizational agility and speed to market.
Consumer
The company utilizes several distinct business processes and channels to originate consumer credit, including traditional branch lending and mobile and online banking.
Residential Mortgages and Home Equity
Residential mortgages are loans to consumers to purchase or refinance 1-4 family residential properties and are generally structured with repayment terms ranging from 15 to 30 years. The company originates both fixed- and adjustable-rate (traditional and interest-only) residential mortgages, with the properties securing such mortgages primarily located within its geographic footprint.
Residential mortgages are originated based on an appraisal completed during the credit underwriting process, with borrower performance tracked monthly by segmenting the mortgage portfolio into pools based on product type. The portfolio is also segmented based upon delinquency, nonperforming status, modification and bankruptcy status, FICO scores, LTV and geographic concentrations as part of the company’s overall risk management analysis and monitoring.
Home equity loans primarily include lines of credit secured by a first- or second-lien on the borrower’s residence, which enable the customer to borrow against the equity in their home or refinance existing mortgage debt.
LTV information on the company’s outstanding residential mortgages and home equity portfolios is updated quarterly based on a combination of automated valuation model updates and relevant home price indices.
Education
The education portfolio is primarily consists of two products, in-school loans and education refinance loans. An in-school loan is generally financed over a 5, 10, or 15-year term and provides for fixed or variable rate financing to students while enrolled in school, with the option to pay while in school or to defer payment until after graduation. An education refinance loan provides a refinancing option on an existing education loan for students and parents, with 5 to 20-year terms and fixed or variable rates.
The performance of the education portfolio is measured monthly, including updated FICO, or equivalent, scores. The company analyzes the portfolio by product channel and type, and regularly evaluate default and delinquency experience for internal reporting and risk management purposes.
Other Retail
Other retail loans primarily consist of unsecured consumer lending products, including credit cards and point-of-sale loans originated through partnerships with third-party companies. These loans are underwritten in accordance with the company’s established credit policies and guidelines. Certain point-of-sale loans originated with third-party companies include credit loss protection agreements provided by those companies.
Commercial
The company’s commercial banking portfolio consists of traditional commercial and industrial loans, commercial leases, and commercial real estate loans. The company’s standardized loan grading system considers many components that directly correlate to loan quality and likelihood of repayment.
Commercial and Industrial
The commercial and industrial portfolio includes both loans and leases made to commercial customers for use in normal business operations to finance working capital needs, equipment purchases, capital call facilities, or other projects/acquisitions. The loans and leases are generally underwritten individually to assess the quality of multiple sources of repayment, including cash flow for debt service, collateral, and any guarantees from the business owner. Although real estate exists as collateral for these loans, the operation, sale, rental, or refinancing of the real estate is not considered the primary repayment source. The company’s origination policies for the commercial and industrial portfolio include policies specific to loan product type, such as LTV and debt service coverage ratios, as applicable.
Commercial Real Estate
The CRE portfolio consists of both commercial property and construction loans that support a wide range of property development and investment activities, including but not limited to, multi-family, office spaces, industrial facilities, and retail shopping centers. These loans are typically repaid through cash flows generated from the operation, sale, or refinance of the property. Risk on these loans is mitigated by requiring collateral values that exceed the loan amount and underwriting the loan with projected cash flow in excess of the debt service requirement.
The company’s CRE construction portfolio primarily consists of multi-family, warehouse, office and data center property types. Loans in this portfolio are generally for construction projects that have been pre-sold or pre-leased, have secured permanent financing, or are made to real estate companies with significant equity invested in the project. A specialized real estate lending group is responsible for this portfolio and actively monitors the construction phase and manages the loan disbursements according to the predetermined construction schedule.
Investment Portfolio
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s investment portfolio included mortgage-backed securities; collateralized loan obligations; state and political subdivisions; and U.S. Treasury and other.
Deposits
As of December 31, 2024, the company’s deposits included noninterest-bearing demand; money market; checking with interest; savings; and time.
Regulation and Supervision
The company is subject to examinations by federal banking regulators, as well as the SEC, FINRA, CFTC and various state insurance and securities regulators. The company is a BHC under the Bank Holding Company Act and have elected to be treated as a FHC under amendments to this Act as effected by GLBA. As such, the company is subject to the supervision, examination and reporting requirements of the Bank Holding Company Act and the regulations of the FRB, including through the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Under the system of functional regulation established under the Bank Holding Company Act, the FRB serves as the primary regulator of the company’s consolidated organization. The OCC serves as the primary regulator for CBNA, and the SEC and FINRA serve as the primary regulators of the company’s broker-dealer subsidiaries.
In addition, CBNA is subject to regulation, supervision and examination by the CFPB with respect to consumer protection laws and regulations. CBNA has registered as a swap dealer with the CFTC and is subject to the CFTC’s regulatory regime, including business conduct standards, recordkeeping, and transaction and financial reporting requirements. CBNA also is subject to regulation by the National Futures Association, a self-regulatory organization.
In addition, CBNA is subject to the OCC’s rules that mandate the exchange of initial margin and variation margin for swaps and security-based swaps between CBNA and specified counterparties that are not centrally cleared through a regulated clearing house.
The retail activities of banks are subject to a variety of statutes and regulations designed to protect consumers and promote lending to various sectors of the economy and population. These laws include, but are not limited to, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the Service Members Civil Relief Act, the Expedited Funds Availability Act, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, the Truth in Savings Act, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, and their respective federal regulations and state law counterparts.
The company’s subsidiaries, Citizens Securities, Inc., and Citizens JMP Securities, LLC are registered broker-dealers with the SEC and subject to regulation and examination by the SEC as well as FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations. CBNA is subject to OCC guidelines that impose heightened risk governance standards on large national banks with average total consolidated assets of $50 billion or more. Sections 23A and 23B of the Federal Reserve Act and the FRB’s Regulation W establish certain quantitative limits and other prudential requirements for loans, purchases of assets, and certain other transactions between a member bank, including CBNA, or its subsidiaries and its affiliates. Under sections 22(g) and (h) of the Federal Reserve Act and the FRB’s Regulation O, the company is also subject to quantitative restrictions on extensions of credit to executive officers, directors, principal stockholders and their related interests. The Dodd-Frank Act permits states to adopt stricter consumer protection laws and standards than those adopted at the federal level, and in certain circumstances allows state attorneys general to enforce compliance with both the state and federal laws and regulations on banks like the company.
The privacy provisions of GLBA generally prohibit financial institutions, including the company, from disclosing nonpublic personal financial information of consumer customers to third parties for certain purposes unless customers have the opportunity to opt out of the disclosure. The Fair Credit Reporting Act restricts information sharing among affiliates for marketing purposes. The CRA requires CBNA’s primary federal bank regulatory agency, the OCC, to evaluate the bank’s record in meeting the credit needs of the communities it serves, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and individuals. The company’s subsidiaries, Citizens Securities, Inc., and Citizens JMP Securities, LLC are registered broker-dealers with the SEC and subject to regulation and examination by the SEC, as well as FINRA and other self-regulatory organizations.
History
The company was founded in 1828. The company was incorporated under Delaware state law in 1984. The company was formerly known as RBS Citizens Financial Group, Inc. and changed its name to Citizens Financial Group, Inc. in 2014.