Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Bank is the largest financial services firm that specializes in commercial banking, mortgages, credit cards, and mobile banking. Citizens Bank is a leading Technology Website that focuses on the latest trends and updates on technology, Gadgets, IoT, AI, Enterprise Tech, SEO, SMO etc. Also provides services on website designing, SEO and SMO services.

1828: Citizens was established as the High Street Bank in Providence, Rhode Island.

1871: The Rhode Island legislature gave a second charter to establish the Citizens Savings Bank which eventually acquired its parent group to form Citizens Trust Company.

1943: Citizens Savings gains control of High Street Bank, its former parent.

1947: Citizens begin developing a branch network.

1950: Citizens join the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), becoming the first mutual savings bank to do so.

1971: Citizens Savings was the 80th largest mutual savings bank in the United States.

1981: 1981–92: Emergence of Citizens As Unit of Royal Bank 1981: Citizens is operating 29 branches throughout Rhode Island and has assets of $971 million; George Graboys takes over as CEO.

1982: Over the next 50 years the thrift expanded into the suburbs of Cleveland, then was converted from a mutual to a public company and adopted the Charter One name.

1983: The bank opened its first commercial loan office outside of Rhode Island, locating it in Boston.

1984: To prepare to convert from a mutual savings bank to a stock savings bank, Citizens Bank became a federal savings bank in October.

1985: Then in mid-year, Citizens Financial Group, Inc., was created as a bank holding company for both Citizens Bank and Citizens Trust. Citizens changed status from a mutual savings bank to a federal stock savings bank.

1986: The group acquired Gulf States Mortgage Company, an Atlanta-based residential mortgage origination and service firm with a loanthe portfolio of just over $1 billion. Expansion into other states began with Massachusetts.

1988: Citizens Financial was the fifth largest bank in New England but was far smaller than the top four at the time: Bank of Boston, Fleet Financial Group, Bank of New England, and Shaw-mut National. Royal Bank of Scotland Group acquired Citizens.

1990: In fact, Citizens reached an agreement to acquire BankWorcester Corporation of Worcester, Massachusetts, for $149 million, only to pull out of the deal later in the year because of the growing size of Bank Worcester’s nonperforming assets.

1992: Davis, Paul, “Citizens Acquires Bank in Mass.,” Providence Journal-Bulletin, September 19, Lawrence K. Fish is named chairman and CEO.

1994: Citizens Financial became one of the last large banks to begin selling mutual funds through its branches. Citizens Financial completed three more acquisitions: Neworld Bancorp, Coastal Federal Savings Bank, and Old Stone Federal Savings Bank.

Quincy Savings Bank is acquired.

1996: In late 1996 Citizens Capital, Inc. was formed as a Boston-based subsidiary specializing in making loans to small and medium-sized businesses.  Accelerating the Pace of Growth, in conjunction with the acquisition of First NH Bank, the Bank of Ireland gained a 23.5% stake in Citizens, which RBS then acquired two years later to resume 100% ownership.

1997: Continuing to fill in geographic gaps in its New England base, Citizens spent $57.2 million for the Bank of New Haven in August. Grove Bank and Bank of New Haven are acquired.

1998: Kraus, James R., “Bank of Ireland Selling Its Stake in R.I. Regional,” American Banker, August, Citizens Bank of Massachusetts expanded into Boston's northern suburbs with the purchase of Woburn National. Royal Bank of Scotland pays Bank of Ireland $750 million to regain full control of Citizens Financial.

1999: While continuing to emphasize personal, branch-based banking, Citizens also launched Citizens Bank Online, a full-service electronic banking and bill payment service. Citizens acquired the United States Trust Company of Boston and the retail banking business of State Street Corporation, significantly increasing its footprint in Massachusetts.

2000: Overall, the State Street and UST deals helped increase Citizens Financial's assets to nearly $31 billion by the end of the year, making the bank one of the 30 largest banks in the nation.

2001: ———, “With Mellon Deal, Citizens Financial’s Business Model Branches Out,” Providence Journal, July 18. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is the second largest commercial bank holding company in New England, behind only the much larger FleetBoston Financial Corporation, and was one of the top 30 commercial banks in the United States as of mid-year. Expansion outside New England began when RBS purchased the retail banking division of Mellon Financial Corporation in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware for $2 billion.

2002: Charter One converted itself from a thrift into a nationally chartered bank. In the fall, the group spent $273 million for Medford Bancorp Inc., which operated 19 branches and had $1.4 billion in assets.

2003: In July, the group laid out $285 million for Port Financial Corp., parent of Cambridgeport Bank, which operated 11 branches and 15 ATMs and had $1.5 billion in assets. The bank purchased the naming rights to the new home field of the Philadelphia Phillies, which was named Citizens Bank Park.

2004: The Philadelphia Phillies moved into their new ballpark, which was named Citizens Bank Park as a result of a $95 million naming rights deal between Citizens and the major league baseball team. In August, Citizens Financial acquired Cleveland-based Charter One Financial, the parent company of Charter One Bank, with branches in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, upstate New York, and Vermont for $10.5 billion. RBS purchased the credit card division of Connecticut-based People's Bank.

2005: A new corporate logo designed to show Citizens Bank's connection to the Royal Bank of Scotland debuted on April 26. The Charter One name replaced the Citizens Bank banner on seven branches in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

2006: Citizens Financial Group, Inc., is a leading commercial bank holding company in the New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest regions, and it ranked as the ninth largest commercial bank in the United States in terms of assets. Later, the National Association of Securities Dealers imposed $850,000 in fines on CCO for various violations of regulatory requirements following an investigation not related to the Massachusetts and Rhode Island cases. Also, The Royal Bank of Scotland combined its United States-based RBS Lombard business with the asset finance businesses of Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank, creating RBS Asset Finance, Inc., which began operating as a subsidiary of Citizens Financial. Citizens Financial also sold its insurance brokerage business in the spring. Overall growth at Citizens Financial slowed considerably, with its earnings of $2.92 billion representing just a 2 percent increase over the previous year.

2007: In February, the group spent $180 million for GreatBanc, Inc., a Chicago-area bank with ten branches and $1.2 billion in assets. In September, the individual banks under Citizens Financial Group, excluding Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, merged into RBS Citizens, N.A.

2008: In May, Citizens Financial Group failed to publicly announce that it was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its involvement in the sub-prime mortgage crisis that devastated the United States housing market and bond investors around the world. On June 25, Citizens Bank announced would sell 18 branches in upstate New York as it prepared to open 57 branches downstate. In November, Charter One sold its network of 65 branches in Indiana to Old National Bank which rebranded them under the Old National Bank banner. The sale was completed on November 7. The company lost $929 million and anticipated writing off $2 billion in bad loans. Following the effective nationalization of RBS, speculation arose as to whether RBS would retain Citizens Bank.

2009: Citizens Bank opened a full-service branch inside a Dunkin' Donuts in Bellingham, Massachusetts. Later that year, however, Citizens began reissuing their cards under Visa without the RFID technology.

2010: A Philadelphia developer sued Citizens Bank on January 27, for $8 billion, under a claim that the bank used sham accusations of default to recall loans in an effort to prop up its failing parent companies, Citizens Financial Group and "its ultimate parent, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group." In September, Giant Eagle announced a new agreement with Huntington Bank in which Huntington would open branches in several stores in Ohio and West Virginia and will replace existing branches of other banks when the store's agreements with those banks expire.

2012: Public pressure in the United Kingdom grew for RBS to focus on its home market and sell foreign assets, including Citizens Bank, in order for UK taxpayers to earn their money back.

2013: Finally in November, RBS announced that it would divest all of Citizens Financial Group.

2014: With conflicting names no longer an issue, Citizens Bank announced on June 30, that Charter One branches in Michigan and Ohio would be rebranded as Citizens Bank. The bank began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol CFG on September 24, raising $3 billion. Citizens sold 94 branches in metropolitan Chicago to United States Bancorp.

2015: The name change officially took place on April 27, bringing to an end the name Charter One in Cleveland; the city in which it was founded. RBS Group's shareholding in the bank had dropped to 45.6%. A further sale in July reduced RBS' stake to 23.4%. RBS sold its remaining stake in the bank in October. In November, Citizens Financial Group (NYSE: CFG) became a fully independent publicly-traded company, just over a year after the successful completion of the largest commercial bank initial public offering (IPO) in United States history.

2016: In June, it was announced that Citizens Financial Group had joined the Fortune 500 for the first time. According to the article, the request was related to the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Manafort reportedly secured a 2.7 million-dollar loan from Citizens.

2018: In August, Citizens completed its acquisition of Franklin American Mortgage in a deal valued at $511 Million, expanding its presence into Tennessee and Texas.

2021: On May 26, Citizens entered into an agreement with HSBC Bank USA to purchase HSBC's retail operations on the East Coast, including 90 branches in New York City, Washington D.C., and Southeast Florida. In July, Citizens announced plans to acquire New Jersey-based bank holding company Investors Bancorp for $3.5 billion.

2022: Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $192 billion in assets as of March 31. "Citizens Financial Group, Inc. ." International Directory of Company Histories.

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