Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CFG) today announced it has significantly accelerated its private banking growth strategy with the addition of approximately 50 new senior private bankers and related support staff in Boston, Florida, New York, and San Francisco. Several sought-after teams, formerly with First Republic, chose to join Citizens based on its strong culture and customer focus. The addition of multiple teams in these geographies meaningfully accelerates Citizens’ strategy to build out Wealth Management, scale Business Banking, grow deposits, and expand in key growth markets.

“The addition of these talented and seasoned private bankers helps Citizens significantly boost our growth plans in Wealth Management and Business Banking,” said Brendan Coughlin, Vice Chairman and Head of Consumer Banking at Citizens. “These teams have a demonstrated track record of delivering a truly differentiated white glove client experience that is second to none, which will create long-term customer loyalty across attractive growth areas. Citizens’ strong balance sheet and capabilities position us to serve this client segment exceptionally well.”

These new teams will also help accelerate Citizens’ geographic growth plans in key markets such as Metro New York and Florida, bolster a core market in Boston, and add new capabilities on the West Coast to supplement the existing Commercial Bank presence, including the bank’s previous acquisition of JMP Group, a capital markets firm based in San Francisco. They will provide personal banking, commercial and business banking, retirement planning, investment management and financial planning, and other services to high-net-worth individuals, families, nonprofits and private family foundations through the bank’s Private Banking practice.

Added Coughlin: “These talented professionals were attracted to Citizens because of our strong customer orientation, our commitment to collaborating and delivering the best the bank has to offer, our entrepreneurial spirit, and our strong business and technology capabilities. We share their excitement about the opportunity to build and scale a great business leveraging Citizens’ already strong foundation.”

Citizens Wealth Management, which includes its brokerage arm, Citizens Securities, Inc., provides integrated, full-service banking and investment services to help clients grow and protect their wealth, plan for retirement and achieve other long-term objectives across their financial lifetime. Citizens first expanded its wealth management and private banking capabilities in 2019 with the acquisition of Clarfeld Financial Advisors. The new teams will operate as Citizens Private Bank.

Additional details will be available during Citizens’ Q2 2023 earnings call in July.

About Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $222.3 billion in assets as of March 31, 2023. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,300 ATMs and approximately 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens 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 loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

Cautionary Statement About Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statement that does not describe historical or current facts is a forward-looking statement. These statements often include the words “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “estimates,” “intends,” “plans,” “goals,” “targets,” “initiatives,” “potentially,” “probably,” “projects,” “outlook,” “hopeful,” “guidance” or similar expressions or future or conditional verbs such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “would,” and “could.” Forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of management, and on information currently available to management. Our statements speak as of the date hereof, and we do not assume any obligation to update these statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those contained in such statements in light of new information or future events. We caution you, therefore, against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. They are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. More information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, as filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

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