Citizens Continues California Expansion with Addition of Two Bay Area Private Banking Offices and SoCal Private Banking Team

Business Wire 2-Oct-2024 11:00 AM

Expands Legacy of Community Commitment by Launching Partnership Program Awarding $50,000 Grant Focused on Mental Health and Well-Being in San Francisco

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE:CFG) today announced the next phase in its West Coast expansion strategy, adding a top Private Banking team in Southern California and announcing plans to add new Private Bank office locations in the market. This move comes on the heels of previous announcements around Citizens' California expansion strategy, designed to serve the market in an integrated and complete way that drives growth across Private Banking, Wealth Management, and Corporate & Investment Banking.

Citizens has opened two new Private Banking offices in Mill Valley and Downtown San Francisco, Calif., representing the first West Coast branches in the bank's growing portfolio. The new Citizens Private Bank offices provide holistic, high-touch Private Banking and wealth management solutions to high-net-worth individuals, families, businesses, innovation economy entrepreneurs, and philanthropic organizations. These locations stand out as centers of excellence within Citizens' portfolio, offering an array of bespoke financial services tailored to the unique needs of clients in the Northern California market. All Citizens customers in the region are welcome to visit the new Private Banking offices for their everyday banking needs.

To further expand its presence, Citizens Private Bank has added a highly experienced Private Banking team in Southern California to serve the San Diego and Newport Beach markets. The new team is led by Victor Mena, Private Bank Market Executive, who brings extensive area expertise, deep regional relationships, and a proven track record of delivering exceptional client service. Mena will report to Susan deTray, Head of Citizens Private Bank, and he and his team of experienced bankers will extend Citizens Private Bank's growth in California. Citizens Private Bank intends to open additional Private Banking offices throughout California, including Newport Beach, San Diego and Silicon Valley by mid-2025.

"We're pleased to continue executing against the Citizens Private Bank growth strategy with the opening of our first two Private Banking offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the addition of experienced bankers in Southern California," said Susan deTray, Head of Citizens Private Bank. "We look forward to deepening our presence and delivering a robust suite of comprehensive banking and wealth management services with an emphasis on personal relationships, extraordinary service, and tailored solutions and advice."

Building on a Foundation of Service While these mark Citizens' latest moves in its West Coast expansion, the bank has a strong and growing Commercial Banking presence in California providing investment banking, equity research, and sales and trading services. In addition, Citizens recently hired an experienced corporate banker in San Francisco to build a team of advisors supporting middle market companies across the state.

"California would be the fifth largest economy in the world if it were a country, and its businesses continue to be key drivers of innovation and growth," said Mark Lehmann, CEO of Citizens JMP and Citizens California President. "Citizens' bankers have been working closely with California's top innovators for years as trusted advisors and we are here for the long haul to invest, deepen relationships, and partner with clients to help further expand the California economy and support our local communities."

Engaging Local Communities As part of Citizens' ongoing commitment to create lasting change in local communities, Citizens is proud to introduce its Champions in Action grant program in California – a corporate-wide initiative that celebrates and supports local nonprofits with operating budgets under $5 million that are making a meaningful and measurable impact in the communities they serve across the United States. Citizens recently launched this program in San Francisco to award $50,000 in unrestricted funding, volunteer and promotional support to a local non-profit organization focused on improving access to mental health and well-being programming.

Since the program's launch 22 years ago, Citizens has awarded more than $11 million in contributions and promotional support to over 380 nonprofits across the bank's footprint. To learn more, please visit www.citizensbank.com/champions.

About Citizens Financial Group, Inc. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation's oldest and largest financial institutions, with $219.9 billion in assets as of June 30, 2024. 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 1,000 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 X (formerly 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.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241002946132/en/