Citizens names Coughlin president; CFO to join State Street

Citizens Financial Group's leadership team is undergoing more change, with the bank announcing the upcoming exit of its chief financial officer and the promotion of another executive to company president.

John Woods, who has been Citizens' CFO since 2017, is leaving the Providence, Rhode Island-based lender for State Street, where he will become the custody bank's new CFO. Woods is expected to leave his current job in August and join State Street later that month.

Simultaneously, Brendan Coughlin, Citizens' head of consumer, private banking and wealth, is now president, a title that has not been used by Citizens in the 10-plus years since it became a public company. He will retain oversight of consumer banking, the private bank and wealth, as well as marketing and enterprise data and analytics, responsibilities he inherited this winter.

Coughlin joined Citizens in 2004. He and Woods, both of whom serve as vice chairs, received retention bonuses in June, having been identified as "potential medium-term CEO succession candidates." Coughlin's award was worth $12 million, while Woods' was valued at $7 million.

"Brendan has a long track record of strong leadership and execution against some of our most important initiatives, and he has earned the trust and respect of our stakeholders, including the board and our colleagues," Bruce Van Saun, Citizens' chairman and CEO, said in a statement. "His efforts have contributed significantly to our transformation into a top super-regional bank, and I am confident that his passion and leadership will continue to propel Citizens forward."

The changes come a few months after the March retirement of longtime Citizens' executive Beth Johnson, who was the chief experience officer and also served as co-vice chair with Woods and Coughlin. Around that time, Coughlin was promoted to head of consumer, private banking and wealth and the bank hired a new head of consumer banking. Earlier this year, the company's general counsel and chief legal officer, Polly Klane, also left for another job.

The job titles for Don McCree, who is Citizens senior vice chair and head of commercial banking, have not changed, a company spokesperson said Wednesday in an email.

Whether or not Coughlin's new title signals a future in which he is Citizens' CEO remains to be seen. Van Saun, 67, has given no indication that he's ready to step away from the job. In an interview with American Banker last year, the CEO said he's still focused on building out business lines, increasing the company's valuation and making sure that its returns are in line with those of peers.

In recent years, other large and regional banks have promoted their presidents to the CEO role. U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis is the most recent example. Last May, the company made one of its top executives, Gunjan Kedia, its new president. Kedia took over as the bank's CEO in April.

Coughlin's "star has been rising for some time" and he "has a long runway ahead of him," Scott Siefers, an analyst at Piper Sandler, wrote in a research note about the changes.

"Put more simply, he is young, he has been integral in virtually all of [the company's] major strategic initiatives, and he runs big and important businesses," Siefers said.

Coughlin has played a key role in expanding Citizens' consumer franchise into new markets. He has also been involved in launching the bank's merchant point-of-sale financial partnerships with Apple and Microsoft, and since 2023 he has played a large role in building the company's private bank.

He came to Citizens from Bank of America, joining the company nearly a decade before Van Saun arrived in 2013.

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Woods had been recruited by Van Saun to join Citizens. At the time, he was working as the CFO at MUFG Americas Holding Corp., which operated MUFG Union Bank in San Francisco.

Woods is now the second Citizens CFO to leave for State Street. Eric Aboaf, his predecessor at Citizens, also left for the Boston-based custody bank. In February, Aboaf left State Street to become CFO at S&P Global.

At State Street, Woods will succeed Mark Keating, who has been serving as interim CFO since February, State Street said in a press release. Woods will report to CEO Ron O'Hanley.

"John brings considerable expertise to State Street across a range of global and highly regulated businesses," O'Hanley said in the release. "His nearly four decades of financial experience including strategic enterprise transformation, financial oversight and risk management programs will further strengthen our organization as we deliver on our long-term vision for shareholders."

Citizens said Wednesday that it will consider both internal and external candidates for the CFO job.

Turnover among bank CFOs picked up last year as banks faced retirements and burnout scenarios, as well as heightened regulatory pressures and profitability challenges due to higher interest rates — a situation that left several regional banks hunting for their next finance chiefs.

The management changes at Citizens shouldn't distract the company from its strategy or its longer-term financial goals, Terry McEvoy, an analyst at Stephens Research, told American Banker.

"This is a very large regional bank with thousands of employees striving to achieve those financial goals," McEvoy said. "So the foundation is in place to continue to move toward the path of profitability they've talked about for quite some time."