Regional banks had a rocky time after three banks failed in 2023. Van Saun discusses his strategy for Citizens with Editor-in-Chief Chana Schoenberger.

When the prices of U.S. goods and services soar, the Federal Reserve tends to raise its benchmark interest rate, and commercial banks are pinched in several fundamental parts of their business.

Citizens made waves with its hires of around 50 private banking staff from First Republic. The head of wealth management at Citizens shared what's next.

Firms like Oracle and Billtrust are betting companies with smaller, more remote teams will adopt digital transaction systems to ease the burden of paying their vendors.

Traditional banks are focusing on wealth management services in the next wave of digitization as retail banking returns weaken amid a proliferation of online consumer platforms.

When Citizens Financial Group wanted to streamline its home equity line of credit, the bank turned to its expert in customer experience and analytics, Beth Johnson.

Across the country, banks of all sizes are investing in the wealth business as a way to deepen customer relationships, capture recurring revenues and tap into a massive transfer of wealth from baby boomers to Generation X and millennials. A lot of money is up for grabs, but maybe not enough to go around.

The Providence, Rhode Island, bank expects to finalize its purchase of 80 HSBC Bank branches on Friday and complete a systems conversion over the weekend. Its pending deal for Investors Bancorp is on track to go through early next quarter, Chief Financial Officer John Woods said.

The Rhode Island company has been snapping up banks and nonbanks alike. It says that buying Willamette Management Associates in Oregon will augment its 2017 purchase of Western Reserve Partners.

The Rhode Island bank is doubling down on the nation’s largest market after agreeing in May to buy dozens of branches from HSBC. Meanwhile, Investors Bancorp’s decision to sell itself underlines the challenges facing smaller regionals.

Combined with its pending acquisition of HSBC's East Coast branches, the deal would give the Rhode Island-based Citizens a top-10 deposit market share in metropolitan New York.

The Rhode Island bank joins a small group of financial institutions offering corporate clients the chance to park their cash reserves in environmentally friendly projects.

The Rhode Island bank endured a sharp decline in fee income from home loans, which had spiked earlier in the pandemic. But CEO Bruce Van Saun says the company is well positioned as the refinancing boom fades and the home purchase market becomes more important.

Executives at Citizens Financial and Regions Financial said they plan to make policy changes that will reduce their reliance on the controversial but already dwindling charges.

Fears of widespread credit losses have largely subsided, but demand for new commercial real estate loans remains lackluster because many companies are sitting on so much cash they don’t need to borrow. Meanwhile, competition from private equity groups and other nonbank lenders is escalating.

Acquiring the U.K. bank’s East Coast branches and online-only bank is “great for our balance sheet, great for our physical footprint” and will accelerate the growth of Citizens’ own direct bank, says Chief Executive Bruce Van Saun.

The London-based banking giant is selling 90 of its branches and shuttering about three dozen more. The 20 or so branches it is retaining will be transformed into international wealth centers.

Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial has largely focused on nonbank deals in recent years, but CEO Bruce Van Saun said the race for scale in the industry is prompting more banks — including his own — to consider mergers.

Citizens Financial Group has branded its point of sale lending software as Citizens Pay, saying it wants to more clearly define it as a merchant tool for "budget-friendly payment options" for customers who want a transparent and predictable way to finance purchases.