Citizens Financial Group announces ‘unified brand strategy’

Citizens Financial Group Inc., a major player in the Central New York banking market, today announced a new “unified brand strategy” that will anchor all of its brands in the Citizens name.

As part of its strategy for growth and “enhanced” performance, Citizens said it would rebrand its more than 200 Charter One branches in Michigan and Ohio as Citizens Bank by mid-year 2015

The banking company believes it’ll create a “consistent” Citizens Bank presence across the company’s 11-state retail footprint.

The company already operates as Citizens Bank in the other nine states where it has branches.

Citizens Bank ranked 10th in deposit market share in the 16-county Central New York area with $695 million in deposits through its 25 branches, good for a 2.7 percent share of all market deposits, according to June 30, 2013 FDIC data, the latest available.

The banking company’s commercial-banking division will transition from RBS Citizens to Citizens Commercial Banking in the fourth quarter of this year.

The company will also rebrand consumer-lending businesses serving customers outside the Citizens retail footprint as Citizens One, it added.

The name Citizens has been a part of the company’s “heritage and culture” since 1871, Bruce Van Saun, chairman and CEO, Citizens Financial Group, said in the news release.

“We want to leverage this strong brand to provide a consistent, high-quality banking experience to all of our customers, wherever we do business,” said Van Saun. “We aspire for Citizens to become a top-performing regional bank, and this rebranding effort is part of our strategy to grow our business in the Midwest and beyond.”

The rebranding follows recent enhancements to Citizens’ consumer offerings through the company’s “Bank Better” initiative focused on making banking more “simple, clear and personal,” according to its news release.

The company’s rebranding initiative is part of its overall effort to separate from its parent, RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland plc) and establish Citizens as a “standalone company,” the firm said.

RBS announced plans to divest itself of its ownership of Citizens by the end of 2016 through a series of public stock offerings.

The company also recently updated its corporate name, changing it from RBS Citizens Financial Group to Citizens Financial Group.

Headquartered in Providence, R.I., Citizens Financial Group Inc. had nearly $127 billion in assets as of March 31, according to its news release.

The company offers a range of retail and commercial-banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations, and institutions.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com