Citizens' new wealth management office under construction in a former First Republic Bank branch location in Boston's Back Bay in November 2023. Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff

After launching its private bank and hiring around 200 bankers last year, Citizens Bank is hiring two key executives to further grow its wealth management business and is planning to open two private banking offices in the spring after the opening of its first private banking office in Boston.

Citizens hired Michael Cherny, a former managing director at JPMorgan’s wealth business where he led a regional team managing $60 billion in investments and deposit balances. Cherny will now be the head of Citizens Wealth Management Advisors, responsible for retaining and growing mass affluent and affluent client relationships for Citizens across the U.S.

Citizens also hired Tom Metzger as Head of Citizens Private Wealth Managers, recruiting and leading a new team of private wealth managers targeting new-to-bank clients in key geographies across the U.S. Metzger was the head of wealth manager recruiting at First Republic Bank before it was acquired by JPMorgan, and had a long career at Wells Fargo before that.

“With the bank failures of 2023, it is clear that significant white space exists in the market for a new entrant to fill by delivering best-in-market customer service for Private Banking and Wealth Management clients,” Brendan Coughlin, vice chair and head of Consumer Banking at Citizens, said in a statement. “Hiring these two high-quality executives demonstrates the strength of Private Banking and Wealth Management talent that we have been able to attract to Citizens. The launch of our new branding and the addition of our new Private Banking offices will help them deliver the extraordinary service their clients have come to expect.”

Since launching in the fall of 2023, Citizens Private Banking brought in $1.2 billion in deposits as of the end of 2023 and opened an office in Boston’s Back Bay in a former First Republic branch location on Boylston Street. Executives earlier said that Citizens Private Bank will reach break-even by the second half of the year.

This year, the private bank is looking to open five more offices, including one in Palm Beach, Florida and Mill Valley, California in the spring.