Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman staff

Citizens Bank scored a significant win in the local battles to capitalize on disruption caused by SVB’s and First Republic’s failures Monday when it announced it had hired about 50 wealth managers who used to work at the latter bank.

The “senior private bankers,” as Citizens characterized them in its announcement, were also hired with “related support staff.” The wealth managers will be working in Citizens Private Client’s Boston, Flordia, New York and San Francisco offices.

While both failed banks had a substantial focus on the region’s wealthy – in SVB’s case partly thanks to its pre-pandemic acquisition of Boston Private Bank and its concentration on startups and venture capitalists – First Republic had built a business on servicing elite depositors and borrowers in Greater Boston and elsewhere.

With First Republic now being folded into the much larger JPMorgan Chase, and JPMorgan signalling its intent to move away from aspects of First Republic’s business model despite their hopes to leverage the bank’s wealth business to grow JPMorgan Chase’s own, First Republic’s wealth teams and other employees have become recruitment targets. The hires come two weeks after JPMorgan announced it was laying off around 1,000 former First Republic workers across the bank’s entire footprint.

“These talented professionals were attracted to Citizens because of our strong customer orientation, our commitment to collaborating and delivering the best the bank has to offer, our entrepreneurial spirit, and our strong business and technology capabilities. We share their excitement about the opportunity to build and scale a great business leveraging Citizens’ already strong foundation,” Citizens head of consumer banking Brendan Coughlin said in a statement.

In a separate statement emailed to Banker & Tradesman in response to follow-up questions, the bank Coughlin said private banking “is a critical component for us in high-potential verticals.”

“These new colleagues will add to the significant momentum we’ve created to build stronger value proposition for our affluent and high-net-worth customer base, as well as many mid and large-sized businesses,” the bank said.

In the bank’s initial announcement of the hires, Coughlin said his bank’s hiring of these First Republic wealth management teams would be a boon to Citizens’ growth plans. The bank’s announcement said the hires would “accelerate” Citizens’ wealth management growth in Florida and the New York City area, and “bolster” its existing Boston wealth management office.

“These teams have a demonstrated track record of delivering a truly differentiated white glove client experience that is second to none, which will create long-term customer loyalty across attractive growth areas. Citizens’ strong balance sheet and capabilities position us to serve this client segment exceptionally well,” he said.