Photo by James Sanna | Banker & Tradesman Staff/file

Citizens Bank reported a net income of $436 million as its private bank continues to grow.

“Our key strategic initiatives, paced by the private bank/private wealth build out, continue to make good progress, and we have commenced work on a broad ‘Reimagining the Bank’ initiative that will become a multi-year TOP program and drive meaningful benefits from using new technologies to serve customers in new ways and run the bank better,” Chairman and CEO Bruce Van Saun told Wall Street analysts in the bank’s quarterly earnings call Thursday. “We are well-positioned to have a strong second half of the year and to sustain that momentum into the medium-term.”

The bank credited an increase in loans as well as increase in wealth fees to the growth of Citizens Private Bank. Wealth fees increased $13 million on a year-over-year basis and total loans and leases increased by $1.7 billion from the first quarter of 2025 while taking a decrease of $1.1 billion on a year-over-year basis.

Additionally, the private bank saw a $4.7 billion increase in deposits on a year-over-year basis. In January, Citizens announced that the private bank had eclipsed $7 billion in deposits.

Citizens, Berkshire Bank and JPMorgan Chase are all dramatically growing their wealth management arms after picking up executives and wealth managers – and therefore clients – from Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank after their failures in 2023.

Citizens has had to deal with some key departures as its CFO left the bank to join State Street in May. Additionally, former Executive Vice President Christine Roberts became COO of Needham Bank.