Citizens Financial Group CEO Bruce Van Saun said the bank is utilizing artificial intelligence and a post-First Republic strategy to transform its operations.
This shift signals a broader move by U.S. financial institutions to integrate generative technology into core banking to maintain competitiveness and operational resilience during economic volatility.
Van Saun said the company has built a private-banking franchise with more than $16 billion [1] in deposits. This growth followed the collapse of First Republic, which the bank leveraged to expand its footprint in the private-banking sector.
To support this evolution, Citizens Financial Group has launched an AI efficiency program with a $450 million [2] investment. The initiative aims to reshape banking operations and improve internal productivity through the deployment of AI tools.
Van Saun said that consumers, businesses, and private-credit markets remain more resilient than many investors assume. This perspective comes as part of a decade-long transformation for the company that began with its public listing in 2014 [3].
The CEO said these developments during an interview on Bloomberg's Open Interest platform on Wednesday. He said that the integration of AI is not merely a technical upgrade but a fundamental rebuilding of how the bank serves its clients.
“Citizens Financial Group has launched an AI efficiency program with a $450 million investment.”
The aggressive investment in AI and the strategic capture of deposits from failed competitors suggest that mid-to-large size U.S. banks are pivoting away from traditional growth models. By combining high-net-worth deposit acquisition with a nearly half-billion-dollar efficiency push, Citizens is attempting to lower its cost-to-income ratio while insulating itself from the volatility that affected smaller regional lenders.
