BOSTON – RBS Citizens is launching a commercial banking group dedicated to providing technology and services business to corporate clients across the country.
RBS Citizens is the commercial banking division of Citizens Financial Group Inc.
Initially reported in the planning stages in August, Citizens is now expanding its business by developing national banking groups focused on the high-growth industries of technology, health care and franchise finance, the company said in an embargoed announcement released Thursday.
William Egge, managing director in charge of the technology and services group, joined Citizens last year to develop this strategy.
“We’re going to be focused on companies where we can lend to the business as well as leverage our capital markets capabilities, where we help companies arrange larger financings and bring in a number of parties,” said Egge in a phone interview with Providence Business News. “We’re looking to provide loans into these companies and the traditional cross-sell of treasury management services, as well as [work with] companies that have more sophisticated capital raising needs.”
The plan is to serve profitable established and emerging companies large and small across the country, including in Rhode Island, Egge said.
While Citizens has been traditionally focused on the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S., Egge explained, “a number of our back office operations are in the Rhode Island market broadly in the Northeast, so as we grow this, there will be ongoing opportunities for the core operations of Citizens, wherever they are.”
Steve Woods, executive vice president in charge of corporate banking at RBS Citizens, said in a statement that the bank is building on established regional success by going national.
“We have a very strong portfolio of technology relationships in place that has grown significantly over the years as the major technology companies in our footprint have recognized our expertise in this area and turned to us for their banking needs,” said Woods.
In technology and services, the focus will be on both emerging and established tech companies in four main sectors: software and systems, business services, hardware and equipment, and media and communications, Egge said.
“We have an existing portfolio that falls into those categories,” said Egge, “but it’s also where we have expertise that we want to exploit as we grow the business into a national practice.”
Egge has more than 17 years of experience in the technology and services industry as both a banker covering the industry while at Wachovia Securities and as a mergers-and-acquisitions and corporate-finance professional for two private, equity-backed technology companies in the technology-enabled services sector.
“Citizens has a lot to offer companies in the technology sector,” added Egge. “We have a diverse portfolio of clients that include both technology companies and private equity groups, and we are deeply engaged in the technology [mergers-and-acquisitions] market. We have a very strong team with a lot of industry expertise that is focused on helping our clients achieve their goals.”
Woods added that Egge “brings a unique technology industry background and perspective that we will leverage as we build the group into a national practice.”
Last month, Citizens hired teams of experienced commercial bankers across its traditional New England, mid-Atlantic and Midwestern markets and also in Atlanta; Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Dallas and Los Angeles.
Later this year, as reported in June, Providence-based Citizens Financial Group will be changing the name of its Commercial Banking division to Citizens Commercial Banking.
