Citizens Bank is looking toward AI and generative AI technology to improve operational efficiency and client experience. 

The $222 billion bank has “many exciting things on our technology, our digital, data analytics and AI road map that we need to deliver on,” Chief Executive Bruce Van Saun said during the bank’s fourth-quarter earnings call today. The bank aims to use gen AI to “improve customer journeys” and AI to “re-imagine operations with process reengineering” to drive efficiencies, according to the earnings presentation. 

As Citizens ramps up investment in technology, its equipment and software expenses increased 26% year over year to $215 million, according to the report. 

The bank’s investment in technology includes: 

• Digital Butler, its AI-driven virtual assistant for commercial clients, launched in September and has reported 95% client satisfaction; and 
• Using generative AI helps customer service representatives record and summarize calls so they can focus more on what consumers want, Joanne Wyper, head of commercial banking and digital operations, previously told Bank Automation News. 

THE BIG PICTURE: Technology investment remains a priority, however, the bank is paying close attention to its spending, like Citi, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, Van Saun said.  

“In the fourth quarter, we reduced our headcount by about 650, or approximately 3.5%, and we have also taken a hard look at our space needs and are rationalizing some of our corporate and back-office facilities,” Van Saun said. The efforts will help the bank limit its “underlying expense growth in 2024 to roughly 1% to 1.5%,” he said. 

In Q4, the bank had 17,570 full-time employees, down 7% YoY, and 1,100 branches, flat YoY, according to its 8K filings. 

BY THE NUMBERS: In Q4, Citizens reported; 

• Net interest income of $1.5 billion, down 12% YoY; 
• Total revenue of $2 billion, down 10% YoY; and 
• Noninterest expense of $1.6 billion, up 30% YoY. 

NOTEWORTHY: Like many other financial institutions, Citizens Bank is looking to move its operations to the cloud. The Providence, R.I.-based bank aims to be cloud native by 2025 and is working with Amazon Web Services and Equinix to accomplish that. 

FLASHBACK: Citizens Bank teamed with Credit Acceptance Corp. to allow the indirect loan provider’s clients to receive money in real time, according to a Dec. 19 bank release. 

FUTURE LOOK: Citizens is focused on growing its private banking and payments business in 2024, with the private banking arm gaining $1.2 billion in deposits since its launch in October. 

The bank is expanding its Citizens Pay offerings in 2024 by giving business clients the option to finance larger purchases through a combination of buy-now-pay-later offerings and a private-label credit product. 

Citizens is also looking to join Versana, a syndicate lending platform owned by Citi, BNY Mellon and JPMorgan among others. 

Enterprise Product Manager Maria Mason will speak at Bank Automation Summit U.S. 2024 on March 18-19, at the Omni Nashville in Nashville, Tenn. 

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