RBS 2006 Annual Report Download - page 28

RBS Group • Annual Report and Accounts 2006 27
■Contribution US$2,917 million (2005 – US$2,867 million)
■Total income up 3%
■Operating profit up 2%
Citizens Financial Group is engaged in retail and
corporate banking activities through its branch
network in 13 states in the US and through non-
branch offices in 30 other states. Citizens was
ranked the eighth largest commercial banking
organisation in the US based on deposits as at
30 September 2006. Citizens Financial Group
includes the seven Citizens Banks; Charter One;
RBS National Bank, our US credit card business;
RBS Lynk, our merchant acquiring business; and
Kroger Personal Finance, our joint venture with the
second-largest US supermarket group.
Citizens
■Citizens is a major player in US banking. Among
commercial banking organisations it ranks 9th in assets,
7th in personal loans, 8th in deposits, 16th in mortgages,
6th in home equity loans, 9th in credit cards, and 14th
in business lending.
■Citizens has the eighth-largest retail branch network
in the US, and has more than 5.1 million personal and
business customers.
■A continued emphasis on customer service helped
raise retail customer satisfaction levels by 3.5% in 2006.
■Last year was Citizens’ 14th consecutive year of record
profits, and in 2006 profit increased by 2% to US$2,917
million. Citizens has been building its customer franchise
in commercial banking and in card issuing and acquiring.
Business and home equity lending also showed good growth.
■Retail Banking in the Charter One footprint has opened
more than 276,000 new checking accounts and has seen
a 6% increase in cross-selling of other bank products.
■In 2006 Citizens agreed more than 714,000 new
consumer loans totalling US$20 billion, and processed
more than 1.4 million credit applications.
■Citizens’ Debit Rewards debit card programme,
through which customers earn redeemable points, was
well received by customers and led to an average 3,800
new enrollments per day.
■Citizens added PayPass™ embedded-chip technology
to its customer debit cards, issuing 3.5 million new cards to
its customers to become Mastercard’s largest PayPass™
issuer in the US.
■More than 1.8 million credit cards were issued under
the RBS, Citizens and Kroger brands. Citizens’ partnership
with Kroger, the second-largest US supermarket group,
was extended to include pre-payment cards, mortgages
and other financial products.