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Citizens Financial Group, Inc. Stock Price: Quote, Forecast, Splits & News (CFG)

Perplexity Finance

Company Profile

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. Price & Performance (CFG)

Stock Performance

Updated Apr 17, 8:00 PM UTC

Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

$35.45USD

-$0.13 (-0.37%)

After Hours

+$0.33 (+0.92%)

Open

$35.73

Market Cap

$15.50B

Year High

$49.25

High

$36.00

P/E Ratio

11.3

Year Low

$32.60

Low

$35.41

Dividend Yield

4.74%

Volume

4.65M

Latest News

Barclays Lowers Citizens Financial Group Price Target Amid Modest Stock Movement
Apr 20, 2025
Barclays has reduced its price target for Citizens Financial Group to $49, following the company’s recent earnings report. CFG posted $0.77 EPS for Q1, slightly above analyst expectations. The stock is currently trading down 0.1%. Institutional investors continue to adjust their holdings, reflecting ongoing market uncertainty.12
Analysts Maintain Cautious Optimism for CFG as Shares Hover Near Recent Lows
Apr 18, 2025
Citizens Financial Group shares closed at $35.45, just above their 52-week low. Despite this, the stock holds a consensus 'buy' rating from analysts, with a median price target of $38.79. The dividend yield remains attractive at 4.74%, but price forecasts reflect a wide range of expectations.34
Earnings Beat and Strategic Moves Mark Citizens Financial Group’s First Quarter
Apr 16, 2025
Citizens Financial Group reported Q1 net income of $373 million and $0.77 EPS, surpassing consensus estimates. Management highlighted progress in strategic initiatives, including a student loan portfolio sale to boost liquidity. The CET1 ratio stands at 10.6%, indicating a strong capital position despite broader economic uncertainty.56

What's Happening

Peers

Earnings

Report Date

Apr 16, 2025

Reported Revenue

1.9B

Avg 1d Change

2.29%

Report Period

Q1 2025

Reported EPS

0.77

Implied Move 1d

4.24%

Transcript

12m 34s

Thanks for joining our call today. We announced financial results today that were in line with our expectations.

12m 41s

Highlights include NIM expansion of three basis points to two ninety core loan growth of 1%, resilience in our fee categories despite some softness in capital markets given market uncertainty and credit trends remaining favorable and along with continued share repurchases. Our balance sheet remains very strong with CET1 ratio of 10.6% LDR of 77.5 virtually no Federal Home Loan Bank borrowings and a strong credit allowance position During the quarter, we entered into an agreement to sell $1,900,000,000 in purchased student loans reside in non core. Dollars 200,000,000 of the portfolio was sold in Q1, with the balance to be settled ratably over the next three quarters. We will use the proceeds to pay down high cost funding, purchase low risk weight securities and repurchase shares. The transaction will be accretive to NIM EPS and ROTCE. We had already included the impact in our full year guide. During the quarter, we also issued $750,000,000 in senior debt further bolstering our funding base. We executed well on our strategic initiatives during the quarter, The private bank continued to see excellent growth reaching $8,700,000,000 in deposits and $5,200,000,000 in AUM. We added private wealth teams in Florida Southern California during the quarter and another one today in New Jersey.

14m 16s

Our New York City Metro private capital and payments initiatives also saw continued progress. As we look forward, there has clearly been an increase in uncertainty in the macro environment given the policy decisions and rollout emanating from Washington. This has caused many market participants to hit pause on investments or deal activity. On a positive note, our corporate and consumer borrowers are generally in good shape and are in position to weather these challenges. The basis for our full year guide had anticipated some choppiness in the first half of the year tied to the rollout of tariffs and downsizing of the federal government. Our view held that as the lower tax deregulation and pro energy agenda kicked in later in the year, we would see a pickup in loan demand and deal activity in the second half. So with respect to an update to our full year guide, at this point, we reaffirm our EPS estimate though there could well be some puts and takes. Events in the Q2 will help clarify whether the second half outlook will solidify as we had planned. On our guide slide in our presentation, we call out some risks that affect both us and the industry at large given the environment.

15m 40s

And we also show some potential offsets to the full year guide. The main risk associated with continued economic uncertainty and a slowing economy include a push out in capital markets fees, slower loan growth, and higher credit provision. Potential offsets to these possible impacts include even better performance on funding costs greater share repurchases, and further efforts on cost transformation. It's worth noting that there is a significant amount of pent up demand demand around M and A activity We are working on a record number and dollar value of transactions and are hopeful that they get done as uncertainty subsides. So while it's still early to make a call as to how the environment plays out, we remain focused on pulling the levers we can to offset any macro headwinds as we did in 2024 in meeting our initial year guide. And as we look to the medium term, we remain confident in our NIM trajectory which powers our ROTCE improvement and in our ability to execute on our key strategic initiatives like the private bank. In short, we feel good about our positioning overall from a strategic business and financial standpoint. We will stay focused on execution and the things we can control, as we continue our efforts towards building a distinctive great bank.

17m 11s

With that, let me turn it over to John. Thanks, Bruce, and good morning, everyone. As Bruce indicated, we delivered first quarter results, which were broadly in line with our expectations and reflected typical seasonal impacts. Referencing slides five and six, we delivered EPS of $0.77 for the first quarter with ROTCE of 9.6%. Net interest income came in at the better end of our expectations for the quarter as we performed well on our margin which continued to benefit from the time based decline of non core and terminated swaps along with strong deposit cost performance. Fees were up nicely year over year and linked quarter performance reflects the impact of seasonality market uncertainty on capital markets. Wealth fees were a record for the quarter as we continue to build out the private bank. Expenses were managed tightly, including the usual seasonality in salaries and benefits. Credit came in as we expected, and we maintained a strong reserve coverage level.

18m 14s

During the quarter, we entered an agreement to sell approximately $1,900,000,000 of non core education loans. This acceleration in non core runoff will be accretive to NIM EPS and ROTCE with the redeployment of the freed up capital and liquidity as the sale settles over the course of the year. We continue to execute well against our strategic initiatives. Notably, the Private Bank continued to steadily grow its profitability contributing $04 to EPS and finishing the first quarter with $8,700,000,000 of deposits. Also, we continue to make good progress in New York Metro and our top 10 program is well underway. We ended the quarter in a very strong balance sheet position, with CET1 at 10.64%, or 9.1% adjusted for the AOCI opt out removal. A pro form a category one LCR of 122% and an ACL coverage ratio of 1.61%. This includes a robust 12.3% coverage for general office. We also executed $200,000,000 in stock buybacks during the quarter, taking advantage of our strong capital position. Next, I'll talk through the first quarter results in more detail starting with net interest income on slide seven. Net interest income decreased 1.5% linked quarter driven by the day count impact of about 28,000,000 and slightly lower interest earning assets which was partially offset by the benefit of higher net interest margin.

19m 48s

As you can see from the NIM walk at the bottom of the slide, our margin was up three basis points to 2.9% driven primarily by the time based benefits of non core runoff and reduced drag from terminated swaps, and the benefit of improved deposit costs, partially offset by the net impact of rate driven impacts on the balance sheet. We continue to execute our down rate playbook in the deposit portfolio. Our interest bearing deposit costs decreased 18 basis points, while maintaining the mix of non interest bearing deposits at 21% stable with the prior quarter. Our cumulative interest bearing deposit down improved to 53% in the first quarter. Moving to slide eight. Non interest income is down 3.5% linked quarter with seasonal impacts in capital markets and parties. Capital markets saw lower M and A and loan syndication activity given seasonality and the impact of uncertain market conditions pushing M and A deals out. Debt and equity underwriting improved coming off a slower fourth quarter. Even in a quarter impacted by seasonality and market volatility, we managed to perform well in middle market sponsored book runner deals, ranking number three by volume. Our deal pipelines across M and A and DCM remain very strong despite market uncertainty.

21m 12s

In fact, our M and A pipeline is at all time highs in terms of number and value of transactions given pent up demand. We are hopeful these deals get done as market uncertainty subsides. The wealth business delivered a solid quarter with increased annuity sales activity. We also continue to see positive momentum in fee based AUM growth from the private bank. Our global markets business was up slightly this quarter with increased client hedging activity in FX and energy related commodities. On Slide nine, expenses were managed tightly, up 1.7% linked quarter, primarily reflecting seasonality in salaries and benefits. Our latest TOP program is underway and this gives us the capacity to self fund our growth initiatives. On Slide 10, period end and average loans were down slightly. This reflects the non core transaction of $1,900,000,000 as well as auto runoff of $700,000,000 Excluding non core, loans were up approximately 1% on a period end basis. The private bank continued to make good progress with period end loans up about $550,000,000 to $3,700,000,000 at the end of the quarter. Commercial loans were up slightly with a modest increase in line utilization as some of our corporate banking clients drew down on their lines to finance inventory builds ahead of tariffs, We also saw a modest increase in capital call line usage given M and A activity in our sponsor base.

22m 45s

And core retail loans grew slightly driven by home equity and mortgage. Next, on slides eleven and twelve, we continue to do a good job on deposits. Growing on a spot basis, primarily in low cost categories in what is typically a seasonally down quarter. Period end deposits were up approximately $3,000,000,000 or 2% driven primarily by low cost growth in the private bank and consumer partially offset by a seasonal decrease in commercial. The private bank continues to add customers and grow nicely, with period end deposits increasing by about $1,700,000,000 to $8,700,000,000 at the end of the first quarter. Our retail franchise grew deposits in low cost categories this quarter and we continue to maintain strong CD retention rates even as we reduced yields. Stable retail deposits are 68% of our total deposits. Which compares to a peer average of about 55%. This was a big driver of our improving deposit costs this quarter as our deposit franchise continues to perform well in a competitive environment. Our interest bearing deposit costs are down 18 basis points linked quarter translating to a 53% cumulative down beta. We continue to maintain a robust level of liquidity with a pro form a LCR 122%, significantly above the category one bank requirement.

24m 13s

Moving to credit on slide 13. Net charge offs of 58 basis points for the quarter included a seven basis point impact from the non core transaction. Excluding this impact, net charge offs were 51 basis points which was down modestly from 53 basis points in the prior quarter in line with our expectations. Commercial charge offs were down modestly driven by a sequential decline in general office. Retail charge offs were broadly stable, excluding the impact of the non core transaction. Of note, nonaccrual loans were down 5% linked quarter. Reflecting a decline in commercial as we continue to work out general office loans. Retail non accrual loans also decreased as a result of the non core and continued runoff of the auto portfolio. Turning to the allowance for credit losses on slide 14. The allowance was relatively stable at 1.61% this quarter, as portfolio mix continues to improve due to back book runoff and lower loss content front book originations. Offset by a slightly more conservative loss forecast. The economic forecast supporting the allowance reflects a mild recession similar to last quarter, and macro impacts from tariffs. The reserve for the $2,860,000,000 general office portfolio is $351,000,000 represents a coverage of 12.3%.

25m 37s

Broadly stable with the prior quarter. Note that the cumulative charge offs plus the current reserve translates to an expected loss rate of about 20% against the March 2023 loan balance when industry losses commenced. Moving to slide 15. We have maintained excellent balance sheet strength. Our CET1 ratio is 10.64%, adjusting for the AOCI opt out removal, our CET1 ratio was stable at 9.1%. [indiscernible] Given our strong capital position, we repurchased $200,000,000 in common shares and including dividends we returned a total of $386,000,000 to shareholders in the first quarter. Turning to slide 16, we provide some details on the non core portfolio. As I mentioned earlier, we took the opportunity to accelerate the rundown of the portfolio with an agreement to sell approximately $1,900,000,000 of education loans. We recognized a $25,000,000 charge off associated with this portfolio that was covered by a pre existing allowance. Dollars 200,000,000 of the sale settled in the first quarter. With remainder scheduled to settle ratably each quarter through 2025. We expect to use the proceeds to pay down high cost funding, invest in low risk investment securities and repurchase shares. With this redeployment, transaction will be accretive to NIM EPS and ROTCE.

27m 2s

Moving to slide 17. We are well positioned to drive strong performance over the medium term with our overall three part strategy. A transformed consumer bank, the best positioned commercial bank among our regional peers, and our aspiration to build the premier bank owned private bank and private wealth franchise franchise. We continue to make excellent progress on the private bank, We delivered our strongest deposit growth quarter so far. Adding $1,700,000,000 of deposits to end the first quarter at $8,700,000,000 and the mix continues to be very attractive with slightly over 40% in non interest bearing. [indiscernible] We also ended the quarter with $3,700,000,000 in loans, and $5,200,000,000 in AUM, with a $04 contribution from the business in the first quarter, we are tracking well against our 5% accretion at estimate to Citizens bottom line in 2025 and to deliver a 20% to 24% return on equity. Moving to slide 18, we provide our guide for the second quarter. We expect net interest income to be up approximately 3% driven by an improvement in net interest margin of approximately five basis points in Daycam. This pickup in net interest margin is primarily attributable attributable to the time based benefits of non core runoff and reduced drag from terminated swaps.

28m 25s

Non interest income is expected to be up mid to high single digits led by capital markets with some risk if market uncertainty persists. FX and derivatives and wealth should also provide a lift for the quarter. We are projecting expenses to be broadly stable. Credit trends are expected to improve slightly from the first quarter charge off level, excluding the non core transaction. And we should end the second quarter with CET1 in the range of 10.5% to 10.75% including share repurchases of approximately $200,000,000 which could increase depending on loan growth. Currently, our full year outlook remains broadly in line with the guide we provided in January which contemplated a pickup in business activity in the second half of the year. However, if the current challenges in the external environment persist, there could be select risks that impact us as well as the broader industry. Persistent market volatility could impact capital markets revenue and anticipated loan growth in the second half of the year. While the assumptions incorporated in our current reserve or conservative and our corporate and consumer borrowers are broadly in good shape, heightened likelihood of a deeper recession could lead to higher provision. However, if these risks arise, we have potential offsets we can leverage.

29m 47s

Lower loan growth could facilitate additional share repurchase as well as the opportunity to further lower deposit costs as we continue executing our deposit pricing playbook. We would also take the opportunity to manage expenses down through streamlining our operations and further cost transformation. Looking out to the medium term, we see a clear path to achieving our 16% to 18% ROTCE target. Expanding our net interest margin is an important driver. And we project to be 3.05% to 3.1% in 4Q 'twenty five. 3.15% to 3.3% 4Q twenty twenty six and in the 3.25% to 3.5% range in 2027. Slide 21 in our appendix provides some incremental details on our net interest margin progression to 2027. This combined with the impact of successful execution of our strategic initiatives, should drive ROTCE meaningfully higher by 2027. To wrap up, we delivered Q1 results that were in line with our expectations highlighted by growth in net interest margin. While the market uncertainty has impacted capital markets revenues, deal backlogs are at all time highs. We accelerated the runoff of noncore with the education loan sale, which will be accretive to NIM, EPS and ROTCE. We ended the quarter with strong capital, liquidity and reserves, which puts us in an excellent position to support our clients while navigating market uncertainty.

31m 23s

And we continue to drive forward our strategic initiatives, with the private bank progression, particularly noteworthy. With that, I'll hand it back over to Bruce.

31m 32s

Okay. Thank you, John. Operator, Ivy, let's open it up for Q and A. Thank you, Mr. Vansan. We were now ready for the question and answer portion of the call. Your first question comes from the line of John Pancari from Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.

32m 3s

Good morning. Hi. Good morning. Just on the balance sheet growth, just want to see if you can give us a little bit more color around loan demand, what you're seeing here in this backdrop? Are you seeing what are the some of the trends in line utilization? Are you seeing any weakening of the pipeline? And also any type of pre tariff inventory build that might have driven a little bit of the growth in the near term, but might be more of a pull forward versus the outlook? If you can just give us some color there. Thanks.

32m 39s

Yes. I'll start off and others will chime in here. But maybe just starting in commercial. We are seeing some line utilization increases. We saw that up a couple of percentage points at the end of the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter That was driven by a number of factors. I mean, we think tariffs is part of the story. But I'd also say that M and A and some working capital is in there as well. So and that was both in our Corporate Banking business as well as on the sponsor side in our utilization in our subscription line side of the house and commercial. So we are seeing some of that trending. And frankly, given the expected pickup in business activity in the second half, there's some expectation that we'll see that continue, assuming some of this uncertainty subsides. On the consumer side of things, we're seeing good good take up in the on the resi and HELOC side of the ledger. Given where the rate environment is. HELOC in particular has been a really strong story for us. And last but not least, I'd throw out the private bank, which continues to drive growth.

33m 52s

So you're seeing all three of the legs of the stool, as you heard earlier. Contributing to the loan growth outlook. And maybe I'll just pause there and see if there's other color to Yes. I affirm what John said. It's Don. I think as we talk to customers, we're we're hearing a little bit of expansion desire. They've gone a little bit to the sidelines right now, just given what's going on with the uncertainty in the environment. The other thing John that's been going on really powerfully in in the first quarter is we've gotten disintermediated by the bond markets. We had an extremely strong bond quarter and some of that came off of our balance sheet as access particularly the high yield market. I think that probably is going to reverse given where rates are right now. So that will be a tailwind behind us in terms of loan growth. I don't know how much of it is tariffs in of the line draws. I think it's just general working capital build. People are running their businesses really tightly. So I don't think we've seen the tariff impact yet and that could be a tailwind also. And then we'll have to see on the capital call lines.

34m 54s

That's a pretty big part of our balance sheet, not huge, but about a $10,000,000,000 exposure overall, of which about half is drawn. And that's running at relatively low utilization. So to the extent we get some of the of the deal activity kicking in particularly in the second half that should grow nicely. It's Brendan. On the consumer side, if you put aside our non core rundown, which as John pointed out was down about $1,000,000,000 linked quarter and look at the underlying business that still originating. We're seeing decent growth 1% up year over year. As John pointed out, heavily led by residential and the portfolio is 75% secured. Keep in mind on the consumer side with incredibly high credit strats with high FICOs and relatively low LTVs. HELOC were actually up 9% year over year and believe we're right at the top of the league tables on net growth versus peers and that's through a bunch of innovative investments we've made and analytics and customer experience that has driven a little distinct advantage for us. We will continue to take advantage of that given the high quality nature of the customer.

35m 57s

And expect that growth level to persist throughout the year. And mortgage even though we have high rates, the portfolio growth is actually decent up 3% year over year, again high quality customers prepay speeds really low on the back book given the lack of a refinance activity. So we're seeing net positive growth. The other portfolio student and credit card have been flattish. Student given higher rates and credit card obviously by design as we look launch some new products here mid year. We expect that to see some higher returning growth assuming the economy plays in our favor of the half of the year. So we feel pretty good that underlying loan demand is high for the second half of the year. In the private bank, we are as John pointed out, we grew about $500,000,000 linked quarter.

36m 50s

What we're seeing there is still strong demand from that customer base as the consumer part of that portfolio builds, the mix has shifted modestly to consumer. So that's now 30% of the book. We're it was in the low 20s about a year ago. That's a good sign. We expect slow and steady continued progression and balancing out the book and demand seems to have picked up Our mortgage originations in the private bank are about double what they were same time this year despite a similar rate environment. So activity is strong and we expect growth rates to accelerate in the back half of the year for the private Okay.

37m 26s

Great. Thank you for that color. I Appreciate it. And just quickly on my second question is just around capital. I know you're sitting here around 10.6% CET1 and you cited expectation for around $200,000,000 of buyback similar to this quarter. Or to last quarter. But also, I know you mentioned, I think Bruce, you mentioned this and John, you mentioned as well that if you did see weaker loan growth and weaker macro, you could see higher buybacks. Can you just maybe help frame that like if we do see weaker loan growth and a weaker economy, would you conversely maybe be more cautious and therefore maybe a husband more capital versus step up buybacks? Can you just talk about how you view that trade off? Thanks.

38m 12s

Yes. I'll start there. I mean we're committed to that range that we articulated as $1,050,000,000 to $1,075,000,000 dollars If there's less RWA then we would feel opportunistically a willingness to step up on the buyback side of things. And the reason for that is is a couple of folds. I think the starting point on capital is very strong.

38m 35s

Both before and after AOCI. So you look at our AOCI haircut, we're still north of 9%. Which is quite a good number. We would also have to look at what the uncertainty would hold. And if you look at our reserve position, we've already set aside, we actually have a recessionary scenario already contemplated in our provision and loan loss reserve situation. So from that I think that we could see a number of scenarios throughout 2025 that would be consistent with continuing to be able to upside buybacks in the face of lower loan growth.

39m 16s

Yes. And what I would add to that is if you go back to 2024, we also had a pickup in growth that would build over the course of the year when that didn't happen. We basically used the freed up capital to buy back our shares and we thought our shares were very attractive. And I'd say given kind of the crack in stock prices since the macro uncertainty and the rollout of the tariffs we still feel that the stock is cheap relative to inherent value. And so it presents a real opportunity to offset any impact that would hit in the P and L from slower loan growth if that happened. Through buying back our stock and buying it back at very attractive pricing.

40m 4s

And just hasten to add, as we keep growing our tangible book value per share, the earn backs on buying back stock at these levels is well under a year. And so it's pretty attractive. And so we would feel good for all those reasons. Stated.

40m 20s

Great. Okay. Thank you.

40m 24s

Your next question comes from Ken Usdin from Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

40m 32s

Thanks. Good morning. Guys, wonder if you could talk through that push and pull the capital markets outlook and the fee guide So I guess, first of all, the record pipeline what's your level of confidence in terms of closing those transactions? And I guess secondly, if that capital markets embedded expectation doesn't pull through How we understand like the comp ratio offset and the magnitude of flex that you can have keep PPNR close to in line? Thanks.

41m 4s

Yes. So I'll start and then maybe John or Don can follow on. But again, I think that the exciting aspect of this from our standpoint is that we've over time built out really strong capital markets capability and a very broad M and A capability that covers middle market companies through mid corporate and specializes in industry verticals that we think are going to be active. And so the fact that there's pent up demand from sponsors to do deals, there's industry sectors that are very active. For example, data centers where we have a really strong group of folks focusing there. I'd say it's heartening to see that we've got record numbers of engagements. Our people are working very actively and on a probability assessment none of these deals have dropped and I think we're just waiting to see some of this uncertainty subside. So we still feel optimistic that things will settle down here a little bit. And that we should be able to pull that through. What I would say if that is not the case and then things do push out a bit, there's other things to consider. One is that we're broadly diversified. So we've had the ability to if one area doesn't fire on all cylinders like if M and A is soft then oftentimes our financing, our syndicated loan capability, debt underwriting will pick up and provide an offset.

42m 45s

And then the FX and interest rate derivatives and commodities hedging risk management business also is seeing an uptick in activity in depending on the circumstances that could provide an offset So the first line of defense is kind of diversity within the fees that could help offset any push out on M and A volumes. And then secondly, there's obviously incentive compensation that would drop if the deals don't deliver And then just broader looking at the expense base, we're constantly working on ways to streamline our businesses and perfect how we're running the bank, to make it more efficient efficiently. So we have a top 10 program up and running, but we're certainly not content with that given all of the opportunities we see around new technologies like AI and ways to deploy that just to run the bank better and serve our customers better. So I'd say that would be the broad playbook. But maybe for color on the revenue, Don, you might want to add anything there?

43m 50s

Yes. No, I just echo a couple of things that Bruce just said. One is, I'm really encouraged by the diversity of the franchise and the people that we continue to add. Actually, we're continuing to hire really strong talent into some of our industry teams. So that provides an ability to continue to transact in the market. I also want to remind people that a significant part of our M and A business in particular is mid sized companies. Coming out of our core franchise. And they continue to have a really strong desire to sell and transact in a lot of those go into private equity. And the other thing I'd say is that the financing market are generally pretty attractive. So we can get these things financed and they're not $10,000,000,000 deals. $600,000,000 deals. So they're they're eminently executable. One of the things that's been interesting is and you would you would ask the question of why are these things pushing. Part of it's due to the de staffing of the FTC and the SEC So it's just taking longer to get these transactions done. And I think the most important thing that Bruce said is, we have not lost one mandate out of the pipeline.

44m 57s

So it's not as if these transactions are going away. It's they're just taking a little bit longer to execute. So I'm super confident that we're going to be able to get these things across the finish line whether it's the second quarter or third quarter we'll have to see and some of it will be volatility. But there's very little tariff dependency in any of these underlying deals. So the big picture is we should generate the revenue and hopefully my bonuses aren't going to go down by year end. But Bruce do that to me as he would have done in the past if that does happen. John anything to add? No. I would just highlight the diversity point that you made and it's just on the expense side. I mean, would in an environment like that, you get the direct offset that you mentioned on incentives. And then you take a harder look at some discretionary stuff that we also touched on before And then just more broadly, just feeling like the net interest income story has just a number of great tailwinds that are part of why we feel good about the guide for 2025 as well.

45m 57s

Okay?

46m

Thanks for all that.

46m 2s

Okay, Ken.

46m 4s

Next question comes from Peter Winter from D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

46m 9s

Good morning. I was wondering just looking at interest rates, have been extremely volatile, it seems like the forward curve changes daily, but can you talk about what the ideal interest rate is interest rate environment is for Citizens and yield curve? Conversely, what type of rate environment kind of would put the NIM outlook potentially at risk? And are there any plans to reduce some of the asset sensitivity?

46m 35s

Yes, questions there. I mean out the window our asset sensitivity is plus or minus 1%. To a plus or minus 100 basis point change in a gradual shift in the yield curve up or down over the next twelve months. So we are slightly asset sensitive Yes, we're close to neutral. Based on just how those numbers are playing out. And I'd say that the first and foremost, the net interest margin trajectory is primarily not rate dependent. So you've got the time based benefits that are really driving net interest margin, both in the near term and over time. So for example, in the first quarter, we had about five basis points of time based benefits. And given the slight assets sensitivity and seasonally lower deposits, that's why we ended up at three basis points of net interest margin growth in the first quarter. When you look out to the second quarter, again, we're going to get about five basis points of time based benefit. And better balance sheet trends. So that's why all of that drops to the bottom line and really hit that momentum continues to build not only through 'twenty five but out into 'twenty six and 'twenty seven And we have in our slide deck an illustration of the fact that by the time you get to the fourth quarter of twenty twenty seven, the cumulative time based benefit is 35 basis points add that to the $290,000,000 that we delivered in the first quarter, we're already at the lower end of the range without having to deal with interest rates.

48m 16s

And so then from there, the rest of the story that takes us into our range of $325,000,000 to $3.50 You would also look at fixed asset repricing, which really is more about long end rates and there's a lot of baked in turnover of the balance sheet given coming out of the lower rate environment that we're in coming in the pandemic. So you got 15 to 20 basis points there. And now we can talk about rates. And so there's and we're pretty well hedged from a swaps standpoint in through out through the middle of 2027. So yes, we will do a little better if rates are higher So if rates are the terminal rate out window appears to be around three fifty, that's a good outcome for us. And that would put us in the middle of our range. But higher rates terminal rates like 4% would be consistent with the upper end of our range of around $350,000,000 But we could tolerate as low as 3% on Fed funds or even a touch lower and still hold the low end of our range. At $3.25. So we are basically comfortable with a wide range of scenarios on rates.

49m 29s

We feel pretty well hedged. With a slight orientation towards performing a little better a couple of years out if rates are a little higher. And we think about inflation in site inflationary scenarios when we think about positioning the balance sheet that way. But the objective of trying to have a lot of non REIT related tailwinds is something that you need to think about when you think about our recovery on net interest margin.

49m 57s

That's great. Thanks John. If I could ask just kind of a follow-up to Ken's question, You talked about the puts and takes with this uncertain environment. But could you just give an update on the positive operating leverage for the full year versus January's forecast of 150,000,000 Just I realize there's all this uncertainty, but just wondering how you're thinking about it.

50m 22s

Yes. We think we're reaffirming outlook. We believe that that's very achievable. Around the 150 And a big driver of that again, to net interest margin, we see net interest margin rising by about rising to 3.05% to 3.1% by the end of the year. That implies about a 15 basis point increase in net interest margin year over year. That's pretty powerful on the NII line. And therefore, three to 5% NII is a huge driver of our positive operating leverage. And we feel good about that. And we talked earlier about the diversity on capital markets and feline broadly. And how our pipelines are consistent with being able to deliver the guide. With some levers to pull, if certain scenarios play out. So I would add to that that in 2024, most banks including ourselves were very tight on expenses and 2025 were inflating a little bit. So the guide was roughly 4% expense growth and that reflects the fact that there's lots of great things for us to invest in as we build out the franchise here. So things like making sure we're adding to the private bank, we're adding private wealth teams, we're opening private bank offices, we're investing in AI and various projects, data analytics capability.

51m 49s

There's a our payments capability. So there's things that we want to keep investing in to position us for that medium term growth outlook that in a tougher environment we can throttle some of those things a little bit. But our preference is to not do that, to keep investing and keep building. So just kind of putting that in context, there are some levers to pull preferences to keep going. Make those investments for the future. But we can pull back a little bit if need be. The other structural benefit that we do have as well on the private bank, keep in mind that the majority of that cost base was was compensation guarantees. And so as the team is productive and we have confidence in hitting our revenue outlook, that revenue is gobbling up existing expenses and compensation, not adding to it. So it's the operating leverage. Leverage right there naturally versus last year, which we have a lot of to deliver the revenue outlook. So that should be a structural advantage for us too. Great point, Brendan. Thank you.

52m 59s

Your next question comes from Erika Najarian from UBS. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. I mean, you have thank you. You've alluded to this and how you've responded to all the questions, particularly the PPNR one. But as you know the net interest income outlook is quite important. And as I pull up the slide from last quarter, it's set up 3% to 5%. So if I think about affirming the exit NIM on Slide 21, And then the balance sheet seems to be fairly in line least average earning assets were in line this quarter. Unless we think that the balance sheet will shrink, it seems like that up 3% to 5% is still broadly in line. In terms of what you're affirming. So just wanted to confirm that in terms of the full year look.

53m 59s

Yes. You've got that right, Erica. John. That 3% to five feels pretty good. You just think about NIM alone, that would take us to the upper end of that range. But what we indicated in the guide was that at least back in January that we might have interest earning assets down about 1%, which is what put us into the middle of the range. There's some flexibility there. When you think about relative value in the securities portfolio on what we're seeing in deposit flows which are actually coming in a little better than we expected There are there's another lever there with respect to interest earning assets in the securities book. That we'll be monitoring throughout the year. But net interest margin trends, exactly as expected, feeling very good about that. With some levers to pull even in the securities portfolio and on interest earning assets, if relative value attractive and deposit flows continue the way they've been they've been going. So that's the way that we think about that 3% to five And switching topics on the reserve. So this is a two part question. Number one, just a broad question here. What unemployment rate is your reserve sort of looking forward to And second, John, could you talk through the dynamics that's perhaps unique to Citizens about the non core runoff So as we think about perhaps the the baseline case of unemployment potentially getting worse or the company waiting the downside case more what is sort of the offset of the $1,900,000,000 student loan sale?

55m 44s

And the runoff portfolio and obviously the commercial real estate portfolio has been you've been resolving parts of that for some time now. So walk us through those two dynamics as we think about how to think about the provision from here as we think about perhaps a more uncertain economic backdrop but also a specific optimization of your loan mix?

56m 13s

Yes. I'll hit go through those and others may may chime in here. We have a number of scenarios that get applied to different parts of the portfolio. Our base baseline scenario has an unemployment rate of 5.1% that covers a large portion of our book primarily in C and I and in retail. When you get into the CRE portfolio and also that's 5.1% is paired with a decline in GDP that would imply a mild recession.

56m 46s

So a majority of the book has a mild recession associated with it. But when you think about the CRE book overall, we have a combination of a moderate to severe recession assumption. Applied to CRE. And so the unemployment assumption there is higher than 5.1 So on a weighted average basis, you'd end up with an unemployment rate that's above 5.1%. I mean, as an example, our general office portfolio has a severe recessionary scenario with an unemployment rate of 9.3%. And a GDP decline of 4.4%. So just giving you a sense that generally it's something higher than 5.1%. And that's why I think what we're seeing is that a lot of the uncertainty and concern about recession for 2025 we feel like it's mostly baked into our allowance. I mean, we'll monitoring it. And we're keeping an eye on it and we're watching charge off trends coming down in line with our expectations. So that all feels very good on the credit side.

57m 47s

Yes. I would John, you might have the number on the top of your head, but Erica, we had we're about 161 in terms of the allowance to loans. Kind of the day one CECL was to I'm going justify this If you adjust it down first for the investors deal and then for the we're taking in non core. What is that number? 25,000,000 to 131 hundred 25 ish. Yes. In that ballpark. So anyway, we feel that over time we've continued to improve the focus on kind of where we want to lend. We want to lend to deep relationships In commercial we've been moving more upmarket so that 80% of the C and I portfolio is now investment grade equivalent. And in the retail book 95% of the book is super prime and high prime. 78% of the book is retail is secured. [indiscernible] yes and in homeowners are the ones that we're lending on an unsecured basis. Two thirds of the borrowers are homeowners which tend to have a better credit profile. So we have a bunch of those stats back on pages 24, twenty five and twenty six. The CRE portfolio we've taken a lot of the pain there already.

59m 6s

So the pigs have been going through the python so to speak. So we feel that we're well reserved for different scenarios that could ensue over the course of the year.

59m 19s

Yes. And to the other point of the question you had Erica, regarding non core rundown, I mean, I think you can kind of pair in some respects. I mean, certainly the balance sheet is fungible, but you can sort of think about non core and private bank in some respects. Together because we're taking a lot of that liquidity and capital and down in the noncore space, but we're growing in private bank and in commercial. So on the private bank, we have we have a year end target on loan side that is similar to the rundown in noncore. That's being accelerated in 2025. So what you're seeing is pulling back on a lower customer value assets in the non core space growing high customer attractive RWA in private bank and in commercial and in core retail. So the engine here is humming along really well probably a little faster than we expected given our opportunistic transaction. When we set up non core that was roughly broad numbers $10,000,000,000 running down in the consumer runoff portfolio and $10,000,000,000 running up in the private bank. And by the way, credit quality in the private bank, I mean, the group that came over from First Republic had virtually no credit losses.

1h 50s

And so far, we've had no credit losses in that book. So you can't say that will always be the case, but it's very, very high credit quality. So that alone is going to average down the net charge off ratio through the cycle to something in the low to mid-30s from something that had been kind of higher 30s to low 40s. So Brendan you want to add anything there? Just a couple of quick stats, maybe just to build on your points. On private banking. We have zero customers that are in delinquency or criticized right now. So to John's point, we're replacing the noncore rundown with that quality of asset. The other thing to make note of on non core, which is seasoned now and then rundown with no new originations coming through with auto. As the portfolio gets more seasoned, have the dynamic of drive the car up a lot and immediately reprice this down and you're upside a little bit on LTV until pay downs happen. But portfolio is a couple of year seasoned now. So we feel pretty good that we've got our arms around lost content. It shouldn't be hypersensitive to unemployment unless it a really significant event in market.

1h 1m 55s

So that should be stay stable and we feel good about the quality there. And just on the retail book to everybody's point 79% of it on the core side is residential secured. On the home equity book 99% is below 80% CLTV. On the mortgage book 51% CLTV. So there's very, very little loss content there unless there's a significant housing market correction. Which obviously we're not seeing high chance of that. And then when you unpack the unsecured book, while over time we'd like to have more exposure to credit card. Right now, we're undersized on credit card and that's a good thing. If there's an unemployment spike. And on the student book, 98% is cosigned by the parent on in school and 40% of student loan refinancing book is with folks with advanced degrees, which are less sensitive to spikes in unemployment. So when you net all that together, I feel like on a relative basis, we should be in a very strong spot if there's a blip in unemployment.

1h 2m 53s

Very thorough. Thank you. Your next question comes from Matt O'Connor from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

1h 3m 2s

Good morning.

1h 3m 3s

A couple of follow ups on fee revenue categories. The service charges were quite strong year over year and you mentioned cash management, which I think is pretty straightforward. And then also overdraft. Just elaborate on the overdraft. Is it increased frequency? And why you think that is? Were there some pricing changes? Or what drove that component? Yes. Most of the service charge numbers actually in cash management and business banking is seeing really strong growth with some technology investments that we've made in the consumer business to drive stickier engaged customers by the way that's also showing up in our low cost deposit trends. So, the increases that we're largely driven by healthy fee creation versus punitive, which we are very, very pleased with. Our overdraft line has obviously been on a downward slide for a decade and it's now relatively stable. Not made any pricing changes. And while there's the mass market population is generally back to paycheck to paycheck, they are in fact pretty stable. So we're not seeing any behavior in that base Spending trends are still strong, but stable. We're not seeing anything in that base that would suggest a breakout of economic stress yet, which obviously would be tied to an increase in overdraft fees too.

1h 4m 22s

So we feel like that's going to be kind of range bound.

1h 4m 25s

Hopefully the growth that we see will [indiscernible] the positive fee creation through customer advice and services that we provide largely in cash management and overdraft is in a range. Obviously, I'm sure you all saw court case that is out there on overdraft and in the House and the Senate both signed off on eliminating the rule from the CFPB. So we also think the risk that potentially existed in the back half of the year about that may be coming down is de minimis at this point. Headed to the President's desk for signature. So anyway overdraft is stable, not growing, not really decreasing in any material way.

1h 5m 9s

Okay. That's helpful. And then in credit card, they were down obviously versus 4Q on seasonal trends. But also down a little bit year over year. Know you're trying to grow it. Is that just the cost of rewards and upfront sign ons? Or what's driving that drop on a year over year basis? Thanks. Yes. We have there's been a little bit of our prior expansion activity we were doing with credit card we've paused.

1h 5m 36s

For a short period of time while we launched new products in May and June. So we're very, very excited about a couple of new products that are coming out late spring into the summer. [indiscernible] The customer spending trends have been broadly stable for a bit here. And so we're expecting that to get back into growth mode. As you probably remember, going back eighteen months, some of the growth in credit card and debit card fees were structural related to the Mastercard arrangement that we did that really drove some net positive fee growth to the bottom line as we generate more spending activity and grow the net portfolio in cards in the back of the year, we expect that line to continue to modestly grow.

1h 6m 18s

Thank you.

1h 6m 22s

Your next question comes from Gerard Cassidy from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

1h 6m 27s

Hi, Bruce. Hi, John. [indiscernible] Guys, can you share with us as a follow-up to your comments on the non core loan portfolio? And in view of the sale of the non core student loans, can you give us the pros and cons of selling the entire portfolio that you outlined on Slide 16?

1h 6m 47s

Yes. I'll take that. John, you can chime in. But I think that there's relatively high predictability in terms of the runoff of auto, which is basically what's left And should we want to accelerate that sale there's going to be a liquidity cost that has to be paid. So our view is since this is short duration paper, it runs off predictably, it runs off fast duration of the paper roughly two years, that we're better off preserving the capital and not incurring that liquidity cost if you will. So Yes. I agree. And so we've got very strong capital and liquidity. So there's no need to accelerate it beyond the accelerated rundown. I mean if you look in the fourth quarter of twenty by the end of this year, entire book is going to be down to $2,600,000,000 $1,500,000,000 of that is a little more than 1,500,000.0 about 1,700,000.0 or so. Is sitting in an auto collateralized structure anyway and therefore wouldn't be able to be sold. So that's sort of ring fenced and just runs down on its own. So you're basically under $1,000,000,000 by the end of the year from the round trip from the beginning of this journey in terms of running down non core and this is going to be kind of in the rearview mirror very soon.

1h 8m 6s

And from that standpoint, we think the transaction that we did was the accelerant. That was a longer lived asset with the bigger tail. So to move that out really helped accelerate the whole rundown.

1h 8m 21s

And who knows maybe in the future there could be a cleanup, but it will be something that really wouldn't have much of an impact given that it's in such a low profile by the end of the year anyway.

1h 8m 30s

Great. Thank you. And then as a follow-up, obviously your credit, you've got it under control and you talked very thoroughly about the office commercial real estate portfolio and the challenges there. I noticed in the C and I portfolio and I know the numbers are not large. And it could be the lower of low numbers that one or two loans going non accrual will push the number up. But in Slide 28, you do give us that breakdown on non accruals. Can you give us us some color on the C and I portfolio, the uptick again, it material and nominal levels, but what are you guys seeing in the C and I, especially in view of your outlook of the uncertainty we're all confronting with this economy?

1h 9m 15s

Yes. Maybe just to start off on 28 that's the allowance is really when you see those numbers go up, that's really us being a bit a touch more conservative with respect to areas that we're seeing that makes sense to flow additional allowance over to The non accrual though.

1h 9m 35s

I think that you're talking about the 0.57 going up to the 0.65 Gerard. Again, Correct. But it's small. I understand it's small, but I'm just curious.

1h 9m 45s

Yes. I think that's just the law of kind of small numbers in terms of, if you have one thing moving to non accrual as we work through some issues. That can make modest adjustments from quarter to quarter there. But nothing really to call out I think. Yes. Gerard, I'll just jump in. We're seeing no macro deterioration C and I. I go back to what I've said for a couple of years now as people really tighten their belts during COVID. Both from a debt standpoint and an efficiency standpoint and that's going to help [indiscernible] go through any kind of uncertainty that we have. We see no broad trends of deterioration at all in our C and I book. And I would say it's more a question of they're in good position and they've positioned themselves to be resilient and adaptable to the environment To me the bigger question is when how much offense do they want to play and the macro actually holds them back from further growth in their businesses. And that potentially affects loan demand or deal activity. But I don't really view it as any kind of material credit risk. And in fact when you look at the sectors that we lend to we don't have huge exposure to the sectors that are most exposed to tariffs.

1h 11m 10s

So in general, we feel really that this is this is more an issue about how much offense comes out of the customer base as opposed to are we worried about credit deterioration.

1h 11m 22s

Great. Thank you, guys.

1h 11m 26s

Your next question comes from Ebrahim Poonawala from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

1h 11m 32s

Hey, good morning.

1h 11m 34s

Just two very quick follow-up questions. John, maybe for you. Not sure if I missed. When we look at your fee income guidance, you talked about the capital markets pipeline. What are we assuming for capital markets just from a fee revenue standpoint for second quarter and for the full year? If you don't mind sharing that?

1h 11m 54s

Yes, we have the bright it's a driver and it's I think I'd go back to the diversification points that we said earlier. I think we've got in the capital markets, we've got M and A certainly as part of the story, but there is loan syndications, some equity capital markets opportunities. And you heard Bruce earlier talk about client hedging. That are all contributing to the second quarter as well as the full year. And then we're also focused on the fact that the consumer side of the house, card and wealth are also expected to be contributing in 2Q and in 2025 as well. But we haven't broken down the details separately from fees. And in 2Q or 2025.

1h 12m 41s

Yes. It's a material driver to the 10% growth we had for the year in the original year guide and then in the second quarter lift that we have. And I would say at a level of the capital markets activity to me is why we have a little bit wider range in the second quarter fee guides. So we still think we'll see a nice bounce off of Q1 levels, but we'll we'll have to wait and see how that plays out. But I think the broader point John just made about diversity and when one thing is a little soft, we have enough levers that I think we're pretty confident that we'll be able to find offsets at Capital Markets is a bit sluggish.

1h 13m 34s

Got it. And I guess maybe just a on the margin outlook when you have the margin for the end of the year, end of twenty twenty six, Can you remind us what the Fed funds rate underpinning that is? I appreciate the time sensitivity of what the NIM does. But what's the Fed funds rate if we get 100 basis points of Fed funds cut, let's say, between now and year end, that create some downside risk to that 2025, 2026 outlooks or not?

1h 14m 4s

Yes. I'd say, as I mentioned, we're pretty well hedged. We've got when you look out the window, there's a we said said sorry, starting over we said two cuts in January. But out the window maybe there's three, but that third cut happens late in the fourth quarter. Number one. And number two, we are close to neutral an asset sensitivity perspective. So that $3.05 to $3.1 feels very good. And very comfortable with respect to delivering that range. The terminal rate of about three fifty getting out into 2026 and 2027 puts us into the middle of our 3.25% to 3.5% net interest margin range. You'll see on the slide there in the back where we articulate that that outlook. And so 2026, also just one other thing to add in case there's any follow ups. The net interest margin growth in 2025 is very comfortable and we feel good about it. It maybe implies about 15 basis points year over year. 2026 is a significant amount of challenge associated with some accelerating trends. And much of the time based benefit actually really starts to kick in, in 2026. That's something to keep an eye on also.

1h 15m 28s

Thank And our final question comes from Manongo Salvia from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

1h 15m 34s

Hi, good morning. Just a couple of quick follow ups questions. One was on loan growth Can you talk about how much of the loan growth over the past year has come from NDFI loans and how you're thinking about the credit risk of that portfolio?

1h 15m 52s

Yes. I mean, I'll start off and Don may add in here. I mean there is we do have exposure like many of our peers do into the NBFI space at as part of our the ecosystem of interacting in the private private credit space and the private capital construct that we do a very good job of covering. I would say that I'd hasten to add that the credit exposure for the places where we play is very low. You think about the kind of interactions that we do, in whether it's business credit intermediaries or in the private equity space that credit profile has been very low over time.

1h 16m 37s

Yes, I agree with that. And the growth hasn't been massive in terms of actually adding exposure. We've seen a little bit of growth due to higher utilization. You see that coming through in the numbers a little bit. But we very much like the structures that we have in place both for the private equity complex and the private credit complex and they're both kind of investment grade like in terms of their credit profile. So very low losses, very strong structures, ABS kind of structures particularly in private credit and we feel very good about those exposures. And And the other important thing is back to everything we're doing in the NBFI play. [indiscernible] It's about a broad relationship. So we're doing multiple different things with each of the people that we're lending to. So it's not as if we're going out there and and building a loan book. We're doing M and A with a lot of these complexes We're actually distributing some of the private credit funds into our private bank and wealth management areas now. So there's a lot of different relationship orientation and we're very selective in terms of the underlying clients that will actually bank.

1h 17m 40s

Yes. I would just add two other points of color. One is that definitions for this category are changing a little bit. And so some exposures that might not have been considered MDFI are now getting pushed into that a little bit. So it's hard to do a long period of time straight apples to apples comparisons. But I think once we get through that reclassification [indiscernible] going forward have more continuity in those forecasts The other thing is that where we are growing somewhat is in the private bank. And so that's a little bit of a different kind of complementary perspective to some of the bigger funds that Don's folks are covering. So Brendan I know if you want add that, but we're making capacity there for kind of PE and VC funds where we know those firms extremely well and we want to be the bank to the fund complex and the partners if those firms. And so that's really good business. That was always really good business at First Republic and we're growing that business here. Yes. Credit structures, as Don mentioned, we believe our are well structured with incredibly low risk. One year subscription lines.

1h 19m 7s

So the duration of it we can if there's anything that we see that is worrisome, we can move on pretty quickly. We also in the private bank won't do the credit unless we have their operating cash management relationship. And so a very deep relationship with the firm with strong underwriting and then eyes all over cash flows and the whole community that we're banking. So we feel good about the exposure. [indiscernible] Very helpful. And then as my follow-up, just on the non core loan sale in the first quarter, How should we think about the benefit to NIM from that sale I know the year end NIM guide is relatively unchanged. So I was wondering if there's some offsets there, if there's a higher probability that you can hit the higher end of that guide?

1h 19m 54s

Yes. We had anticipated that we would have an opportunity to accelerate in 2025. So that was included in the January guide broadly. So the $3.00 5,000,000 to $310,000,000 is is already incorporated this sale. So you recall that on the first quarter call, I hinted that we were working on acceleration. So we were pretty far down the track that we would get something done. So when we had the guide we had assumed that. So it's not that dramatic of a lift in NIM, but we'll pick up basis points here and there. It all adds up and builds our path towards hitting those year end numbers, those fourth quarter numbers.

1h 20m 42s

Perfect. Thank you.

1h 20m 44s

Okay.

1h 20m 45s

All right. Well, I think that brings us to the end of the call. Thanks again everyone for dialing in today. We appreciate your continued interest and support. Have a great day.

1h 20m 57s

That concludes the Citizens Financial Group first quarter earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Key Insights

Q1 results were in line with expectations, highlighted by a 3 bps increase in NIM to 2.90%, 1% core loan growth, resilient fee income despite capital markets softness, and continued share repurchases; CET1 ratio ended at 10.6% and LDR at 77.5%.
Entered an agreement to sell $1.9B in non-core student loans (with $200M sold in Q1, remainder to settle over next three quarters); proceeds will be used to pay down high-cost funding, purchase low-risk securities, and repurchase shares—transaction is accretive to NIM, EPS, and ROTCE and was included in full-year guidance.
Private Bank continued strong growth, reaching $8.7B in deposits and $5.2B in AUM; private wealth teams added in Florida, Southern California, and New Jersey; M&A and capital markets pipelines are at record highs, though deal closings are delayed by market uncertainty.
Reaffirmed full-year EPS and NII guidance (NII up 3–5% for 2025; exit NIM of 3.05–3.10% for 2025, progressing to 3.25–3.50% by 2027); positive operating leverage target of ~$150M for the year remains achievable; CET1 expected to remain in the 10.5–10.75% range with ~$200M quarterly share repurchases.
Credit trends remain favorable with net charge-offs at 51 bps (ex-non-core sale impact), allowance for credit losses stable at 1.61%, and strong reserve coverage; loan growth outlook supported by commercial line utilization, HELOC/mortgage strength, and private bank expansion—credit quality remains high across portfolios with conservative recessionary scenarios embedded in reserves.

Recent Transcripts

2024 ended strong with NIM expansion, fee growth, and disciplined investments.

Income Statement

Revenue

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Revenue	$6.9B	$6.6B	$8.1B	$8.2B	$7.8B
Cost of Revenue	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0
Gross Profit	$6.9B	$6.6B	$8.1B	$8.2B	$7.8B
Gross Profit %	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%
R&D Expenses	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0

Cash Flow

Net Income

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Net Income	$1.1B	$2.3B	$2.1B	$1.6B	$1.5B
Dep. & Amort.	$578M	$625M	$565M	$478M	$498M
Def. Tax	-$238M	-$429M	$57M	-$242M	-$177M
Stock Comp.	$48M	$59M	$84M	$87M	$97M
Chg. in WC	-$3B	-$962M	-$858M	$273M	-$571M

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Net Income

$1.1B

$2.3B

$2.1B

$1.6B

$1.5B

Dep. & Amort.

$578M

$625M

$565M

$478M

$498M

Def. Tax

-$238M

-$429M

$57M

-$242M

-$177M

Stock Comp.

$48M

$59M

$84M

$87M

$97M

Chg. in WC

-$3B

-$962M

-$858M

$273M

-$571M

Balance Sheet

Cash

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Cash	$13B	$9.5B	$11B	$12B	$0
ST Investments	$22B	$25B	$24B	$30B	$33B
Cash & ST Inv.	$35B	$35B	$35B	$42B	$33B
Receivables	$1.9B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.1B	$1B
Inventory	$0	$0	$0	$0	$0

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

Cash

$13B

$9.5B

$11B

$12B

ST Investments

$22B

$25B

$24B

$30B

$33B

Cash & ST Inv.

$35B

$42B

$33B

Receivables

$1.9B

$1.5B

$1.1B

$1B

Inventory

Go Deeper

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Overview
Latest News
Earnings
Income Statement
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Related

Earnings

Report Date

Apr 16, 2025

Reported Revenue

1.9B

Avg 1d Change

2.29%

Report Period

Q1 2025

Reported EPS

0.77

Implied Move 1d

4.24%

Transcript

12m 34s

Thanks for joining our call today. We announced financial results today that were in line with our expectations.

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And we continue to drive forward our strategic initiatives, with the private bank progression, particularly noteworthy. With that, I'll hand it back over to Bruce.

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Great. Okay. Thank you.

40m 24s

Your next question comes from Ken Usdin from Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.

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Okay?

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Thanks for all that.

46m 2s

Okay, Ken.

46m 4s

Next question comes from Peter Winter from D. A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

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So the pigs have been going through the python so to speak. So we feel that we're well reserved for different scenarios that could ensue over the course of the year.

59m 19s

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Very thorough. Thank you. Your next question comes from Matt O'Connor from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

1h 3m 2s

Good morning.

1h 3m 3s

1h 4m 22s

So we feel like that's going to be kind of range bound.

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Thank you.

1h 6m 22s

Your next question comes from Gerard Cassidy from RBC Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

1h 6m 27s

1h 6m 47s

1h 8m 6s

And from that standpoint, we think the transaction that we did was the accelerant. That was a longer lived asset with the bigger tail. So to move that out really helped accelerate the whole rundown.

1h 8m 21s

And who knows maybe in the future there could be a cleanup, but it will be something that really wouldn't have much of an impact given that it's in such a low profile by the end of the year anyway.

1h 8m 30s

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1h 9m 35s

I think that you're talking about the 0.57 going up to the 0.65 Gerard. Again, Correct. But it's small. I understand it's small, but I'm just curious.

1h 9m 45s

1h 11m 10s

So in general, we feel really that this is this is more an issue about how much offense comes out of the customer base as opposed to are we worried about credit deterioration.

1h 11m 22s

Great. Thank you, guys.

1h 11m 26s

Your next question comes from Ebrahim Poonawala from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

1h 11m 32s

Hey, good morning.

1h 11m 34s

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Thank And our final question comes from Manongo Salvia from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

1h 15m 34s

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1h 20m 42s

Perfect. Thank you.

1h 20m 44s

Okay.

1h 20m 45s

All right. Well, I think that brings us to the end of the call. Thanks again everyone for dialing in today. We appreciate your continued interest and support. Have a great day.

1h 20m 57s

That concludes the Citizens Financial Group first quarter earnings conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Key Insights

Q1 results were in line with expectations, highlighted by a 3 bps increase in NIM to 2.90%, 1% core loan growth, resilient fee income despite capital markets softness, and continued share repurchases; CET1 ratio ended at 10.6% and LDR at 77.5%.
Entered an agreement to sell $1.9B in non-core student loans (with $200M sold in Q1, remainder to settle over next three quarters); proceeds will be used to pay down high-cost funding, purchase low-risk securities, and repurchase shares—transaction is accretive to NIM, EPS, and ROTCE and was included in full-year guidance.
Private Bank continued strong growth, reaching $8.7B in deposits and $5.2B in AUM; private wealth teams added in Florida, Southern California, and New Jersey; M&A and capital markets pipelines are at record highs, though deal closings are delayed by market uncertainty.
Reaffirmed full-year EPS and NII guidance (NII up 3–5% for 2025; exit NIM of 3.05–3.10% for 2025, progressing to 3.25–3.50% by 2027); positive operating leverage target of ~$150M for the year remains achievable; CET1 expected to remain in the 10.5–10.75% range with ~$200M quarterly share repurchases.
Credit trends remain favorable with net charge-offs at 51 bps (ex-non-core sale impact), allowance for credit losses stable at 1.61%, and strong reserve coverage; loan growth outlook supported by commercial line utilization, HELOC/mortgage strength, and private bank expansion—credit quality remains high across portfolios with conservative recessionary scenarios embedded in reserves.

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. Price & Performance (CFG)

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