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Citizens Financial Group Announces New Board Member

Wendy A. Watson, Citizens Financial Group Board Member (Photo: Business Wire)

"We are proud to welcome Wendy to CFG's Board of Directors," said CFG and RBS Americas Chairman and CEO Ellen Alemany. "Wendy's executive leadership, global banking expertise and board directorship experience will serve our organization well as we continue to build upon CFG's commitment to being a responsible corporate leader engaged in the community."

Watson is a former Executive Vice President, Global Services at State Street Bank & Trust Company, a leading provider of financial services to institutional investors. She joined State Street in 2000 as the Managing Director, Investment Manager Solutions. In that role, she designed and built a business to $2 trillion after State Street took over the servicing of global investment managers middle-office processing.

Watson also led the bank's Global Cost Leadership program and reduced annual operating expenses by $800 million. Before joining State Street, Watson was a senior vice president, Global Private Banking & Trust at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Prior to that Watson was President & CEO, CIBC Finance.

At Confederation Life Insurance Company in Toronto, she was Vice President and Chief Information Officer responsible for its technology strategy implementation across the company's worldwide footprint. She was also responsible for internal audit, security and administrative services. Watson began her career at Sun Life Assurance Company as a staff auditor. She worked her way up to Assistant Vice President, Internal Audit.

A native of Canada with dual citizenship in Canada and the United States, Watson is a magna cum laude graduate of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, with a concentration in accounting and law. She is a certified general accountant and a certified fraud examiner.

Watson serves on a number of boards, including Canadian Medical Association Holdings Inc, DAS Legal Protection Insurance Inc and expert advisory board of McGill University School of Management. Watson is also a member of Women Corporate Directors, the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Women's Bond Club of New York.

About Citizens Financial Group

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is a $136 billion commercial bank holding company. It is headquartered in Providence, R.I., and, through its subsidiaries, has more than 1,500 branches, approximately 3,800 ATMs and approximately 22,600 employees. Its two bank subsidiaries are RBS Citizens, N.A. and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. They operate a 12-state branch network under the Citizens Bank brand in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the Charter One brand in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. CFG has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. CFG is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc). CFG's website is citizenbank.com.

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Citizens Financial Group
Nancy Orlando, 617-994-7472