The New York-listed banking and financial services group set up a private bank and wealth business last fall. It aims to add new offices in coming weeks and months.

Citizens Financial Group has opened its first private banking office in Boston (pictured). It intends to open more offices this year, including one in Palm Beach, Florida and Mill Valley, California in the spring. The New York-listed group has also announced several senior hires.

The private bank will target people in the mass-affluent, high net worth and ultra-HNW brackets, it said. 

Citizens has appointed Michael Cherny as head of Citizens Wealth Management Advisors and Tom Metzger as head of Citizens Private Wealth Managers.

The group said that the failures last year of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic, and industry consolidation, has created a gap in the market that it intends to exploit. 

“With the bank failures of 2023, it is clear that significant white space exists in the market for a new entrant to fill by delivering best-in-market customer service for private banking and wealth management clients,” Brendan Coughlin, vice chair and head of consumer banking at Citizens, said.

Cherny will be responsible for retaining and growing mass-affluent and affluent client relationships across the US. Cherny previously served as a managing director in wealth at JP Morgan, where he led one of the bank’s largest regions consisting of $60 billion in investment and deposit balances.

Metzger will recruit and lead a new team of private wealth managers targeting new-to-bank clients in key geographies across the US. A 17-year industry veteran, Metzger had a career at Wells Fargo and a recent stop at First Republic Bank where he served as head of wealth manager recruiting.

Citizens Private Bank, which was founded in the fall of 2023, raised more than $1.2 billion in deposits by the end of 2023.

The Providence, Rhode Island-headquartered parent financial group operates in 14 states and the District of Columbia.