Citizens Financial advances high-net-worth ambitions with key hires

The bank has recruited two JPMorgan execs to help build out its private banking and wealth management businesses.

In a continuing effort to strengthen its presence across the wealth management and private banking spaces, Citizens Financial has bolstered its leadership with two critical hires.

Citizens Financial Group Inc. announced Michael Cherny as its new head of Citizens Wealth Management Advisors, while Tom Metzger has joined as head of Citizens Private Wealth Managers.

Cherny is a seasoned veteran with a nearly two-decade career in the financial services industry. He joins Citizens Financial from JPMorgan Chase, where he spent 18 years in progressively senior roles. Most recently, he led one of its largest regions, representing $60 billion in investment and deposit balances as the bank’s managing director in wealth.

In his new position with Citizens, Cherny will be advancing the bank’s wealth management ambitions by retaining and cultivating relationships with mass affluent and affluent clients from across the US.

Metzger is also joining Citizens Financial from JPMorgan, where he worked for six months as its head of wealth manager recruiting; prior to that, he held a similar position at First Republic Wealth Management. According to his LinkedIn profile, he spent roughly half of his 17-year career at Wells Fargo.

At Citizens Financial, Metzger will be leveraging his experience to put together and lead a new team of private wealth managers targeting new-to-bank clients in key US geographies.

“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 in a statement.

“Hiring these two high-quality executives demonstrates the strength of Private Banking and Wealth Management talent that we have been able to attract to Citizens,” he said.

Following through on an announcement last fall, Citizens also revealed it first private banking office in Boston. It plans to expand its appeal to the family office market by opening other locations this year, including Palm Beach, Florida, and Mill Valley, California, in the spring.

The bank also wants to build a presence in New York and the San Francisco Bay area, though it has yet to reveal the timing for those locations.