Finance
Citizens Bank ‘Won by Losing’ First Republic to JPMorgan, CEO Says
- Bank hired First Republic talent to expand its wealth business
- Competition for new assets is fierce as firms make investments
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Citizens Financial Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Bruce Van Saun said his company’s unsuccessful fight with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to acquire First Republic Bank was the best outcome for the lender’s private bank and wealth-management operations.
“We might have won by losing,” Van Saun said in an interview Wednesday in New York. Undesirable assets held by First Republic, including leases, bank branches and billions of dollars in mortgages, are “probably easier to absorb and deal with at JPMorgan than would have been for us.”