Welcome to The Royal Bank of Scotland Group Annual Review and Summary Financial Statement.

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Highlights of 2006

Scientists at work in a laboratory

Boston Scientific

A world-leading developer and manufacturer of medical devices, including coronary stents, Boston Scientific, found funding support for its acquisition of Guidant from a combination of Citizens, RBS and Ulster Bank.

  • Citizens is a major player in US banking. Among commercial banking organisations it ranks 9th in assets, 7th in personal loans, 8th in deposits, 16th in mortgages, 6th in home equity loans, 9th in credit cards, and 14th in business lending.
  • Citizens has the eighth-largest retail branch network in the US, and has more than 5.1 million personal and business customers.
  • A continued emphasis on customer service helped raise retail customer satisfaction levels by 3.5% in 2006.
  • Last year was Citizens' 14th consecutive year of record profits, and in 2006 profit increased by 2% to US$2,917 million. Citizens has been building its customer franchise in commercial banking and in card issuing and acquiring. Business and home equity lending also showed good growth.
  • Retail Banking in the Charter One footprint has opened more than 276,000 new checking accounts and has seen a 6% increase in cross-selling of other bank products.
  • In 2006 Citizens agreed more than 714,000 new consumer loans totalling US$20 billion, and processed more than 1.4 million credit applications.
  • Citizens' Debit Rewards debit card programme, through which customers earn redeemable points, was well received by customers and led to an average 3,800 new enrollments per day.
  • Citizens added PayPass™ embedded-chip technology to its customer debit cards, issuing 3.5 million new cards to its customers to become Mastercard's largest PayPass™ issuer in the US.
  • More than 1.8 million credit cards were issued under the RBS, Citizens and Kroger brands. Citizens' partnership with Kroger, the second-largest US supermarket group, was extended to include pre-payment cards, mortgages and other financial products.
  • Supermarket and other non-traditional branches now account for approximately one-third of Citizens' retail branch distribution, with more than 520 branches. Citizens is the second-largest supermarket bank in the US, taking advantage of busy store locations with key partners.
  • Citizens was the No 1 US Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in every market it served during 2006, with nearly 7,000 SBA-backed loans totalling more than US$320 million.
  • RBS Lynk, our merchant acquiring business, achieved significant growth, processing 40% more transactions than in 2005 and expanding its merchant base by 11%. RBS Lynk became only the second processor in the US to offer its merchants full end-to-end acquiring, processing and settlement for transactions.
  • Citizens' commercial business has grown significantly since December 2005, with average commercial loans up 15% excluding financed leases. In foreign exchange, interest rate derivatives and cash management we benefited from the product strength of RBS Corporate Markets.
  • By the end of 2006, Citizens had opened 390 new company cash management relationships with RBS corporate clients, bringing in over US$200 million of new deposits.
Two people talking to a man, who is holding guitar

Chicago Music Exchange

Citizens has maintained its No 1 Small Business Administration rating in all its local markets. Charter One provides business banking for Chicago Music Exchange, which supplies guitars for world-renowned performers.

  • Launched in early 2002, the Asset Finance group has grown to more than US$5 billion in assets and funded more than US$1.7 billion in 2006, providing asset financing to mid-sized and large corporate customers nationally.
  • The Government Banking division recorded a 14% increase in total funds under management during 2006, rising to US$14 billion.
  • Citizens' purchase of GreatBanc, Inc., announced in October 2006 and completed on 1 February 2007, continues the Charter One Bank expansion in Illinois and makes it the fourth-largest bank in the greater Chicago marketplace.
  • In 2006 Citizens Financial Group expanded its community initiatives for job creation and affordable housing. Two different programmes offered over $120 million in loans at low interest rates to companies that agreed to create an estimated 4,000 jobs. The Citizens Housing Bank and Charter One Housing Bank offered US$82 million in low-interest funds to non-profit housing developers to create 1,070 affordable housing units.
  • Since it began in 2002, Citizens' Community Champions in Action programme has assisted 94 small, non-profit agencies dedicated to significant social service issues.
  • Charter One is making available US$150 million in loans over three years for economic and community development in and around Cleveland's University Circle in Ohio.
  • Our Home Buyer Assistance Programme has helped more than 3,000 Citizens colleagues purchase their homes – often their first.
  • More than 140 colleagues have benefited from our military leave policy, which was extended above and beyond legal requirements, to bridge pay and benefits to cover the duration of military leave.

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The Royal Bank of Scotland Group  © 2007