1828 — High Street Bank established in Providence.
1871 — The bank established its own savings bank, Citizens Savings Bank.
1948 — High Street Bank changed its name to Citizens Trust Co.
1981 — Citizens operates 29 branches throughout Rhode Island.
1988 — The Royal Bank of Scotland buys Citizens Bank; Citizens acquires Fairhaven Savings Bank in Massachusetts, the first retail banking move outside of Rhode Island.
1999 — Acquires commercial banking group of State Street Corp.
2000 — Acquires USTrust branches in Boston area and doubles the size of Citizens’ Massachusetts operations.
2001 — Acquires regional banking business of Mellon Financial Corp., expanding network to Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.
2004 — Acquires Charter One, headquartered in Cleveland, expanding into the Midwest and New York.
2008 — British government rescues RBS during financial crisis with a $70 billion bailout.
February 2013 — RBS says it will sell a minority stake in Citizens sometime in 2015.
June 2013 — Britain’s finance minister says RBS should sell Citizens entirely.
November 2013 — RBS announces the IPO will happen in the second half of 2014, with the bank planning to sell its entire stake in Citizens by 2016.
Sources: Citizens, Globe reporting
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