Citizens Financial Group (CFG) Plans $0.12 Dividend and $690M Buyback as Part of Capital Plan; May See to Raises Dividend to $0.14

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CFG) announced that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has completed its review of the Company’s 2016 Capital Plan (the “Plan”) in connection with its Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (“CCAR”) of the nation’s 33 largest bank holding companies and has not objected to the Plan. The CCAR results follow the Federal Reserve’s June 23, 2016 publication of its Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test results.

“We are pleased by today’s CCAR result, which provides us with the ability to increase our dividend and share repurchases as we continue to optimize our capital structure,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bruce Van Saun. “We are able to fund robust loan growth and capital return to shareholders given that we remain one of the strongest capitalized banks in our peer group. We remain focused on executing our strategic growth initiatives in order to deliver enhanced shareholder returns.”

The Plan was designed to continue to provide attractive returns to the Company’s shareholders and prudently optimize CFG’s capital structure and includes for the four-quarter period beginning July 1, 2016:

• Proposed quarterly dividends of $0.12 per share through the end of 2016.
• Common share repurchases of up to $690 million, an increase of 38% over the 2015 Capital Plan.
• The potential to raise quarterly dividends to $0.14 per share in 2017.

Proposed dividends are subject to consideration and approval by CFG’s Board of Directors. Common stock repurchases under the Plan have been authorized by CFG’s Board of Directors. CFG’S common stock repurchases may be executed in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions, including under Rule 10b5-1 plans. The timing and exact amount of dividends and share repurchases will be consistent with the Plan and will be subject to various factors, including the Company’s capital position, financial performance and market conditions.

As previously disclosed, the Company has an agreement to repurchase $500 million of subordinated notes from The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc, which has now been approved by the Federal Reserve as part of the Plan.

The public disclosure of the Federal Reserve’s 2016 CCAR results for all participating bank holding companies is available on the Federal Reserve’s website.

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