'Hundreds' laid off at Citizens Bank: Update
Phillies sponsor cuts 15 local branches: report
'Hundreds' laid off at Citizens Bank: Update
Joseph N. DiStefano
Citizens Bank, the US arm of Britain's Royal Bank of Scotland, is going through its second round of branch closings and layoffs since the 2008 financial crisis. A laid-off staffer tells me 15 Philadelphia-area branches (9 freestanding, 6 in groceries) are being shut and staff dismissed. No immediate statement from the bank. Across the Northeast "hundreds" are losing their jobs, according to news reports in Rhode Island where Citizens is based.
Around Philadelphia, the bank operates the old PSFS and Girard Bank branch networks and pays for naming rights at the Phillies' Citizens Bank Park. UPDATE: Citizens spokeswoman Sylvia Bronner gave no details of the Philadelphia-area cuts.
Probably only a matter of time before they have to sell the naming rights to Citizen's Bank Park to some other greedy corporation.— SNJ_Native- Maybe we need those 1 percenters to put more money in the banks for investment rather than pay more tax.— GarnetValley Mike
- While I feel bad for the laid off workers, I don't feel bad at all for Citizens Bank. As a customer, I hate the bank and and waiting for a good deal from another bank to switch. Like all "big banks" they're jacking up service fees on accounts, and they're paying the price.— tonyS
- Tony, I have news for you. So are Credit Unions. All financial institutions need to find new ways to make the money they lost from new regulations. We all will suffer, none more than the poor people who lost their jobs.— tr88
- Sort of a non-story at this point, don't you think?? Mr. DiStefano, shouldn't you confirm which branches and exactly how many people are involved, before posting non-specific info from an unnamed source who may have an ax to grind?— cjr114
- cjr114 - This is typical of phillynews writers. They need to sensationalize the story. All about their 'by line'. They don't serve the public.— amblereagles
- Banks are pretty much run by the government. The government uses banks to implement policy. That's why the government supports big banks because the big banks know they are better off cooperating with the government and staying huge. There's more money and power being big over being small and local and independent. The public doesn't want higher fees so banks have to cut staffing but the laid off people have nowhere to go because all big banks are doing it and the little banks are squeezed out because they want to be independent of the federal government which is a recipe for failure too in the current environment.— AvoidSundanceVacations
- Thank you Barney Frank....Citizens Bank is just a slither of the amount of lower & middle level employees who have lost their jobs directly because of the Dodd/ Frank legislation. Keep it up Barney, pretty soon you will have totally destroyed every aspect of our economy through your endless meddling and artifical manipulation. Fanny, Freddie & Dodd/ Frank...governmenalt destruction at its finest!— kelprod2
- just a "slither" ?!?
does your keyboard have a speech impediment?— ekw555 
So should "corporations" just keep people on the payroll doing nothing?- Oh boy - here's kelprod again. Anytime he sees "bank" it's Frank/Dodd. Can't have ANYTHING to do with a decade of bad loans, bad deals, hedged bets that failed, bundled mortgages not worth the paper they're written on, "consolidations" that did nothing except raise consumer fees while providing LESS service, yeah but it's Frank/Dodd. ...— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- A Very Merry Chrismas and a bleak New Year in Philly.— TheShadowKnows
- CiceroSpuriousDeodatus - Please don't confuse k2 and all the other fox news dimwits with facts.
— Malachy - I know the solution for banking in America. Cyber-banking. This is the only way banks can make money in their new reality. They created the mess with the government so let them both go down. I would rather bank with Micro-Soft Cyber Bank anytime. I see a lot more banking employees loosing their jobs in the future as well. Credit Unions will follow suit. It's called a financial death spiral. A new system has to take over.— A. Martinez
- That should create jobs. — tr88
