ARMONK, N.Y., June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) has signed a five-year IT services agreement with Citizens Bank, N.A., a wholly-owned banking subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: CFG), to transition its back-end technology infrastructure to a managed services environment.

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Faced with growing demands from digital-savvy customers, banks must modernize their technology environments to deliver a better banking experience to customers across multiple channels, while lowering their cost base. The agreement between IBM and Citizens will help Citizens drive greater efficiencies, improve service and lower costs.

Using a hybrid IT approach, IBM will optimize the bank's existing IT infrastructure by integrating automation and predictive analytics technologies to standardize and streamline many of its internal IT systems and processes, including core banking applications, branch operations and online and mobile banking. This will allow Citizens to shift its IT resources to more innovative, higher-value services, such as developing new online and mobile offerings in response to customer demand.

"Information technology plays a key role in our ability to anticipate and meet the needs of every customer, across every channel," said Ken Starkey, Chief Technology Officer, Infrastructure Services, Citizens Bank. "This agreement with IBM will provide immediate access to new technologies and capabilities, enabling us to create greater efficiencies in support of Citizens' growth objectives."

Under the contract, IBM will operate Citizens' existing and future IT systems located in the bank's data centers in Rhode Island and North Carolina. The bank's data center environment already is comprised of a number of IBM systems and technologies. IBM also will support Citizens' voice and data networks and provide IT support for all Citizens colleagues.

"As a leader in the financial services industry, Citizens is capitalizing on IBM's market leadership around automation and predictive analytics to provide a superior experience for its customers," said Philip Guido, general manager, IBM Global Technology Services, North America. "This is part of a multi-stage transformation of Citizen's IT environment that lays the foundation for integrating additional IBM solutions in the future, making the bank more agile and responsive to the growing needs of its customers."

Forrester Research recently positioned IBM as the leading supplier in global infrastructure outsourcing, based on an evaluation of most significant suppliers. In the report, "The Forrester Wave(TM): Global Infrastructure Outsourcing, Q1 2015," Forrester recognized IBM's vision for the future of infrastructure services, noting that cloud services has become a major element of IBM's infrastructure management strategy.'

About Citizens Financial Group, Inc.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation's oldest and largest financial institutions, with $136.5 billion in assets as of March 31, 2015. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens helps its retail customers "bank better" with mobile and online banking, a 24/7 customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,200 ATMs and approximately 1,200 Citizens Bank branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. Citizens also provides mortgage lending, auto lending, student lending and commercial banking services in select markets nationwide. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers corporate, institutional and not-for-profit clients a full range of wholesale banking products and services including lending and deposits, capital markets, treasury services, foreign exchange and interest hedging, leasing and asset finance, specialty finance and trade finance. Citizens operates through its subsidiaries Citizens Bank, N.A., and Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. Additional information about Citizens and its full line of products and services can be found at www.citizensbank.com.

About IBM
For more information about IBM Infrastructure Services, visit: ibm.com/services

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