BASIS OF PRESENTATION

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2020

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

NOTE 1 - BASIS OF PRESENTATION

The accounting and reporting policies of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. conform to GAAP. The Company’s principal business activity is banking, conducted through its banking subsidiary Citizens Bank, National Association. The Company also provides M&A, capital raising and other financial advisory services to middle market companies across a focused set of industry verticals through its broker-dealer CCMI.

The Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of Citizens and subsidiaries in which Citizens has a controlling financial interest. All intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated. The Company has evaluated its unconsolidated entities and does not believe that any entity in which it has an interest, but does not currently consolidate, meets the requirements to be consolidated as a variable interest entity.

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Material estimates that are particularly susceptible to significant change in the near-term relate to the determination of the ACL and the fair value of MSRs.

Certain prior period balances on the Consolidated Balance Sheets, amounts reported on the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, and applicable Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements have been reclassified to conform to the current period presentation:

•Equity investment securities, at fair value, and equity investment securities, at cost, have been reclassified to other assets;

•Federal funds purchased and securities sold under agreement to repurchase, and other short-term borrowed funds have been reclassified to short-term borrowed funds;

•Purchases of equity securities, at fair value, proceeds of equity securities, at fair value, purchases of equity securities, at cost, and proceeds or equity securities, at cost, have been reclassified to other investing activities; and

•Purchases of mortgage servicing rights has been reclassified to other investing activities.

Certain prior period balances have been reclassified in the applicable Notes to the Financial Statements due to the following loan class changes:

•Home equity loans, home equity lines of credit, home equity loans serviced for others, and home equity lines of credit serviced for others have been reclassified into home equity; and

•Credit card and other retail have been reclassified into other retail.

Additionally, the commercial loan class has been renamed commercial and industrial and the commercial loans and leases loan segment has been renamed commercial.

These changes had no effect on net income, total comprehensive income, total assets, or total stockholders’ equity as previously reported.

Significant Accounting Policies

The following table identifies the Company’s significant accounting policies and the Note and Page where a detailed description of each policy can be found.


	Note	Page
Cash and Due From Banks	Note 2	105
Securities	Note 3	105
Loans and Leases	Note 4	109
Allowance for Credit Losses	Note 5	111
Premises, Equipment and Software	Note 6	123
Mortgage Servicing Rights	Note 7	124
Leases	Note 8	126
Goodwill	Note 9	128
Variable Interest Entities	Note 10	129
Derivative Instruments	Note 13	134
Employee Benefits	Note 14	137
Treasury Stock	Note 16	140
Employee Share-Based Compensation	Note 17	141
Fair Value Measurement	Note 19	144
Revenue Recognition	Note 20	150
Income Taxes	Note 22	152
Earnings Per Share	Note 23	155

Accounting Pronouncements Adopted in 2020


Pronouncement	Summary of Guidance	Effects on Financial Statements
Financial Instruments - Credit Losses Issued June 2016	•Required effective date: January 1, 2020. •Establishes a single allowance framework for financial assets carried at amortized cost (including securities HTM), which reflects management’s estimate of credit losses over the full remaining expected life of the financial assets. •Amends impairment guidance for securities AFS to incorporate an allowance, which allows for reversals of impairment losses in the event that the credit of an issuer improves. •Requires a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings, net of taxes, as of the beginning of the reporting period of adoption. •Requires enhanced credit quality disclosures including disaggregation of credit quality indicators by vintage.	•The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2020, under the modified retrospective approach. Refer to Note 5 for discussion of the significant accounting policy for the allowance for credit losses following adoption. •Adoption resulted in a cumulative-effect reduction of $337 million, net of taxes of $114 million, to retained earnings and a corresponding increase to the ACL of $451 million. Refer to Note 5 for the impact of the adoption to the ALLL and reserve for unfunded commitments. •Adoption of the new standard could produce higher volatility in the quarterly provision for credit losses than the prior incurred loss reserve process and could adversely impact the Company’s ongoing earnings. •Based on the credit quality of the Company’s existing debt securities portfolio, the Company did not recognize an allowance for HTM and AFS debt securities upon adoption.


Goodwill Issued January 2017	•Requires an impairment loss to be recognized when the estimated fair value of a reporting unit falls below its carrying value. •Eliminates the second condition in the previous guidance that required an impairment loss to be recognized only if the estimated implied fair value of the goodwill is below its carrying value. •Applied prospectively to all goodwill impairment tests performed after the adoption date.	•The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2020. Refer to Note 9 for discussion of the significant accounting policy for goodwill impairment following adoption. •Adoption did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.
Disclosure Requirements - Fair Value Measurements Issued August 2018	•Amends disclosure requirements on fair value measurements. •Eliminates requirements for certain disclosures that are no longer considered relevant or cost beneficial, requires new disclosures and modifies existing disclosures that are expected to enhance the usefulness of the financial statements. •Prospective application is required for new disclosures. •Retrospective application is required for all other amendments for all periods presented.	•The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2020. •Adoption did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements. Required fair value measurement disclosures are included in Note 19.
Simplifying the Accounting for Income Taxes Issued December 2019	•Simplifies the accounting for income taxes by eliminating certain exceptions related to the approach for intraperiod tax allocation, the methodology for calculating income taxes in an interim period and the recognition of deferred tax liabilities for outside basis differences. •Simplifies aspects of the accounting for franchise taxes and enacted changes in tax laws or rates. •Clarifies the accounting for transactions that result in a step-up in the tax basis of goodwill.	• The Company adopted the new standard on January 1, 2020. • Adoption did not have an impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.
Facilitation of the Effects of Reference Rate Reform on Financial Reporting Issued March 2020	•Provides the option to apply a number of practical expedients when evaluating if a contract modification as the result of reference rate reform is considered a new contract or a continuation of an existing contract. •Provides optional expedients to the evaluation of, and accounting for, fair value and cash flow hedges affected by reference rate reform. •Provides an optional one-time election to sell or transfer debt securities classified as HTM that reference a rate affected by reference rate reform	•The Company adopted the new standard in the first quarter of 2020 upon issuance and is effective through December 31, 2022. •Adoption did not have a material impact on the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements.