Citizens Bank Hires John Bahnken to Head Wealth Management

Citizens Bank hired John Bahnken as president of its wealth management division, effective October 5. Bahnken, a financial services veteran of more than 30 years, joins Citizens from Bank of the West/BNP Paribas. Before that, he held leadership roles at Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial.

Bahnken succeeds Mike Millard, who is retiring after 10 years at Citizens. He will report to Brad Conner, vice chairman and head of consumer banking.

“John brings tremendous experience from some of the most-respected wealth management and investment firms in the country and will provide key leadership for all of our wealth management businesses," Conner said in a press release. "I also want to thank Mike Millard for his leadership of this business for 10 years and wish him all the best in life’s next chapter.”

Bahnken has spent the last four years building BNP Paribas North American wealth businesses, where the wealth management group under his leadership received several industry awards. He also previously served in a variety of wealth and investment management leadership roles over the course of 15 years at Bank of America and its acquired banks including FleetBoston and Norstar Banks.  In his last role at Bank of America, he served for four years as president of its Global Wealth & Investment Management Products Group and was a member of the Bank of America Management Operating Committee. At Prudential Securities, he served as the senior financial executive for several units and he also spent 10 years at HSBC Americas in a variety of commercial banking roles.

Providence, R.I.-based Citizens Financial has $137 billion in assets. It serves clients across 11 states in 1,200 branches.

Read more:

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
Career moves
MORE FROM FINANCIAL PLANNING