From loans booked to loyalty earned: How Citizens is reimagining student banking - Tearsheet

"The student banking journey has long followed a predictable and limited arc. A teenager heads to college, applies for a loan, and eventually drifts away from the bank that helped fund their education. For many institutions, that's the entire story: a single, high-stakes transaction, not a relationship. For many young adults and their families, the journey doesn't start with a loan offer or end with a cap and gown. Escalating tuition, deepening debt, and piecemeal financial guidance have transformed a rite of passage into a financial labyrinth."

""The entire process of searching, selecting, and affording college is wrought with confusion and anxiety for many families," says Chris Ebeling, EVP & Head of Student Lending at Citizens. "While this isn't new, it is likely exacerbated with changes to federal loan programs. Families are seeking advice that they can trust, but a gap exists in trying to put it all together from planning and saving to borrowing and managing repayment." That gap - the unclaimed "white space" between planning for college and managing post-graduation finances - is where Citizens sees a fundamentally different opportunity."

Students typically interact with banks only for loans during college, creating a one-time transaction rather than an ongoing relationship. Rising tuition, growing debt, and fragmented financial guidance have made college financing complex for students and families. Families seek trusted advice across planning, saving, borrowing, and repayment, a need intensified by changes to federal loan programs. Citizens identifies a gap between precollege planning and postgraduation financial management and positions its resources and partnerships—such as the College Bound Citizens hub and its collaboration with College Raptor—to support students across the entire lifecycle and convert borrowers into long-term customers.

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