STRATEGIC PARTNERS
November 27, 2001
PITTSBURGH -- Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania plans to eliminate or reduce a number of fees and minimum balances on checking and other accounts when it takes over Mellon Financial Corp.'s branches here and elsewhere Dec. 1, according to a report in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Mellon's $10 annual fee for ATM/debit cards is one of the primary charges that will be eliminated. Current Mellon customers will get details through mailings scheduled to arrive in the next week or so.
Citizens said it hadn't decided yet whether to join the Freedom ATM Alliance, the Pittsburgh region's no-surcharge ATM network. Citizens is part of a similar surcharge-free network, called SUM, in its New England markets.
Members of the Freedom alliance, which includes roughly 30 banks in the region, agree not to charge each other's customers for using their ATMs, allowing customers to use more machines for free. Neither of Citizens' two biggest Pittsburgh-area competitors -- PNC and National City -- is part of the alliance.
Citizens obtained 635 ATMs, 345 branches, 72 supermarket locations, 20 business banking centers and five middle market offices when it purchased Mellon's retail, small business and certain middle-market commercial banking businesses for $2.1 billion in a deal announced in July.
Parent Citizens Financial Group, based in Providence, R.I., has made 18 acquisitions since it was purchased by The Royal Bank of Scotland in 1988.
