Fish

Lawrence K. Fish, the head of the Providence-based Citizens Financial Group until last March, has given up his remaining operational responsibilities for Citizens’ parent company, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

The announcement, in a letter to Citizens Financial Group employees yesterday, signals the passing of leadership at Citizens to Stephen D. Steinour, Fish’s successor as chief executive officer.

It also clarifies the position of Ellen Alemany, a former Citigroup executive who was appointed in March as CEO of RBS America, a new organizational unit that manages Royal Bank’s U.S. operations, including Citizens.

“Today I am announcing that I have made the decision to retire from all remaining day-to-day responsibilities at RBS and CFG,” Fish, one of the state’s best-known business leaders, said in his one-page letter.

“After 15 remarkable years, I am enormously proud of what we have built together,” Fish, 63, said. “A small Rhode Island savings bank has become one of the 10 largest commercial banking companies in America.”

After Royal Bank replaced Fish as Citizens’ chief executive officer, he said he was expanding his authority at Royal Bank. In his new position, as chairman of RBS America, Fish said he would focus on regulatory issues and external affairs. “I’m not expecting to fade away,” he said at the time.

In explaining the decision, Royal Bank’s chief executive officer, Fred Goodwin, said it was not a result of the bank’s flat revenues last year. “It’s not to signal any dissatisfaction with what’s happened,” Goodwin told analysts in a conference call.

Less than a year later, however, Fish has apparently given up that new role.

In his letter to employees, Fish said he will retain the title of non-executive chairman of RBS America and Citizens Financial Group, as well as a seat on the Royal Bank’s board. The Citizens Financial Group board meets six times a year; the Royal Bank board meets 10 times a year, in Scotland.

But in losing direct control over Citizens, Fish is ending a remarkable 15-year tenure at the bank. Four years before he was hired, Citizens was the fifth-largest bank in Rhode Island. Today, it is the eighth largest in the country.

“We have created 25,000 jobs, given back to our communities in money and volunteerism, and we have consistently performed to the highest ethical standards,” Fish said. “It is a record our industry and our communities admire greatly.”

Fish never moved to Rhode Island, instead commuting daily from his home in Brookline, Mass. But he has emphasized the bank’s enduring ties to the state, despite its rapid growth through a series of acquisitions and its sale to the Edinburgh-based Royal Bank.

Last month, in a speech to business leaders, Fish again stressed that relationship.

“Our roots in the community of Rhode Island are very deep,” Fish said at a breakfast organized by the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. “This is our home. Rhode Island is who we are. Rhode Island is where we’re from.”

In an interview after his speech, Fish said the bank’s relationship to Rhode Island would not diminish with his eventual retirement. Citizens has 5,400 employees here, more than in any other state.

But the new executives running Citizens have little connection to the state. Alemany, 51, lives in New York, where RBS America is based. Steinour, 49, the former president of Citizens Financial Group, lives in Philadelphia and works in Providence only twice a week.

In all, Citizens operates in 13 states, with $159 billion in assets and 24,500 U.S.-based employees.

bgedan@projo.com