Citizens Financial Group Inc., of Providence, a subsidiary of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, yesterday reported $1.45 billion in pretax earnings for the first half of the year, up 4 percent compared with last year, due to growth of its commercial- and retail-banking business.

In addition to adding more retail banking locations in supermarkets, the company also saw the number of retail credit-card accounts rise 23 percent, and it now has 460,000 business customers, according to a statement released by the company.

Lending to consumers and businesses rose, and the number of average deposits from customers was up 5 percent, compared with last year, according to the company. However, growth in loans and deposits was offset by shrinking profit margins, which left net income from interest down just slightly to $1.92 billion.

At the same time, operating expenses rose 3 percent during the first half of this year, compared with last year, to $1.44 billion, as the company made investments in its branch network, credit cards and merchant services.

The company plans to continue expansion of its grocery-store bank branches, and expects to open 75 new Citizens branches in Stop & Shop Supermarkets in New York State over the next three years.

Citizens, which was a small Rhode Island and Massachusetts bank when it was bought by Royal Bank in 1988, now operates in 13 states in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Midwest.

Citizens announced its first-half results in tandem with with its owner, Royal Bank of Scotland.

RBS reported that overall after-tax profit rose 21 percent to 3.1 billion British pounds. Its shares climbed 1 percent on the London Stock Exchange yesterday, closing at 1736 pence. On the year, its shares are down 1 percent.

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