Today Citizens announced it has opened its annual Small Business Community Champion Award Contest, aimed at recognizing the positive contributions small businesses make to their communities. Now in its fourth year, the contest will award $10,000 each to 30 small businesses across Citizens’ 11-state footprint, including at least ten minority-owned and ten women-owned businesses, to help further strengthen their communities and their businesses. Nominations are open until March 1, 2021, 5:00 p.m. ET. This year marks the largest award pool for the Citizens Small Business Community Champion Award to date – expanded to include all the markets served, with more chances to win and a larger prize pool – $300,000 – than ever before.

What: The Citizens Small Business Community Champion Award Contest: Eligible for-profit small businesses can enter for a chance to win $10,000 in recognition of their contributions made to the communities they support. To enter, eligible businesses must answer the following 3 questions (100 words max.) and upload at least 1 photo. See Official Rules for further eligibility requirements.

• How would you use the Citizens Small Business Community Champion Award to strengthen and sustain your business?
• How would you use the Citizens Small Business Community Champion Award to support your community’s growth?
• How is your business adapting to meet the evolving needs and behaviors of your customers and/or community?

Official rules, additional instructions and requirements regarding entry and submission are provided on the contest website.

When: The contest is open for award submissions starting at 10:00 a.m. ET February 16 until March 1, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Where: To enter, please go to: https://www.citizensbank.com/businesschampion

Who: For-profit small businesses in operation for at least two years with up to $3M in revenue located in Citizens’ footprint (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware, New York, New Jersey and Ohio). Additional restrictions apply.

About Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $183.3 billion in assets as of December 31, 2020. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a 24/7 customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 2,700 ATMs and approximately 1,000 branches in 11 states in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest regions. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.

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