<P> In November 2008, Charter One sold its network of 65 branches in Indiana to Old National Bank which rebranded them under the Old National Bank banner . The transaction closed in June 2010 . </P> <P> In 2014, Citizens sold 94 branches in metropolitan Chicago to U.S. Bancorp . </P> <P> Citizens Republic Bancorp was founded in Flint, Michigan in 1871 and merged with Republic Bank in 2006 . In 2007, Citizens Republic prevailed in a case to prevent Citizens Financial from using the similar name in Michigan and Ohio . FirstMerit Bank acquired Citizens Republic in 2013 and rebranded all branches as FirstMerit until 2016 when Huntington Bancshares acquired FirstMerit . With conflicting names no longer an issue, Citizens Bank announced June 30, 2014, that Charter One branches in Michigan and Ohio would be rebranded as Citizens Bank . The name change officially took place on April 27, 2015, bringing to an end the name Charter One in Cleveland; the city in which it was founded . </P> <P> In May 2008, Citizens Financial Group failed to publicly announce that it was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its involvement in the sub-prime mortgage crisis that devastated the U.S. housing market and bond investors around the world . The SEC only investigated banks it suspected of involvement in the purchase and sale of subprime securities . </P>

Is charter one and citizens bank the same