Type	Public bank corporation
Traded as	NASDAQ: CRBC
Industry	Financial
Predecessor(s)	Citizens Savings and Commercial Bank Republic Bancorp, Inc.
Successor(s)	FirstMerit Corporation
Founded	1871
Headquarters	Flint, MI USA
Number of locations	220
Key people	Cathy Nash, CEO
Services	Financial Services
Total assets	$9.4 billion
Employees	1,977
Website	citizensbanking.com

History 
 

Citizens Republic Bancorp's headquarters southern tower in Flint, Michigan

Citizens National Bank
Citizens National Bank was first established in 1871 at the height of Flint's great lumber industry. Citizens Bank played a key role in the development of the auto industry in this country. One of the founders of General Motors, William C. Durant, has acknowledged that a loan he and his partner, J. Dallas Dort, received from Citizens Bank in 1886 enabled him to start his vehicle manufacturing career. Citizens switch from a national to a state chartered institution in 1890 as Citizens Commercial & Savings Bank.

Citizens Commercial Savings Bank
Giving up its national charter for a state one, the Bank becomes Citizens Commercial & Savings Bank in 1890.
In 1928 the original bank was removed and a new headquarters was built in its place. With the Great Depression, a national bank holiday is declared closing all banks on March 6 to the 13th in 1933. In 1937, the Bank began its annual Citizens' Holiday Sing. The HQ's Weather Ball was first lit up on August 30, 1956. An early Flint automobile pioneer's son, David T. Dort, joins the Bank's board of directors in 1966. In 1974, the Weather Ball is turned off during the 1970s energy crisis to save energy until January 1, 1978.
 

Citizens Bank branch, Ypsilanti, MI

Citizens Banking Corporation
Citizens Bank formed a holding company, Citizens Banking Corporation, in 1981 to acquire additional banks. Banks acquired were Grayling State Bank and State Bank of Standish in 1984.[5] Second National Bank of Saginaw and Second National Bank of Bay City were acquired in 1985. On November 6, 1986, Citizens indicated that will purchase National Bank of Illinois as its first non-Michigan acquisition followed in 1987 with the purchase of Commercial National Bank of Berwyn, Illinois. David T. Dort, retired on April 10, 1988 as Citizen Banking Corp. longest serving-director. A bank robbery on August 17, 1990 has the red dye explode over all the stolen bills.

On April 8, 1991, Citizens Bank designated $15 million in loans for small businesses in county's poor and minority communities over three years. Bishop International Airport expansion bonds were purchased by the bank on January 15, 1992 saving the airport $2 million on a $34 million project. On February 18, 1992, Citizens gives Central Michigan University a $15,000 pledge toward Robert M. Perry School of Banking building construction. With Kmart in 1993, the Bank extend "real" working experience to Stewart Elementary School kids. Citizens also sponsored that year a "Safe Streets" gun buy-back program. Royal Bank Group Inc. was acquired on October. 1, 1993. Four Michigan locations of Banc One are purchased on February 28, 1995. Citizens acquired on July 1, 1997 CB Financial. National City Corporation sold one Michigan branch to the Corporation on October 15, 1998. In the last quarter of 1999, Citizens purchased Bank One 17 branch banks and all of F&M Bancorporation, Inc. TCF Financial Corporation sold three locations to Citizens on May 12, 2000.

Citizens Republic Bancorp
The Bancorp acquired on December 29, 2006 Republic Bancorp Inc. (Ann Arbor, Michigan) to become at the time creating the 45th largest U.S. bank-holding company to become Citizens Republic Bancorp.[4] In order for the Federal Reserve Bank to approve the merger with Republic Bank, Citizens sold seven local Republic Bank branches to First Place Financial under its Franklin Bank subsidiary.[6] In 2008, the Bancorp took a $300 U.S. Troubled Asset Relief loan to survive the economic downturn.[4] In 2010, Citizens Republic sold its F&M Bank Iowa locations for $50 million cash to Great Western Bank.[7] In 2011, the Bank agreed to a settlement in a Redlining case brought against them as Republic Bank's successor by the US Department of Justice trigered by a Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System complaint which will require them to open a loan office in a Detroit black neighborhood and $3.6 million for loans and grants in Wayne County.

For the first time since the economic downturn, the Bank reports in July 2012 five consecutive quarters of profit.[4] On September 13, 2012, it was announced that Akron, Ohio-based FirstMerit Corporation would acquire Citizens in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at approximately $912 million. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.[9] With the stock payment worth less than the stock's tangible book value, several law firms started looking into a possible case of breached fiduciary duties by Citizens Republic's Board of Directors.

FirstMerit subsidiary
Sandy Pierce was appointed in January 2013 as FirstMerit's vice chair and chairman and CEO of FirstMerit Michigan. In early April, both Bank Corporations' shareholders approved the merger.[11] On April 12, 2013, First Merit Corporation closed the acquisition of company which will operate as of April 13 as "Citizens Bank, now part of FirstMerit Bank."

The banks were officially renamed FirstMerit Bank on June 13, 2013.

Weatherball
The symbol of the bank is the weatherball located atop its headquarters in downtown Flint and was built in 1956.