Banks are increasingly deploying personalized services to win customer loyalty – and Citizens’ acquisition will help it reel in customers at the start of their first major financial journey.  

Citizens is buying College Raptor, an online service that helps match prospective students with colleges and includes personalized comparisons of estimated financial aid packages.  

The “innovative platform” provides Citizens with “sophisticated capabilities to support high school students and their families in what is often an overwhelming set of decisions for college, among which financing is typically critical,” Citizens’ head of student lending, Chris Ebeling, told Insights Distilled.

“College Raptor is the only college search tool that recommends strong college matches based on customized academic and financial analysis, based on user input,” he added, and “Citizens looks forward to helping continue to scale the platform.” 

Citizens has $227 billion in assets and currently offers student loan services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.