Author Bio Bram Berkowitz mainly writes in the financials bureau covering the banking sector. Prior to The Motley Fool, he wrote about and covered community and regional banks in New England for The Warren Group. Follow @BramBerko Citizens Financial Group (NYSE:CFG) recently announced it plans to purchase 80 branches from the U.S. division of HSBC as the London-based bank looks to exit U.S. retail banking and focus more on wealthy clients. Citizens is getting 66 branches in the New York City area, nine in the mid-Atlantic and Washington, D.C., area, and five in southeast Florida. The deal comes with $9 billion in deposits and $2.2 billion in loans, mostly residential mortgages. Let's take a look at why Citizens chose to pull the trigger on this deal.