RBS purchased the credit card division of Connecticut-based People's Bank. This purchase allowed Citizens to issue and market its own credit cards. In October 2015, RBS sold its remaining stake in Citizens Financial Group, having progressively reduced its stake through an initial public offering (IPO) started in 2014. Charter One Financial In August 2004, Citizens Financial acquired Cleveland-based Charter One Financial, parent company of Charter One Bank, with branches in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, upstate New York, and Vermont for $10.5 billion. Because Citizens Republic Bancorp of Flint, Michigan, already operated under the Citizens Bank name in most of Charter One's territory, Citizens Financial elected to keep the Charter One name in Charter One's Midwestern footprint. However, it re-branded the New York and Vermont branches as Citizens Bank. This purchase made Citizens Financial the 12th largest bank in the United States with over $131 billion in assets and 1,530 branches across 13 states. In early 2005, the Charter One name replaced the Citizens Bank banner on seven branches in Butler County, Pennsylvania. This rebranding resolved a 3½-year-old name dispute with Butler-based Citizens National Bank. By mid 2005, Citizens National and Citizens Financial agreed to a compromise. Citizens National Bank changed its name to NexTier Bank, while the Citizens Financial Group branches reverted to the "Citizens Bank" name. A new corporate logo designed to show Citizens Bank's connection to the Royal Bank of Scotland debuted on 26 April 2005. In July 2006, Citizens Bank eliminated the mortgage department in Michigan and terminated over 100 employees. On 1 September 2007, the individual banks under Citizens Financial Group, excluding Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, merged into RBS Citizens, N.A. 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. In 2014, Citizens sold 94 branches in metropolitan Chicago to U.S. Bancorp. 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 30 June 2014, that Charter One branches in Michigan and Ohio would be