First Citizens in N.C. Names Chief Risk Officer

First Citizens BancShares in Raleigh, N.C., has appointed Blake Coules chief risk officer.

Coules will be in charge of risk management across the entire $22 billion-asset company, overseeing compliance, credit risk, operational risk and analytics functions.

Coules is taking over for Donald Geaslen, who became chief risk officer last August but is no longer with the company, a First Citizens spokesman said.

Coules has spent 30 years in financial services and was most recently the chief credit officer for VantageSouth Bank, another Raleigh bank that was bought by Yadkin Financial last month.

Additionally, Coules worked at PNC Financial Services Group and a predecessor, RBC Bank, where he held various titles including vice president of commercial risk, senior manager of risk management, chief data officer and senior vice president of real estate markets and special assets group.

First Citizens has more than 400 branches in 17 states and Washington, D.C.

In June, First Citizens announced plans to acquire the $8 billion-asset First Citizens Bancorp in Columbia, S.C., for up to $676 million in cash and stock. The merger of these companies, both majority owned by the Holding family, would create the nation's biggest family-owned bank.