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The Pittsburg bank's latest experiment with new branch designs involves a temporary steel building on Atlanta's sidewalks.
August 1 -
After dropping its first "pop up" branch in Atlanta less than a year ago, PNC Bank has opened a second in Chicago's Congress Plaza.
May 20 -
A positive spin around branches will proliferate, as will talk about wearable tech. Oh, and expect tons of M&A -- between banks and nonbanks.
March 17 -
As operating costs rise, a growing number of community banks are following the lead of larger rivals by shuttering branches, though analysts hope the pace of closures will accelerate.
January 30 -
Most people agree there are too many branches, but when a recent research report suggested exactly how many (lots) each bank should cut, bankers circled the wagons.
June 18
PNC's
Meyers, PNC's regional president for Georgia, says he wants more of the 20-by-8-foot steel structures that he can deploy around the Atlanta area.
In the
The structures are small but pack a high-tech punch. Staffers, for example, used iPads to open new accounts or take loan applications. Customers who saw the pop-up branch were impressed with the concept, Meyers says.
"The space was tiny, but the technology inside it was spectacular," he says.
The mini-branch proved its worth in a number of ways, Meyers says. It helped get PNC's name out in Atlanta, a market the Pittsburgh bank entered in 2012. The branch collected mounds of demographic data on potential customers. And it led to numerous solid sales leads on everything from residential mortgages to business loans.
The $323 billion-asset PNC Financial Services Group (PNC) has been something of a contrarian when it comes to branch strategy. PNC
Meyers, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who played running back for the Atlanta Falcons, believes PNC needs to have a large presence in retail branches. That's
Customers want personal relationships with their bankers, and that typically requires a branch, he says. Branches help with brand development. And PNC sees branches as a way to reach out to community groups. At a branch it's designing at the Avalon mixed-use development in Alpharetta, Ga., PNC will include space for community groups to use for meetings or public programs.
Still, Meyers acknowledges the drawbacks of branches. His daughter opened her PNC account inside a branch office. But she hasn't set foot in a branch since.
Even though PNC plans to build more branches, changes will be made to their design, he says.
"Our branches are going to be smaller in size," Meyers says. "They're going to have more technology."
The technology aspect presents issues, too. PNC plans to add video tellers to its retail offices and reduce the number of in-person staff. Video tellers probably aren't the most conducive tool for strengthening personal bonds between client and bank, he admits.
Meyers plans to continue his strategy of building the PNC brand in the Atlanta market by financing high-profile projects that include a public element. PNC provided New Markets Tax Credit loans to the city's new National Center for Civil & Human Rights. And it financed construction for a new building for Drew Charter School, a school designed to serve students in low-income neighborhoods. Both projects had been stalled before PNC got to town, Meyers says.
"We put in the last dollars for some of those," he says. "We got those going after they had been idle for a while."
