Company Overview

No doubt PNC Financial Services Group has its share of serious, heavyset men in charcoal suits. It does, after all, operate more than 800 bank branches in Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., through its PNC Bank subsidiary. It also provides asset management services to financial institutions. The company is one of the largest bank holding companies in the country. PNC Financial owns 70 percent of BlackRock, which offers mutual funds and fixed-income, equity, and liquidity products to individual and institutional investors. It sold its interest in electronic bill payment company Billing Zone, a joint venture with twice presidential nominee Ross Perot's Perot Systems. In December 2002, PNC announced that it was in full compliance with requirements stipulated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. The firm had been under investigation by the SEC after questions about accounting practices were raised in 2001. Squashing rumors that it was due for a takeover, PNC acquired United National Bancorp in 2004 and Riggs National and Harris Williams in 2005.