Interview: Jim Hansen, Regional President - Eastern Carolinas, PNC Bank

New capabilities

Bank merger creates growth opportunities beyond traditional deposits and lending role

Jim Hansen

Regional President, Eastern Carolinas – PNC Bank

How has the BBVA-PNC merger progressed? We’re excited. It’s a great growth opportunity for our company. In 2012, PNC bought RBC Bank (USA), which was based here in Raleigh and allowed PNC to enter the Southeast. I was at RBC when that occurred, so knowing what the other side looks like, I can confidently say that PNC is a great company and really knows what it’s doing. All of this makes us optimistic for the PNC-BBVA partnership.

How have you continued serving the needs of your corporate clients? Our strategy for serving corporate clients is unchanged. PNC has capabilities that we’ve been building over the last few years in this space. In October 2020, for example, we started a financial wellness initiative around taking all these pieces we deliver and bringing them into one voice that says, “This is what PNC can do to help your employees.” So, it’s something that we’re doing beyond the traditional banking role of taking deposits, making loans and that kind of thing.

How are you revamping your branch strategy with all the changes happening on the consumer end? I think all of us have watched this evolution that the last year has sped up. If you go back five or six years, 25% of our transactions were digital. In the fourth quarter of 2019, it was 71%. Fourth quarter of 2020: 77% of our consumer transactions were through non-teller channels. The remaining are walk-ins or drive-throughs at one of our branches. What does that mean? We’re all transforming the way we interact with our customers. In some ways, it means that our needs are different, so we need to be adaptable.

How did PNC deal with the onslaught of PPP loans? PNC registered about 76,000 PPP loans, or $13 billion, in the first round of PPP. The second round is in progress and there is continued strong demand. This round was more specific. One loan couldn’t be more than $2 million in the second round. You have to show your revenue was down 25% in a quarter of 2020 over the quarter in 2019. When you see the demand, it’s definitely a lot of smaller businesses that have been really affected by all this. The application portals are open and running.

What are your goals for the Raleigh operation? We’re looking into how we continue to grow in the region. In terms of what this region has to offer — startups coming in, corporate relocations — that’s very meaningful for our sector. We’re happy to be part of that evolution. We will make sure to continue bringing all of PNC to the market, from small businesses to big corporations.