The most striking thing about this year’s winner of the US best super-regional investment bank award is that PNC Financial Services Group prides itself on not really having an investment bank.
Its chief executive Bill Demchak and corporate and institutional banking head Mike Lyons both spent years on the Wall Street treadmill. They were determined that at PNC the business would have a different focus.
“What we have tried to do is not build an investment banking business in the traditional sense, but instead we work with great companies with a wide range of financial service needs and assemble world-class products that help them achieve their financial objectives,” says Lyons.
That might include sourcing growth capital, facilitating employee benefit payments, collecting receivables or advising on generational transfers of ownership. Treasury management is also critical. But key to it all is a focus on advice.
PNC’s is one of the biggest super-regional franchises.