PNC Financial Services traces its history to the
Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Company which was founded in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 10, 1845. Due to the long recovery from the
Great Fire of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Trust and Savings was not fully operational until January 28, 1852. It originally opened offices at
Liberty Avenue and 12th Street. The bank was renamed The
Pittsburgh Trust Company in 1853. In 1858, the company relocated its corporate offices to the corner of
Fifth Avenue and Wood Street in Pittsburgh, where they remain to this day. The bank changed its name to
First National Bank of Pittsburgh in 1863 after it became the first bank in the country to apply for a national charter as part of that year's
National Banking Act. Another branch of the current bank, the
Philadelphia-based Provident National Corporation, dates back to 1865. In 1982, Pittsburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation, both with PNC as their abbreviations, merged into a new entity named
PNC Financial Corporation. It was the largest bank merger in American history at the time and created a company with $10.3 billion in assets. Between 1991 and 1996, PNC purchased more than ten smaller banks and financial institutions, including the $30 billion dollar merger of Midlantic Bank of Edison New Jersey in 1996, that at the time, was one-third the size of PNC. That broadened its market base from
Kentucky to the
New York metropolitan area. Since 1984, PNC has compiled the
Christmas Price Index, a humorous
economic indicator which estimates the prices of the items found in the song "
The Twelve Days of Christmas". In 1998, PNC acquired
Hilliard Lyons for $275 million in cash and stock. Hilliard Lyons was sold in 2008. In 1998, PNC sold its credit card business to Metris (now
HSBC Finance) and
MBNA. In 2000, the company adopted a new brand image and changed its name to PNC Financial Services Group. In 2001, PNC sold the original PNC Mortgage to
Washington Mutual due to volatility in the market. In 2004, PNC acquired United National Bancorp based in
Bridgewater, New Jersey, for $321 million in cash and 6.6 million shares of its common stock. In 2005, PNC acquired
Riggs National Corporation of
Washington, D. C. Riggs had been fined after aiding Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet in
money laundering. PNC became one of the largest banks in the
Washington metropolitan area. In 2005, PNC began
outsourcing mortgages to
Wells Fargo. In August 2006, PNC got back into the credit card business by marketing and issuing credit cards under the
MasterCard brand in partnership with
U.S. Bancorp (U.S. Bank) . After the National City merger (see below) in 2008, the
U.S. Bancorp (U.S. Bank) products were converted to PNC Bank products. On March 2, 2007, PNC acquired Maryland-based Mercantile Bankshares, making PNC the eighth largest bank in the United States by deposits. On October 26, 2007, PNC acquired Yardville National Bancorp, a small commercial bank centered in central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. On September 15, 2007, PNC Bank acquired
Citizens National Bank of
Laurel, Maryland. On April 4, 2008, PNC acquired Sterling Financial Corporation, a commercial and consumer bank with accounts and branches in central Pennsylvania, northeastern Maryland and Delaware. On October 24, 2008, during the
2008 financial crisis, the
National City acquisition by PNC for $5.2 billion in stock was completed. The acquisition was financed with
preferred stock sold to the
United States Treasury as part of the
Troubled Asset Relief Program implemented as part of the
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The stock issued to the U.S. Treasury was repurchased in 2010. PNC then became the 5th largest bank in the United States by deposit and fourth largest by branches. On August 14, 2009, PNC took over Dwelling House Savings & Loan and its only branch location in Pittsburgh's
Hill District after Dwelling House
failed and was placed in receivership by the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Dwelling House had been known in Pittsburgh to provide loans to low-income
African Americans that other banks would deny. The branch was closed and accounts were transferred to the existing PNC branch in the Hill District. In July 2010, PNC sold its Global Investment Servicing (GIS) subsidiary to
The Bank of New York Mellon to repay funds from the
Troubled Asset Relief Program, which had been used for the National City acquisition (see above) in 2008. GIS, established in 1973 and with 4,700 employees, was the second-largest full-service
mutual fund transfer agent in the U.S and the second-largest full-service accounting and administration provider to U.S. mutual funds. GIS serviced $1.9 trillion in total assets and 58 million shareholder accounts. It was known as PFPC until July 2008. In January 2011, PNC acquired BankAtlantic's
Tampa Bay Area branches. In December 2011, PNC acquired 27 branches in the northern
Atlanta suburbs with $240 million in deposits and $42 million in book value from
Flagstar Bank. In 2012, PNC acquired
RBC Bank USA from
Royal Bank of Canada for $3.45 billion. RBC Bank had 426 branches in southern
Virginia,
North Carolina,
South Carolina,
Georgia,
Alabama, and
Florida. Prior to the acquisition, PNC had slipped (due to mergers and growth in other firms) from its ranking following the 2008 National acquisition; this 2012 acquisition made PNC the fifth largest bank by branches behind
Wells Fargo,
Bank of America,
Chase, and
U.S. Bank and the sixth largest by total assets behind the aforementioned four banks and
Citibank. In September 2014, PNC acquired Solebury Capital Group, a capital markets advisory firm, for $50 million. On October 2, 2015, the bank opened
Tower at PNC Plaza, its new headquarters on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street in
downtown Pittsburgh. It was first announced in 2011. The
LEED Platinum building, owned by PNC and designed by
Gensler, won awards for its
environmentally friendly features. In April 2017, the company acquired the U.S. equipment finance business of
ECN Capital for $1.3 billion. In November 2017, the company acquired The Trout Group, an
investor relations and strategic advisory firm servicing the
healthcare industry. In 2018, the company acquired Fortis Advisors, which provides post-merger shareholder services. The company ranked one hundred sixty fifth on the 2018
Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by revenue. In 2018, PNC began opening "Solution Centers", a hybrid between traditional bank branches and ATM-only services, mostly serving new markets. Through this method, PNC expanded its retail footprint into
Boston,
Denver,
Kansas City,
Nashville, and several markets in Texas including
Austin,
Dallas,
Houston, and
San Antonio. In May 2020, the company sold its stake in
BlackRock. On June 1, 2021, PNC acquired
BBVA USA for $11.6 billion in cash. The acquisition significantly boosted its presence in Colorado and Texas, complemented its presence in Alabama and Florida, and introduced the bank to the
Arizona,
California, and
New Mexico markets. In 2021, PNC
originated nearly 95,000 mortgages worth $34.8 billion. This is a 23% increase vs prior year and stands as their highest origination volume to date. In July 2024, PNC partnered with
Coinbase to offer
cryptocurrency trading services to its customers through Coinbase's institutional platform. In September 2025, PNC announced the acquisition of
FirstBank, a Colorado-based lender with $26 billion in assets, for $4.1 billion. In December 2025, it was announced that PNC had received all required regulatory approvals to proceed with its acquisition of FirstBank Holding Company and its subsidiary, FirstBank. The merger closed on January 5, 2026. ==Legal issues==