Sept. 11, 2000

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PNC Financial Moves Services To The Internet

By Jennifer Maselli

ustomer service. Customer satisfaction. Customer loyalty. Call it what you will--they're all near the top of the priority list for Tim Shack, the CIO of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. in Pittsburgh, and for PNC's staff of about 1,300 IT personnel. And in its Internet strategy, PNC is leaving no URL unturned as it looks for ways to deliver on that mandate.

"Internet technology has allowed PNC to offer customers a greater level of service and convenience, increasing their satisfaction and loyalty to PNC," Shack says.

For starters, PNC gives its customers the ability to check account balances, transfer funds, pay bills, open new accounts, and apply for loans online--things you would probably expect from any large bank. But the bank goes beyond the basics to include functions that aren't as easy to find. For example, customers can participate in online auctions for certificates of deposit, giving them a new way to seek out the highest-possible rates on CDs.

PNC creates Internet services for its home banking and business customers by forming strategic relationships with other companies and developing homegrown technology. In one example, PNC signed an agreement earlier this year with American Express Co. whereby PNC offers origination, processing, and servicing for American Express' home-equity loans and lines of credit.

PNC has a similar agreement with Prudential Bank, a unit of Prudential Insurance Cos. of America. That agreement draws on PNC's E-commerce capabilities and its internally developed loan-origination and-servicing platforms. PNC offers origination and processing services to financial institutions via PNC's third-party loan-servicing division, CLC Consumer Services Co. The online services allow customers such as New Jersey Gas Co. and the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. to set up automated online loan processing. PNC is then able to approve loans originating with those institutions, at Internet speed. PNC says its home-equity loan service and automobile loan service can approve a consumer loan application within 30 seconds.

Last month, the company unveiled a new Web site for its loan servicing division, CLC Consumer Services. Consumers can get information on loan processing and view online demonstrations of the division's ability to originate and service consumer lending programs for other financial-services companies.

The company is also looking to bring in new business by getting involved with online marketplaces. In March, PNC allied with Perot Systems Corp. to create BillingZone.com, a digital marketplace for electronic bill presentment and payment.

Shack's team saw an opportunity to get involved with business-to-business commerce early on. Forrester Research has predicted the B-to-B E-commerce market will grow from $43 million in 1999 to $2.4 trillion by 2003, with electronic bill presentment and payment services reaching $73.2 billion at that time. To access the service, business users go to BillingZone.com and set up online workflow to mirror their companies' bill-handling processes. Business customers can choose the banks they want to deal with and then pay their bills electronically, without the need for paper processing.

This is just a sampling of PNC's Internet efforts, and Shack says he sees no letup in the bank's online activities. All the while, Shack says, his IT team will concentrate on being aggressive and innovative in trying to meet the needs of the business. "We behave like outside consultants who have to win and keep the accounts we serve," Shack says. "PNC is our account and we will continue to make valid business cases for strong E-initiatives throughout the organization."

Illustration by Jeffrey Fisher

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