PNC’s CEO on the “Stress Test” and economy

On Monday, May 12, 2009,  James Rohr, Chairman and CEO of PNC Bank was interviewed on a business show regarding the so called “stress test” that many U.S. banks recently had to go through and his thoughts on the process as well as how it impacted PNC.

In general it seemed (to this reporter) that Rohr thought the stress test was an excellent idea.  It showed “worst case” scenarios for banks;  i.e. “what if the worst possible things happened to your investments, loans, etc.  Could the bank survive?”

In the case of PNC, in order to survive a worst case scenario PNC would need another $600 million dollars.  Rohr promptly made changes in PNC’s portfolio and financial situation to make sure that by year end, or by first quarter of 2010 at the latest, PNC would have that $600 million to survive a “worst possible” situation, should it occur, which no one really expects to happen.

Not being a financial guy I was very impressed with how Mr. Rohr spoke in straight forward language I could understand. If there was a criticism of the  Obama Administration I didn’t hear it.

He said that 2009 was going to be tough for banking in general.  He believes that real estate prices will keep falling; there are many more mortgages that will fail and foreclosures that will follow but he feels that the great majority of U.S. banks will be better off in 2010 and beyond than they have been in the past.

PNC is based in Pennsylvania, however, they have branches throughout the U.S. You can go to their site and find jobs that are available all over the U.S.