PNC Bank 2007 Annual Report Download - page 4

we bettered our past efforts, which helped pay for the increased cost of credit. We need to
continue this pace as we believe our credit costs will increase in 2008.
We remain committed to our employees and our communities. Making investments to
attract and develop diverse and talented employees and grow the communities we serve is smart
business – and the right thing to do.
We believe we offer employees a good working environment. What is more important is that
others agree with us. PNC ranked among the “Top 10 Companies for African-Americans” by
DiversityInc. For a fifth consecutive year, Training magazine named us one of the “Top 100
companies for Employee Training,” and in its 2008 ranking, we moved up some 20 places on
the list. We earned a place on the Working Mother list of the “100 Best Companies for Working
Mothers” for the sixth time. And we were honored by our Fortune magazine ranking as one of
the most admired companies in America.
We helped sustain the economic development of neighborhoods where we do business through
our community development banking, investing more than $1 billion last year. Our efforts once
again earned PNC the highest possible rating of “outstanding” for our Community Reinvestment
Act activities, which include special loans, low-cost checking accounts and education for the
financially disadvantaged.
We believe education supports the path to financial independence, which is why we launched
PNC Grow Up Great in 2004 and funded it with a 10-year, $100 million commitment. We were
pleased to be honored for our work in early education last year, along with First Lady Laura
Bush, by Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization that produces “Sesame
Street” and other educational projects for children.
Our community commitment includes the environment. When it comes to being “green,” PNC
now owns the title. Literally. The term “Green Branch” is now a federally registered trademark
of PNC. More than 50 percent of construction material for these branches is from recycled or
green materials, and energy usage is reduced by 50 percent or more compared to a traditional
branch. With more than 40 Green Branch®locations opened since 2002, we have more
buildings certified by the U.S. Green Building Council than any company on Earth. And we are
building more. When Three PNC Plaza, located at our Pittsburgh headquarters, opens in 2009, it
will be the largest mixed use green building in the world. And in 2010, PNC Place will open in
Washington, D.C., serving as a new regional headquarters. We were pleased to be recognized by
Working Mother as one of the nation’s 20 “Best Green Companies for America’s Children.”
We were pleased our commitment to corporate citizenship, governance and ethics was
recognized by Ethisphere Magazine when they named PNC one of the “World’s Most Ethical
Companies.” We were one of four financial services companies in the world to make the list.
Looking Ahead As We Continue to Build a Great Company
We recognize 2008 will be a challenging year for everyone in the financial services industry.
The economy will not grow at the rate it did in 2007. Consumer spending will not be as robust,
market volatility is expected, and the current credit cycle will generate higher loan losses.
Those factors are beyond our control. That stated, we remain committed to winning in the
marketplace. Our focus in 2008 will be on controlling what is within our reach, which means we
will execute our strategies to grow revenue faster than expenses while maintaining a moderate
risk profile.