PNC Bank 2014 Annual Report Download - page 7

Critical to our success across all of our priorities
are the reliability, functionality, scalability and
security of our information systems and the
effectiveness and effi ciency of our internal
processes. As we’ve seen in high-profi le cases
within our industry and others in recent years,
few things can damage a company’s reputation
and its relationships with its customers faster
than failed technology and data breaches. There
was a time, not that long ago, when a bank
executive’s chief security concerns had to do
with the quality of the vaults in the branches.
Today, we are constantly working to ensure that
our online applications are always accessible by
our customers and that our customers’ data and
money are secure from threats posed not just by
men in masks but by cyber criminals attempting
to break in from halfway around the world.
A little over a year ago we announced a multi-
year effort aimed at turning technology into a
true competitive advantage by not only continuing
to offer new and innovative products and
services but by bolstering our infrastructure to
dramatically improve the reliability and security
of our systems. In 2014, we made signifi cant
progress toward those goals, initiating a new
data center strategy that will allow for greater
standardization and improved software support
while helping to prevent system failures or to
recover much more rapidly in the rare event that
an outage does occur. We also have upgraded
cyber defenses that detect and repel thousands
of threats each day, and we work closely with
industry and intelligence community partners to
investigate and take action against attackers.
Internally in 2014 we launched the Better Way
program, an employee-driven, customer-
focused approach to improving how work gets
done across the company. Better Way empowers
employees to suggest process improvements
to positively impact our customers, resulting
in more satisfi ed customers, greater effi ciency
and improved productivity. The program was
piloted in about 10 business units in 2014 and
will continue to roll out across the company in
the months ahead.
home buyers to easily research and apply for
home lending products, track the status of their
applications throughout the origination process,
and manage their accounts across digital
platforms. These new tools are part of a long-
term plan to improve the ease and convenience
of home buying.
PNC’s mortgage origination volume was down
in 2014, but we outperformed most bank
peers even as the industry overall continued to
experience origination declines. As a result, we
grew relative market share. Also, late in 2014
we announced that PNC Senior Vice Chairman
Joseph Guyaux would assume leadership
of PNC Mortgage as its president and chief
executive offi cer, effective January 31, 2015.
Succeeding him as PNC’s chief risk offi cer is
Executive Vice President Joseph Rockey.
We constantly work to reinforce the safety and security of
customer accounts. PNC has added EMV chip technology
to business banking credit cards and will expand the
technology to consumer credit and debit cards throughout
2015 in order to provide a stronger form of authentication
and to help protect against fraudulent access to customers’
information and funds.
Bolstering Critical Infrastructure and Streamlining Core Processes