PNC Bank Corp.'s brokerage is carving out some new niches in an effort to build up its reputation as a full-service broker-dealer.
Earlier this month, the unit introduced a cash management account to its brokerage customers and opened a stand-alone investment center across from its main branch in Pittsburgh.
The moves, unusually progressive for a banking company, suggest that PNC is working to rival the best nonbank brokerages, industry experts said.
"More than other banks, PNC has the investment business on the forefront," said Amy J. Errett, chairman of the Spectrem Group, a San Francisco-based consulting group. "It doesn't surprise me that they would be pushing faster and further ahead."
PNC's Personal Asset Management Account is one of only a handful of bank-run cash management products modeled after a similar type of account offered by Merrill Lynch & Co.
A popular product with consumers, it brings together mutual fund, checking, and debit accounts under one statement, usually administered by a brokerage. But only a handful of banks now offer them, including Wells Fargo & Co., and Bank of New York Co.
Joel Calvo, president and chief executive of PNC Brokerage, said that the company's cash management account could become the cornerstone of PNC's investment business. Indeed, the brokerage will begin a marketing campaign after Jan. 1 to market the product.
"Customers want to consolidate their accounts, to have all the information there in front of them," Mr. Calvo said. "This is the direction they're going in."
Unlike other cash management accounts, PNC's will not charge investors to reinvest dividends, and will sweep excess cash into a designated money market mutual fund on a daily basis, he said.
A. Stewart Rose, principal of the Boston-based consulting firm that bears his name, said that developing and maintaining cash management accounts is an expensive proposition for brokerage units.
"There is a lot of time and money that goes into building these operations," Mr. Rose said. "There are systems integration issues and a variety of complex transactions" that have to be addressed.
Mr. Calvo said the brokerage's clearing firm, BHC Securities, Philadelphia, is providing record keeping and systems support for the cash management product.
PNC plans to open another stand-alone investment center sometime during the first half of 1996, this time in Philadelphia, Mr. Calvo said.
