Capital Briefs: PNC Gets Go-Ahead for Auto Club Branches

PNC Bank FSB won permission from the Office of Thrift Supervision to open branches in American Automobile Association offices in every state.

The thrift agency's July 1 order also gave PNC Bank FSB the go-ahead to relocate its headquarters from Vera Beach, Fla., to Pittsburgh, home of parent PNC Bank Corp.

In January 1996, PNC Bank Corp. inked an exclusive contract with AAA to market financial services to the auto club's nearly 40 million members. Since then, PNC has signed up 84 of the 88 individual auto clubs around the country.

"That was the first phase," PNC spokesman Roy Morris said Thursday. "The next phase will be the marketing of products" to individual AAA members.

OTS approval of PNC Bank FSB's Feb. 28 application allows one branch to be set up in AAA offices in each state except California where two AAA branches will be established. AAA members stopping in to pick up trip-triks will be able to apply for PNC credit cards, car loans, and mortgages among other financial services.

PNC expects the alliance with AAA to increase the thrift's assets from $83 million today to $15 billion or $20 billion by 2006, according to Mr. Morris.

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