PNC Financial announces a new head of retail banking

Karen Larrimer, the head of retail banking and chief customer officer at PNC Financial Services Group, will retire at the end of the year, the Pittsburgh-based bank said.

And on July 1, Larrimer will hand her retail banking duties over to Alex Overstrom, according to the company.

Overstrom, who joined the $541 billion-asset bank in 2014 after eight years at Goldman Sachs, will report to CEO Bill Demchak and join PNC’s executive management team, the company said.

Overstrom, 38, has held a variety of roles at PNC, including head of merchant services, head of aviation finance and chief operating officer of the company’s corporate and institutional banking and asset management division. In January, he was named PNC’s head of small business and deputy head of retail banking.

Between November 2020 and October 2021, Overstrom played a major role in PNC’s most recent acquisition, overseeing the integration of BBVA USA into PNC. The work included shifting 2.6 million customers, 9,000 employees and nearly 600 branches over to PNC’s systems.

Overstrom’s role as head of small business will be filled by Marc McAndrew, co-head of PNC Real Estate within the company’s corporate and institutional banking business, a company spokesperson said Tuesday in an email.

Larrimer, 59, has been a mainstay on American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Banking list since 2015. Last year, with her help, the company launched Low Cash Mode, a product that alerts customers when they have a low balance and thus helps them avoid overdraft fees.

Larrimer, who joined PNC in 1995 and has led the company’s retail banking business since 2016, has also played a key role in the company’s branch and digital expansions and several acquisition-related rebranding efforts. As PNC’s first chief customer officer, she led the establishment of the Office of the Customer to help improve customer experience, the company said in a press release.

Larrimer “is an exceptional executive and banker whose guidance and insights have benefited the bank and our customers in many ways,” Demchak said in the release. “She has played an instrumental role in PNC's growth, and she has driven key initiatives that were squarely focused on improving PNC's retail offerings and our customers' satisfaction.”

Larrimer, who is one of 13 members of PNC’s executive management team, will remain the bank’s chief customer officer through December, the company said.

Michelle Neidhardt, who currently serves as the director of customer experience, will take over as chief customer officer on Jan. 1, 2023, the PNC spokesperson said.  In her new role, Neidhardt will report to Overstrom.