When Joe Beam picks up the phone Monday morning, for the first time in 30 years he won’t answer with the words “Mercantile bank.”
The sun set Friday on one of Baltimore’s oldest financial institutions, and when the sun rises Monday, Mercantile banks will bear the letters PNC. But Beam, branch manager at Mercantile’s Timonium branch, said he and his staff are excited about the change.
“The technology being brought in, the way PNC has dealt with us through all of this has been nothing but spectacular,” said Beam, a Mercantile employee since 1977. “They’re a lot like whatMercantile has always been for me.”
PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. acquired Mercantile Bankshares Corp. in March in a $6 billion dollar buyout, with about 96 percent of shareholders voting in favor of the merger.
The transition from Mercantile to PNC will occur this weekend, according to PNC Senior Vice President Joe Rockey. Customers will retain access to their money through ATM machines and checks through the weekend, Rockey said, as final changes to branch signs and operations are completed.
PNC’s transition team ran two mock simulations in July and August of the data transfers, and gained experience from buyouts of two other banks, United National in New Jersey, and Riggs in D.C., he said.
Customers began receiving new PNC ATM cards and checks last week. Mercantile checks would remain valid indefinitely, while the bank’s ATM cards will work through October, he said.
The merger will increase PNC branches in Maryland from nine to 198, according to company spokeswoman Darcel Kimble. A total of 500,000 customers will be affected, but the number of customers in Maryland was not available, she said.
But Beam said customers coming to his branch are less worried about their money, and more worried about him and his staff.
“The customers coming in, their first question inevitably is, ‘are you going to be there,'” he said. “To them the bank is the people they’re dealing with, not the name outside.”
PNC plans to preserve the historic legacy of Mercantile with a series of displays at former major Mercantile branches around Maryland and Virginia. The displays can be found at PNC branches in:
–Downtown Baltimore
–Westminster
–Frederick
–Laurel
–the Eastern Shore
–Fredericksburg, Va.
