In spite of projections of slower industry earnings, the local and regional banks that reached aggressively into the D.C. metro market in the last 24 months will continue their retail banking blitz in the area.
“D.C. is the most highly educated market in the country. It’s the highest per capita personal income. And it’s growing,” Greater Washington Area PNC Bank President Michael Harreld said, of D.C.’s enduring economic allure. “It’s an extraordinarily important market for us.”
The Pennsylvania-based bank, which entered the D.C. metro market in mid-2005 after acquiring 51-branch Riggs Bank, is one of a group of retail banking revivalists that reemphasized “customer-centric” branch banking in response to a post-9/11 downturn and disappointment with teller-less banking.
Heralding its arrival with extended hours, customized products, user-friendly lobbies and reimbursed foreign ATM fees for customers, PNC Bank has opened six new offices here since its area debut and helped set an increasingly rigorous service standard among area competitors.
It plans 30 more area outlets by 2009 -— 12 to 15 in 2007 — and posted a midyear 2006 net income increase of 18 percent (to $500 million) over a comparative 2005 reporting period, according to the FDIC.
New Jersey-based Commerce Bank, a 400-location relative upstart, which — with Sunday, holiday, and evening hours — is also credited with prodding banking’s retailing renaissance, entered the D.C. market in mid-2005.
It now has 12 outlets here and six more will open before year’s end, according to spokesperson David Flaherty.
Commerce plans to open another 180 outlets by 2010.
Another newcomer, Tennessee-based First Horizon Bank, has 22 branches in Virginia and Maryland, with seven and four respectively opened in northern Virginia and Maryland since 2004 and nine on tap by 2010.
The interlopers in the D.C.-area market contributed to a competitive culture that forced several North Carolina-based behemoths to match their play.
Bank of America responded by refurbishing 134 area branches and opening eight new ones in 2005-2006, with eventual plans for 500 branches.
Wachovia shifted its area branches slightly this year and last and will end 2006 with a net of 12 new area branches. It plans to open another six during 2007. BB&T, with over 200 branches already in place in the D.C. metro area, will add another four by December.
Locally based Chevy Chase Bank, which has 165 branches in Maryland,Virginia and the District, opened 23 in the last two years. Georgia-based SunTrust Bank, with 176 branches in the D.C. metro area, opened 15 here in that period.
Characterizing the local market as “one of the hottest” in the country, Dean Silverman, director of financial retailing consulting at John Ryan International, agreed that D.C.-area banking operations were unlikely to be affected by any industry earnings erosion.
