PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC) is a U.S.-based financial services corporation, with assets (as of December 31, 2006) of $101.8 billion. PNC operations include a regional banking franchise operating primarily in eight states and the District of Columbia, specialized financial businesses serving companies and government entities, and leading asset management and processing businesses. PNC is America's 8th largest bank by deposits1 and is the third largest bank off-premise ATM provider in the country.2

PNC Financial Services traces its history to the Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Company which was founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1852. In 1858 the company located its corporate offices at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Wood Street in Pittsburgh where they remain to this day. By 1959, after a series of mergers, the Pittsburgh Trust and Savings Company had evolved into the Pittsburgh National Corporation . Another branch of the current bank, the Philadelphia based Provident National Corporation , dates to the mid-19th century. In 1982, Pittsburgh National Corporation and Provident National Corporation merged under the new entity named PNC Financial Corporation . Between 1991 and 1996 PNC purchased over ten smaller banks and financial institutions that broadened its market base from Kentucky to the Greater New York Metro area. In 2005 PNC acquired Washington, D.C. based Riggs National Corporation. In 2006, PNC announced that it would be acquiring Maryland-based Mercantile Bankshares in 2007. On June 7, 2007, PNC announced the acquisition of Yardville National Bancorp , a small commercial bank centered in central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. On July 19, 2007, PNC announced the acquisition of Sterling Financial Corporation , a commercial and consumer bank with accounts and branches in central Pennsylvania, northeastern Maryland and Delaware. These mergers made PNC the 8th largest bank by deposits in the United States.

In an October 9, 2008 article in the Wall Street Journal, PNC was cited by unnamed sources as one of the leading contenders to acquire Cleveland based National City Bank [1]. On October 24, 2008, PNC announced that it would acquire National City. The transaction will make PNC the fifth largest bank in the United States by deposits [2]. PNC will pay $5.58 billion to purchase National City stock and pay off warrant holders. As part of the deal, PNC will receive $7.7 billion in capital under provisions of the federal government's Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. [3]

PNC Bank is the flagship subsidiary of the PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. Based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PNC Bank offers consumer and corporate services in nearly 800 branches in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Virginia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. PNC owns about 35% of publicly traded fund manager BlackRock, which specializes in fixed-income products. BlackRock merged with Merrill Lynch Investment Managers in October 2006.

In June 2003, PNC Bank agreed to pay $115 million to settle federal securities fraud charges after one of its subsidiaries fraudulently transferred $762 million in bad loans and other venture-capital investments to hide them from investors.3 PNC acquired the former United National Bancorp based in Bridgewater, New Jersey in 2004, and later announced that it would buy the Riggs National Bank which operates in the Washington, DC area. PNC successfully completed the acquisition of Riggs in 2005 after the banks resolved a disagreement on the acquisition price.4

PNC Bank was forced to reissue hundreds of debit cards to customers in March, 2006 when their account information was compromised.5 In the same month, PNC Bank was sued by Paul Bariteau who was an investor in the Military Channel. Bariteau claimed PNC let the channel’s chairman make unauthorized withdrawals of millions of dollars from the channel's account for personal use. The counter-claim is that Bariteau was only trying to recoup losses from a bad investment.6

In April 2006, the J.D. Power Consumer Center released the results of its New York Retail Banking Satisfaction Study indicating that PNC Bank had an average number of satisfied customers.7 PNC has also subcontracted with American Express, Discover, ABN-AMRO, and Washington Federal to do home equity loans. The operation sends out bulk mailings with offers and has a call center in Pennsylvania to handle this business.

In the fall of 2006 PNC announced its purchase of Mercantile Bankshares, a Maryland bank with an extensive branch network throughout suburban D.C., Baltimore and northern Virginia. On September 17, 2007, PNC successfully completed the merger with Mercantile, making PNC the 8th largest bank in the United States by deposits1.

On October 24, 2008, PNC announced that it will acquire Cleveland, Ohio based National City Bank for 5.2 Billion in PNC Stock.8 The acquisition, which helps PNC double in size and become the fifth largest bank in the United States by deposit and fourth largest by branches, came hours after PNC sold 15% of its stake to the United States Treasury as part of the $700 billion bailout plan. PNC must buy back the stake from the U.S. Treasury within ten years, though the bank itself expects to buy back the stake within five.

The deal will make PNC the largest bank in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky, as well as the second largest bank in Maryland and Indiana. It will also greatly expand PNC's presence in the Midwest as well as entering the Florida market. The two also compliment each other since Pittsburgh and Louisville, Kentucky were the only two markets before the acquisition deal that both banks had a major presence in. The banks also overlap in Cincinnati. In the case of Pittsburgh, closing bank branches are likely though selling off branches are also a possibility since the two banks were considered among the "Big Five" in the region along with Citizens Financial Group, Dollar Bank, and Huntington Bancshares9, and would likely pose antitrust issues in Western Pennsylvania.

The corporation operates a leading community bank in its major markets and is a top-ten Small Business Administration lender. Operations include the third-largest bank automated teller machine network in the U.S. The corporation claims to operate environmentally friendly "green" bank branches and is a major wealth management firm.

PNC operates a top-ten treasury management business and the U.S.'s second-largest lead arranger of asset-based loan syndications. Its subsidiary Harris Williams is one of the U.S.'s largest mergers and acquisitions advisory firms for middle market companies.

The corporation's Global Investment Servicing subsidiary is the second-largest full-service mutual fund transfer agent in the U.S and the second-largest full service accounting & administration provider to U.S. mutual funds. PNC Global Investment Servicing has provided services to the global investment industry since 1973. With 4,700 employees, PNC Global Investment Servicing operates from Ireland, the United States and the Cayman Islands, PNC International Bank Limited operates from Luxembourg. PNC Global Investment Servicing services $1.9 trillion in total assets and 58 million shareholder accounts. In 2007 PNC Global Investment Servicing Trustee & Custodial Services Limited was awarded a banking licence by financial regulators allowing it to expand further into Europe. As a result the name changed to PNC Global Investment Servicing Bank Limited. PNC Global Investment Servicing was formally known as PFPC until July 2008.

PNC's partially-owned (35%) BlackRock subsidiary is one of the U.S.'s largest publicly traded asset management firms.

Midland Loan Services is a third-party provider of service and technology for the commercial real estate finance industry. It specializes in commercial loan and CMBS portfolio servicing. Founded in 1991, its headquarters are in Overland Park, Kansas.

The corporation has sponsored a number of initiatives to improve education, health and human services, and cultural and arts activities. These include a "PNC Grow Up Great" commitment to early childhood development, the "PNC Foundation", and community development investments. [4]

Since 1984, PNC Financial Services has compiled the humorous economic indicator, the Christmas Price Index.

• One PNC Plaza in Pittsburgh
• Two PNC Plaza in Pittsburgh
• PNC Service Center in Pittsburgh (One of the world's largest LEED Certified Green Buildings)
• Three PNC Plaza in Pittsburgh
• PNC Bank Building in Philadelphia
• PNC Service Center in Philadelphia (Bordering the Philadelphia International Airport)
• PNC Plaza in Louisville, Kentucky
• PNC Tower in downtown Cincinnati
• PNC Center in downtown Cincinnati

PNC owns corporate naming rights to the following:

• PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
• PNC Field, home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees AAA baseball team.
• PNCBank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ

• Hilliard Lyons — former subsidiary

• PNC Virtual Wallet
• PNC'S Virtual WalletSM Takes Online Banking to the Next Level
• CNNMoney.com Fortune500 web page on PNC Financial Services
• Forbes.com web page on PNC Financial Servcies
• Yahoo! company profile web page on PNC Financial Services
• Topix.com web page on news about PNC Financial Services

The PNC Bank Arts Center is a modern amphitheatre located in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, USA. About 17,500 people can occupy the amphitheater; there are 7,000 seats and the grass area can hold about 10,500 people. Concerts are from May through September featuring 35–45 different events of many types of musical styles. It is ranked among the top five most successful amphitheatres in the country. It is one of two major outdoor arenas in the New York City Metropolitan Area, along with Nikon at Jones Beach Theater.

The amphitheatre was originally called the Garden State Arts Center . The 1954 legislation that created the Garden State Parkway (at whose Exit 116 the Arts Center is located) also called for recreational facilities along the Parkway's route, and in 1964 Holmdel's Telegraph Hill was chosen as the site for "a cultural and recreational center ... that would be developed as a center for music and the performing arts." The amphitheatre was designed by noted modernist architect Edward Durell Stone and featured open sides covered by a 200-foot (61 m), saucer-like roof supported by eight large concrete pillars. It featured seating for 5,000 people with space for about 5,000 more on the lawn area outside the roof.

The Garden State Arts Center first opened on June 12, 1968, with a program featuring pianist Van Cliburn, conductor Eugene Ormandy, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The Arts Center was operated in conjunction with the New Jersey Highway Authority, which also ran the Parkway.

In the beginning, the Arts Center's programming featured a good deal of classical as well as popular music. In addition, a number of free daytime programs were provided for schoolchildren, senior citizens, and the disadvantaged and disabled. Beginning in 1971, the non-profit Foundation associated with the Arts Center also sponsored International Heritage Festivals before and after the regular season. Focusing on ethnicities such as Scottish, Slovak, German, African American, etc., these festivals remain to this day an unusual part of the venue's programming. Signs advertising these upcoming festivals, along with the regular upcoming concerts, became a familiar site to drivers approaching toll booths along the Parkway.

During off-season months the Arts Center is generally unused, except for a Holiday Light Spectacular show during the Christmas season. A banquet hall is on premises that can be rented for private occasions. In 1995, the Arts Center grounds saw the addition of the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.

During the 1990s the philosophy of the Arts Center underwent a change. Classical music was almost completely phased out, and a need was felt to expand the venue to compete for the top popular music acts against other, larger amphitheatres on the summer outdoor concert circuit. Thus before the 1996 season, a substantial expansion of the facility was done, with 2,000 seats added (some now outside the roof, which was not altered) and the lawn capacity doubled in size, by way of taking out rows of trees and a surrounding walk and raising the bank around the facility much higher.

In 1998, PNC Bank, a Pittsburgh based banking company, purchased naming rights and the venue was renamed to the PNC Bank Arts Center . (The company also has naming rights to Pittsburgh Pirates Baseball venue PNC Park.)

A variety of corporations provide services to the PNC Bank Arts Center including: Live Nation, New Jersey State Police, MONOC EMS, USI Event Security, Control, Aramark, and more.

PNC Bank Arts Center features one of the most extravagant drive through light displays in the tri - state area. The spectacular is a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) drive through a forest of lights. Over 5 million lights were used over 225 displays. The Light Spectacular usually runs from the end of November through January 2. It is open 5:00pm - 9:00pm 7 days a week. The display is set up in the parking lot around the Arts Center and on a specially prepared road for the display. In the premises of the light spectacular, there is a radio station that plays Christmas Carols. Also, there is a Winter Village at the end of the display. It features a snack bar, ice rink, and a Christmas decoration shop which sells smaller replicas of the displays in the light spectacular. Some large displays which are not visible from the parking lot or the amphitheater itself are left at their respective spots permanently. The manufacturing location of all the lights and displays is left confidential. The Holiday Light Spectacular has been sponsored by TOYOTA since the tradition started. In 2007, many new displays have been added making the display now 3.6 miles (5.8 km) long. It takes around 2 months to put the display up.

Portions of Jackson Browne's landmark 1977 live album were recorded there. Perhaps the most popular performer over the years at the Arts Center has been James Taylor, who appears there almost every year and who has been one of the few acts to be booked there three nights in a row. Ironically, Bruce Springsteen, New Jersey's most famous musician during these years and a person that lived in nearby towns during most of this time, never appeared at the Arts Center (save for a 1989 walk-on during a Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band show) until two performances in 2006 during the Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour.

On August 24, 1990, Sinéad O'Connor was scheduled to perform at what was then called the Garden State Arts Center. The practice of the venue was, and still is, to play a recording of the American national anthem before the show began. O'Connor, who said she was unaware of this practice until shortly before the show was to begin, refused to go on if the anthem was played. Venue officials acquiesced to her demand and omitted the anthem, and so O'Connor performed, but they later permanently banned her. O'Connor said that she had a policy of not having the national anthem of any country played before her concerts and meant "no disrespect" but that she "will not go on stage after the national anthem of a country which imposes censorship on artists. It's hypocritical and racist." The incident made tabloid headlines and O'Connor came in for heavy criticism and her songs were banned from a number of radio stations. Frank Sinatra, who performed at the Center the next night, said he wished he could "kick her in the ass." O'Connor replied, "I wouldn't be the first woman he has threatened to hit," and her father said that Sinatra was too old to lift his leg to kick her.

On June 28 and 29, 2000, over 70 people were arrested in connection with two concerts by the jamband Phish. [2] It is believed that the band was not invited back to the venue, as they did not perform there again before the band's breakup in 2004. Phish's guitarist Trey Anastasio, however, did headline shows at PNC several times in the 2000s, most recently in 2006 with "G.R.A.B." (Gordon.Russo.Anastasio.Benevento.) which included former Phish bassist Mike Gordon, as well as Marco Benevento and Joe Russo of the Benevento/Russo Duo.

At the 2007 show on August 16, Controversy was generated as 83 attendees were arrested at the show, most of them underage, and most of them arrested prior to the 8:00 hour, reasons cited for underage drinking and distribution, and "aggressive dancing"; In addition, two men died, one after ingesting significant amounts of alcohol, marijuana and cocaine.

On May 18, 2007, Gwen Stefani performed the opening show for the 2007 season at the venue. The show gained a lot of local media publicity due to the large amount of underage drinking that took place in the parking lot before the show and lack of police to maintain it. At least 27 people, mainly minors, were taken to two area hospitals. The venue announced a zero-tolerance policy to underage drinking, and it was also announced that for the next concert held at the arena, Fall Out Boy on June 6, between 60 and 80 state troopers would be on hand, up from the usual 10-15 and mostly undercover and plain clothed, to detain underage drinkers. Residents of the area say that underage drinking has always been a problem at the venue, but gets worse every year.

In response to issues with underage drinking and in the wake of a number of alcohol-related injuries and deaths, drinking in the parking lots has been banned at the PNC Bank Arts Center as of August 17, 2007.1

For the upcoming summer concerts, a list will be published by PNC authorities stating which concerts will allow tailgating and which will not. Shows drawing a younger audience such as Fall Out Boy will have no tailgating while shows such as Kenny Chesney will allow it.2

• List of contemporary amphitheatres

• season program, 1992.

• PNC Bank Arts Center official website
• An Article Reviewing Depeche Mode's CD Recorded at the PNC
• Arts Center Tightening Up- Asbury Park Press

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