Browse
Engage
Research
PNC, a big regional bank (annual revenues: $16 billion) based in Pittsburgh, has become the bank that environmental activists love to hate because of its support for mountaintop removal mining.
The bank was identified as the worst of the worst in Grading the Banks: A Mountaintop Removal Scorecard, a new ranking compiled by the Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club.
According to the report, the bank has made loans to six companies engaged in mountaintop removal (MTR) mining: Massey Energy, Patriot Coal, Alpha Natural Resources, International Coal Group, Arch Coal and Consol Energy.
PNC, by the way, was a recipient of TARP funds (since paid back) so these loans were, at least in a small way, your tax dollars at work.
I emailed PNC to ask for their comment and got a prompt reply from Fred Solomon, vice president, corporate communications:
PNC’s practice is not to comment on analyst or other research reports, and in general, our credit policies are proprietary information.
Interesting. We’ll see how long that no-comment approach lasts, if any of the enviro groups decide to bring pressure directly on PNC, a major consumer bank in the mid-Atlantic region. Transparency, evidently, is not for now part of the PNC culture.
I’m returning to the topic of banks and coal after just a couple of weeks (See J.P. Morgan Chase’s Coal Problem) because of a couple of significant new developments. The first is the RAN/Sierra Club report card–a tactic that, in the argot of the corporate campaigns, is known as “rank ‘em and spank ‘em.” The second is a new policy by JP Morgan Chase, released just before the bank’s annual meeting, which was held today.
In the report card, RAN and Sierra Club looked at nine financial institutions, and gave them letter grades from A to F, based on their MTR lending policies and publicly-known practices. Companies ranked, from top to bottom, were Credit Suisse (A-), Wells Fargo (B+), Bank of America (C), Morgan Stanley (C), Citi (C-), JP Morgan Chase (F), GE Capital (F), PNC (F) and UBS (F).
About PNC, the report said:
PNC does not appear to have a robust environmental policy and has not responded to our communication. A review of their website shows no evidence of a CSR or environmental staff team covering their commercial lending and investment banking business.
UBS, the big Swiss bank, also has no specific policy on MTR.
Amanda Starbuck of RAN told me: “They (PNC and UBS) both seem to be picking up business from coal clients that others won’t touch.” She said that, to the best of her knowledge, neither RAN nor Sierra Club has plans to target PNC, but she noted that the Earth Quaker Action Team (cool name!), a new group of “Friends and friends of Friends” based in the Delaware Valley around Philadelphia, has begun a campaign of nonviolent direct action aimed at PNC.
The group staged a silent vigil last month outside a PNC brank in Philly to mourn the deaths of 29 miners in the Upper Big Branch mine owned by Massey Energy. (Massey, by the way, held its annual meeting today, too, attracting hundreds of protestors and shareholder opposition to the re-election of three directors.)
PNC Represenitive Fred Soloman
His reply to Marc Gunther's question;
PNC's Agent/Represenitive Fred Solomon.
--Titles/job duties change so often generic is best when compiling an individual's record of hard facts.--
Fred Solo
"PNC’s practice is not to comment on analyst or other research reports, and in general, our credit policies are proprietary information."
There are periods(Prior eight-8-years)when making arrogant statements in stride with a president that seemed to have an unlimited supply and to be all pro-business, brings attaboys and other goodies.
Would someone in PNC inform him that Bush is no longer president and the rewriting of EPA regulations can be done in the same amount of time and in some cases overnight and ready the next morning.
When PNC needed the 7.6 billion of taxpayers money in the form of TARP loans I know being haughty was not a coporate tool they used and Solomon might of been placed in an induced comma due to the do or die situation and told when he awoke he was on a PNC all expense paid vacation. The only sour note was when he fell and his head struck the anchor diembarking from the cruise ship.
Sorry the cruise line disembarking policies are proprietary information, Solomon.
We could contact all small account holders of every PNC bank asking if they agree with PNC credit policies which Solomomn thinks are "proprietary information" when two or more public companies are involved. They might be in Russia, but not in a democracy, at least not at this time.
To bad!
To bad İ don't live in their area - İ would open an account. Anything the green mafia doesn't like must be alright!