Banking industry

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That blunt two-word message was a central theme in chief executiv e officerJames Rohr’s keynote speech to the conferencre at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront on Monday. The group’z managers juggle risks for the nation’s banksx and other financial services To saythe least, they’ved been busy lately — slogging through loan trying to figure out how to unload assets nobod y wants to buy and, most untangling the details of the federal government’s bank rescud plan. “We have to admit, we as an industry have really screwefdthings up,” Rohr said.
He preached the importance of knowinf your own company andbalance sheet, a practicee he said had fallen by the wayside as many banksa sold off their loans to investora as soon as they made them. In introducingy Rohr, RMA officials said they had chosen him to speak becausewof PNC’s (NYSE: PNC) long-standing focus on carefullyu managing risks. The Pittsburgh-based bank got criticized durinh the boom years for not cranking out more Rohr said. PNC’s third-quarter earnings fell by 39 percentf from ayear earlier, but the company stayed in the black.
Just over 1 percent of the bank’as loans were classified as “non-performing” in the The bank bought , Baltimore’s largest independent bank, last The government moves to shore up banks which include buying stock in banks and guaranteeingv the loans they make to each other should helpboost confidence, Rohr said. Without he said, the industry might have facex people lining up at banks to withdrawtheir money. But there are plentyh of questions left, Rohr “The Fed wants us all to increase lending, but if we’rse having an economic downturn, who are we goinv to lend to? We can’t force that issue.
” In an interviesw after his speech, Rohr said the bank is still workinv throughthe Fed’s stock-purchase programm before deciding whether to PNC’s strong capital base and the expectation that more banksw will merge led one attendee to ask Rohr if PNC will be an Banks can probably be acquired cheaplyy right now, Rohr said, but “you don’ want to catch a falling knife.” Any deals now will requirs taking a fine-tooth comb to an acquiree’s balance Rohr said. After his speech, Rohr said the bank woulde consideracquisition opportunities.
But all of PNC’sw markets, including Baltimore, are ahead of expectationss on sales and pickingt up customersand deposits, and the bank wantes to continue that homegrown he said. Another attendee asked Rohr aboutthe long-term consequences of governmentg ownership of banks. “When we fix our I think the government willback off,” Rohr “I don’t think they want to be in our business any more than we want them in our