PNC Financial Services (PNC)

We grow our business in part by acquiring from time to time other financial services companies, and these acquisitions present us with a number of risks and uncertainties related both to the acquisition transactions themselves and to the integration of the acquired businesses into PNC after closing.

Acquisitions of other financial services companies in general present risks to PNC in addition to those presented by the nature of the business acquired. We describe some of the integration risks presented by our recent acquisition of National City above. Many of these risks are common to some extent in acquisition transactions.

In general, acquisitions may be substantially more expensive to complete (including as a result of costs incurred in connection with the integration of the acquired company) and the anticipated benefits (including anticipated cost savings and strategic gains) may be significantly harder or take longer to achieve than expected. In some cases, acquisitions involve our entry into new businesses or new geographic or other markets, and these situations also present risks resulting from our inexperience in these new areas. As a regulated financial institution, our pursuit of attractive acquisition opportunities could be negatively impacted due to regulatory delays or other regulatory issues. Regulatory and/or legal issues relating to the pre-acquisition operations of an acquired business may cause reputational harm to PNC following the acquisition and integration of the acquired business into ours and may result in additional future costs or regulatory limitations arising as a result of those issues.

We grow our business in part by acquiring from time to time other financial services companies, and these acquisitions present us with a number of risks and uncertainties related both to the acquisition transactions themselves and to the integration of the acquired businesses into PNC after closing.

Acquisitions of other financial services companies in general present risks to PNC in addition to those presented by the nature of the business acquired. In particular, acquisitions may be substantially more expensive to complete (including as a result of costs incurred in connection with the integration of the acquired company) and the anticipated benefits (including anticipated cost savings and strategic gains) may be significantly harder or take longer to achieve than expected. In some cases, acquisitions involve our entry into new businesses or new geographic or other markets, and these situations also present risks resulting from our inexperience in these new areas. As a regulated financial institution, our pursuit of attractive acquisition opportunities could be negatively impacted due to regulatory delays or other regulatory issues. Regulatory and/or legal issues relating to the pre-acquisition operations of an acquired business may cause reputational harm to PNC following the acquisition and integration of the acquired business into ours and may result in additional future costs arising as a result of those issues.

Our pending acquisition of Sterling presents many of the risks and uncertainties related to acquisition transactions themselves and to the integration of the acquired businesses into PNC after closing described above. Sterling presents regulatory and litigation risk as a result of financial irregularities at Sterling’s commercial finance subsidiary.

We grow our business in part by acquiring from time to time other financial services companies, and these acquisitions present us with a number of risks and uncertainties related both to the acquisition transactions themselves and to the integration of the acquired businesses into PNC after closing.

Acquisitions of other financial services companies also present risks to PNC other than those presented by the nature of the business acquired. In particular, acquisitions may be substantially more expensive to complete (including costs incurred in connection with the integration of the acquired company) and the anticipated benefits (including anticipated cost savings and strategic gains) may be significantly harder or take longer to achieve than expected. In some cases, acquisitions involve our entry into new businesses or new geographic or other markets, and these situations also present risks resulting from our inexperience in these new areas. As a regulated financial institution, our pursuit of attractive acquisition opportunities could be negatively impacted due to regulatory delays or other regulatory issues. Regulatory and/or legal issues relating to the pre-acquisition operations of an acquired business may cause reputational harm to PNC following the acquisition and integration of the acquired business into ours and may result in additional future costs and expenses arising as a result of those issues.

Our pending acquisition of Mercantile presents many of the risks and uncertainties related to acquisition transactions themselves and to the integration of the acquired businesses into PNC after closing described above.