By Becky Yerak | PNC,
which has 139 Chicago-area branches through its recent acquisition of
National City, plans to add 12 new area branches a year, for a total of 60, starting in
2010 and through 2014. “We aren’t in all the neighborhoods we want to be in,” James Rohr, PNC
Financial Services Group chairman and chief executive, said on a visit
to Chicago on Friday.

Generally, traffic into bank branches industrywide is down as more people do their banking online.
 
But “branches are still important” as consumers still want several options to do their banking, he said.
 
The 60 additional branches over the next five years will be both in the suburbs and in the city of Chicago, he said.
 
National City, which will change its name to PNC Bank in June, ranked fifth in deposit market share in the Chicago area as of last June 30, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.