PNC Financial Services

A substantial majority of PNC's assets and liabilities are financial, including loans, securities, servicing rights, deposits and borrowings, and fluctuate in value with markets and asset-specific developments.

Active markets are characterized by sufficient transaction volumes, reasonably narrow bid/ask spreads and dealer quotes that do not vary widely; inactive markets by low volumes, widely varying or stale quotations, wide spreads, increased implied liquidity risk premiums, or a significant decline or absence of a market for new issuance.

As a large financial services firm, we are faced with ongoing attempts by individuals or organizations to defraud us or our customers for financial gain. We depend on systems, processes and personnel, either at PNC or from third parties, to identify and prevent potentially fraudulent transactions, but those systems may not be adequate and fraudulent actors regularly change tactics to improve their chance of success. Even if PNC is not financially responsible for reimbursing a customer for its fraud losses, such losses may damage PNC’s reputation or ability to attract and retain customers.

As a result of our necessary reliance on employees, whether ours or those of third parties, to perform these tasks and manage resulting risks, we are thus subject to human vulnerabilities. These range from innocent human error to misconduct or malfeasance, potentially leading to operational breakdowns or other failures. Our controls may not be adequate to prevent problems resulting from human involvement in our business, including risks associated with the design, operation and monitoring of automated systems. We may also fail to adequately maintain a culture of risk management among our employees. Errors by our employees or others responsible for systems and controls on which we depend and any resulting failures of those systems and controls to prevent unethical, fraudulent, improper or illegal conduct could result in significant harm to PNC. This harm could include customer remediation costs, regulatory fines or penalties, litigation or enforcement actions or limitations on our business activities. We could also suffer damage to our reputation, as described under “We are at risk of an adverse impact on our business due to damage to our reputation.”

Asset Management Group provides private banking and institutional asset management through PNC Private Bank and Institutional Asset Management.

Assets and Liabilities Measured at Fair Value on a Recurring Basis

Residential Mortgage Loans Held for Sale

We account for certain residential mortgage loans originated for sale at fair value on a recurring basis. The election of the fair value option aligns the accounting for the residential mortgages with the related hedges. Residential mortgage loans are valued based on quoted market prices, where available, prices for other traded mortgage loans with similar characteristics, and purchase commitments and bid information received from market participants. The prices are adjusted as necessary to include the embedded servicing value in the loans and to take into consideration the specific characteristics of certain loans that are priced based on the pricing of similar loans. These adjustments represent unobservable inputs to the valuation but are not considered significant given the relative insensitivity of the value to changes in these inputs to the fair value of the loans. Accordingly, the majority of residential mortgage loans held for sale are classified as Level 2.