As technology makes it easier for clients to move deposits in search of higher interest rates, banks must compete by providing better solutions, PNC Financial Services Group Chairman and CEO William Demchak said Thursday (Oct. 15).
Demchak said this during the bank’s third-quarter earnings call, when asked by an analyst about the potential impact of agentic artificial intelligence on deposits and banks’ costs of keeping those deposits.
PYMNTS reported Oct. 6 that AI agents could remove the friction that has kept money sitting in bank accounts that pay no interest.
During Thursday’s call, Demchak said deposit movement has been becoming more efficient for years and that the trend will continue. There have already been tools such as capital market portals that let clients shop for money market funds.
“All that stuff is going to get easier, and this is going to happen over time,” Demchak said. “To win in that period of time, we’re going to have to offer our clients technology that is as good as these third-party providers, so we can allow them to do what they want, and, importantly, we’re going to need to produce it cheaply to keep their business.”
Robert Reilly, chief financial officer at PNC Financial Services Group, added: “And maintain the service aspects of a transaction account.”
Addressing the issue of agentic AI, Demchak said attempts to have agents transact on a user’s behalf inside their accounts is “incredibly unsafe” and “not going to happen.”
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“For that to ultimately take place, there’s going to have to be laws passed on liability shifting,” Demchak said. “It’s going to have to happen through secure connections and authentication and human-in-the-loop. It’s big splashy headlines, cool thing … Not going to happen on my watch that something can come in here and transact on your behalf without you knowing it. It’s an incredibly dangerous thing. Independent of the fact I run a bank, I would just advise everybody that’s probably bad.”
Asked about PNC Financial Services Group’s deployment of AI within its own operations, Demchak said the bank already completed data center rebuilds, the risk framework on access control and other work required to transform the company into one that can deploy agents across workloads.
“I would assure everyone that we have a well-thought-out program that isn’t about bells and whistles, that will ultimately allow for a transformation of this company,” Demchak said.
Reilly said that this is especially true over a two- to three-year period.
PNC launched a new mobile banking app during the third quarter, saying in a July 7 press release that the app features improved navigation, faster load times and a customizable design.
PNC also continued its build-out of new branches during the third quarter, announcing in an Aug. 3 press release that it is on track to open 55 new branches in 2026, which will be the largest number of branches it has built in a single year.
“We continue to invest in capabilities to enhance our franchise with the introduction of both new mobile app and TotalRewards program, as well as our continued branch expansion,” Demchak said during Thursday’s call.
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