Area banks see deposits grow, branch numbers diminish

PNC Bank, Citizens Bank, First National Bank and the rest of the Pittsburgh area’s biggest retail banks maintained their positions in the top 10 rankings this year, while all but one saw deposits grow, newly released figures from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. show.

At the same time, most of the top 10 continued to shutter branches, a reflection of the industry’s push toward virtual banking.

Pittsburgh- based PNC — which has long been the region’s market leader — continued its dominance with a 42.2% share of deposits, followed far behind by Rhode Island-based Citizens with 5.4%, Pittsburghbased First National Bank of Pennsylvania with 3.8%, Pittsburgh-based Dollar Bank with 2.7% and Cleveland- based KeyBank with 2.2%.

Rounding out the top 10 were Huntington with 1.9% of deposits; First Commonwealth, 1.6%; S&T, 1.4%; NexTier, 0.69% and WesBanco, 0.67%,

The FDIC’s latest report — based on deposit data as of June 30, 2021 — measures banks’ share of consumer and business wallets in the seven-county Pittsburgh region.

All of the banks except KeyBank reported higher deposits than the previous year.

A year ago, the FDIC report showed KeyBank had gained enough deposits to overtake Dollar Bank as the region’s No. 4 retail bank. But those figures were later revised to show that KeyBank remained No. 5.

Banks occasionally submit changes that can cause revisions to the market share data, the FDIC said in an email Tuesday.

As of June, the top 10 banks operated 42 fewer branch offices in the region than in June of 2020, reducing the total to 538, according to the FDIC.

Six of the top 10 banks cut their number of branches, three banks (Dollar, S&T and NexTier) operated the same number as the year before, and one bank (Huntington) added a branch.

Technology companies and banks led stocks higher on Wall Street Tuesday, erasing most of the market’s losses from a broad sell-off a day earlier.

The rally, which lost some momentum in the final hour of trading, left the S&P 500 1.1% higher. About 73% of the companies in the benchmark index rose.

Technology stocks did much of the heavy lifting for the broader market, which helped drive the Nasdaq 1.3% higher, its biggest gain since Aug. 23. Chipmaker Nvidia rose 3.6% and Microsoft gained 2%.

Communications stocks also made solid gains after losing ground the day before. Netflix rose 5.2%. Utilities and real estate stocks were the only laggards in the S&P 500.

The gains mark a reversal in the market’s overall trajectory in recent weeks. The S&P 500 fell 4.8% in September, its first monthly drop since January. After steadily losing ground since it set an all-time high Sept. 2, the index slipped Tuesday below its 100-day moving average of 4,354. That sends a signal to traders that the index has reached “a good level of support for stocks to trade higher,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.

“Today’s activity is primarily in response to the weakness we’ve experienced over the last 10 days or so,” he said.

The S&P 500 rose 45.26 points to 4,345.72. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 311.75 points, or 0.9%, to 34,314.67, and the Nasdaq gained 178.35 points to 14,433.83.

Small company stocks also notched gains. The Russell 2000 index picked up 10.89 points, or 0.5%, to 2,228.36.

Bond yields gained ground. The 10-year Treasury rose to 1.53% from 1.49% late Monday. Rising bond yields helped lift banks, which rely on higher yields to charge more lucrative interest on loans. Bank of America rose 2% and Citigroup added 1.7%.

Energy prices continued rising. U.S. oil rose 1.7% to $78.93 per barrel. Natural gas futures jumped 9.5%. Rising energy prices have been steadily pushing gasoline prices higher. The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. is $3.20, up more than $1 from a year ago, according to AAA.

The rise in energy prices helped lift oil company shares.