What It Takes to Build One of the World's Biggest Banks
Odd Lots
Bloomberg
4.5 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 26 January 2026
⏱️ 64 minutes
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Summary
One of the mega-themes of the economy is that the big keep getting bigger. You see it in technology, where the megacap software companies are outperforming their smaller peers. And you see it in finance, where the world's biggest banks keep growing their share within the industry. Across multiple fields, there are clear advantages to size and scale that keep accruing. But what does it take to get to the very top, and what are the real advantages to size and scale? PNC Financial is one of the biggest banks in the country, though not quite as big as names like JPMorgan or Bank of America. So what does it take to grow in such a mature industry? And what kind of advantages accrue to the large players? On this episode, we talk to CEO Bill Demchak in a wide ranging conversation about the state of the industry. He explains why they're still building physical bank branches, why it's not a good time to make acquisitions, and how one bank stands out from another. We also talk about the changing regulatory environment, and what the firm is seeing right now in terms of useful applications of generative AI.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Markets move fast. |
| 0:01.7 | Get the insights you need in 10 minutes with Barclays Brief, |
| 0:04.8 | a podcast from Barclays Investment Bank. |
| 0:07.1 | Each week, our experts analyze market themes, |
| 0:09.7 | helping you anticipate what's next. |
| 0:11.6 | Listen to Barclay's Brief wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:17.5 | Bloomberg Audio Studios, |
| 0:20.0 | Podcasts, Radio News. |
| 0:28.9 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots podcast. I'm Joe Wisenthal. And I'm Tracy |
| 0:38.7 | Al-Away. So Tracy, one of the motifs, I guess, of some of our recent conversations. |
| 0:43.6 | Motif is a good word. Yeah, it's a good word. Isn't it? Thank you. One of the motifs of some of our |
| 0:47.5 | recent conversations. And also, I guess, one of the mega trends of our time is this idea of just like scale is a competitive |
| 0:55.6 | advantage. |
| 0:57.0 | Size returns to size, returns to scale, the ability of someone to like pick up a phone and say, |
| 1:02.2 | I need a lot of money right now and the advantage that accrues to financial players. |
| 1:08.1 | We see it across a lot of sectors, but it really, it stands out a lot in our finance |
| 1:12.6 | conversations. It feels good to be big in business, right? Like, once you get big, you have all this |
| 1:17.7 | competitive advantage that allows you to get bigger. The place where this is most noticeable, I would |
| 1:23.1 | argue, and it's been this way for a while is the banking industry, right? |
| 1:27.8 | Like the long run trend among U.S. banks is the big get bigger. |
| 1:32.9 | And we've all seen those charts of like all the little banks that compose Bank of America or a J.P. Morgan. |
| 1:39.3 | I love those charts. |
... |
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