President and CEO
In the midst of a global pandemic last year, an immediate concern for the corporate and institutional banking markets was a lack of liquidity that could have potentially affected financial firms’ ability to clear trades efficiently.
Charlotte McLaughlin, the president and chief executive of PNC Capital Markets and a member of the boards of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the American Bankers Association Securities Association, played a vital role in helping to forestall that threat.
Over a period of weeks, McLaughlin and other members of the trade groups’ boards met with federal regulators daily to discuss their concerns. That direct engagement helped to bring about a number of Federal Reserve-led measures aimed at shoring up liquidity and keeping credit flowing to households, businesses and state and local governments.
McLaughlin wields such clout because of her broad experience in the capital markets business and her success in running a business line that consistently posts record profits.
In her role, Mclaughlin is responsible for all aspects of PNC’s capital markets business, including product strategy, sales, risk management and financial accountability. She leads a staff of roughly 240 that includes nine direct reports.
The capital markets unit is part of the corporate and institutional banking group that, in the first half of 2021, generated revenue of $3.8 billion, up 9% from the first half of 2020. Capital markets revenue rose 14% year over year to $835 million.
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The unit has thrived even as the pandemic has upended the traditional ways of doing business. McLaughlin said her team has succeeded largely by building stronger connections with co-workers and clients through technology that includes adapting to the digital channels clients are using.
“With less commuting and airport time, many of our calls included more high-level decision makers and product specialists, which resulted in engaging, active dialogue that facilitated decision-making,” she said.
Like many senior banking executives, McLaughlin was moved by the acts of civil unrest last year and pledged to improve diversity within the capital markets division she runs and across PNC Financial Services Group more widely. She encouraged managers to speak candidly with employees about how the national reckoning over race was affecting them personally and professionally and she increased the capital markets team’s representation on the Corporate & Institutional Banking Diversity & Inclusion Council from one to five.
“We need to address the very human aspects of supporting one another as we work together toward our common business goals,” McLaughlin said in an interview with SIFMA earlier this year.
