Back when rumors were circulating about a possible sale of National City, analysts were hoping for the best - a federal bailout that would save the bank City from the ever tightening noose of bad mortgage debt, or the purchase by an international bank that would preserve local jobs.
That all unraveled last Friday when PNC Financial Services, a regional bank based in Pittsburgh, announced a deal to purchase the long-standing Cleveland institution.
However, PNC's CEO Jim Rohr insists that most of National City's 78 hundred Northeast Ohio jobs are safe. He declined to comment on what would happen to the 2 thousand jobs at the banks downtown headquarters.
University of Akron business school dean Raj Aggarwal says it's likely that consolidation will occur where there's overlap - and that's primarily at the executive level.
AGGARWAL: The higher up in the organization you are the more likely you are to lose your job.
And while a sale to an international bank might have been preferable, there are a number of scenarios that could have had a much more devastating impact.
AGGARWAL: I'm almost 100 percent certain that having PNC buy National City operations is better than National City going under.
Aggarwal says he's comforted by the fact that Rohr's a native Clevelander. He and many others hope that when it comes to making the tough decisions about jobs he'll have the city's best interest at heart. In fact, you could say they're banking on it. Gretchen Cuda, 90.3