PNC's Rohr Setting up for Succession?

PITTSBURGH (TheStreet) -- Is PNC Financial Services' (PNC) current chairman and CEO James Rohr getting ready to retire from the super regional bank?

With PNC announcing Tuesday that senior vice chairman William Demchak is set to assume greater responsibility at the bank, at least one analyst is predicting that he is in pole position to succeed Rohr.

"While we do not view any CEO succession as imminent (our best guess is that it is still a few years away), this morning's announcement does help to create a clearer path for a likely sequence of events in coming years," writes Scott Siefers, an analyst at Sandler O'Neill & Partners, in a research note to clients.

Siefers added that he is "very favorable" of PNC shares and reiterated his buy rating on the bank.

PNC said in Tuesday's release that Demchak, 48, who currently heads its corporate & institutional banking and asset & liability management units, will assume supervisory responsibilities for all of PNC's businesses. These include the asset management group and retail banking. PNC's President Joseph Guyaux and Executive Vice President Robert Reilly will continue in their current roles as heads of retail banking and asset management, respectively, the company said.

Demchak has "led PNC's Corporate & Institutional Banking business to record earnings and outstanding customer growth since moving into his current role in 2005. He has the knowledge, experience and leadership skills to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive and highly regulated industry," Rohr said in a statement. "In this expanded role, I expect him to help further grow and differentiate PNC from its peers."

A PNC spokesman declined to comment on Tuesday on whether Demchak was in line to succeed Rohr.

Rohr has been the public face of PNC for nearly 10 years and increasingly one for the banking industry at large through the financial crisis. PNC was one of several large firms including JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) that comprised the healthiest of large banks and able to take on large acquisitions of failing companies.

PNC acquired National City of Cleveland at the end of 2008, which had been crippled from subprime lending and overall housing malaise in its home market of the Midwest and smaller presence in troubled Florida.

Rohr became CEO of the Pittsburgh-based regional bank in 2000 and chairman in 2001. Rohr has worked for PNC and its predecessors for his entire career history, according to Bloomberg.