When PNC Financial announced its acquisition of Colorado’s beloved FirstBank last fall, it was framed as an expansion story a major bank growing its footprint in one of the country’s most dynamic states. What it is becoming, for hundreds of Colorado families, is something far more personal.
PNC has notified the Colorado labor department that up to 777 employees at its corporate offices in Lakewood could lose their jobs after June 30, 2026. The cuts stem directly from the bank’s ongoing integration of FirstBank, which officially closed as a $4.1 billion deal in January of this year, converting what was once a proudly independent Colorado institution into part of one of the nation’s largest banking networks.
Who is affected and who is being kept
The picture is not uniformly bleak. PNC has been clear that all customer-facing employees those who work directly with individuals and businesses at branch level are being retained. The cuts are concentrated in corporate and administrative roles where overlap between the two organizations has been identified during the integration review process.
Some affected employees have already been offered positions within PNC and have accepted them, reducing what the company describes as a maximum figure. PNC has actively encouraged impacted staff to apply for open roles within the organization across the state, and job openings remain available. Still, for those who do not land new positions internally, departures are expected to begin June 30.
At the end of 2024, FirstBank employed 2,648 people statewide. With up to 777 positions now at risk, the potential scale of the workforce reduction represents nearly 30% of that total headcount a significant shift for a company that had been a cornerstone employer in the Colorado market for more than six decades.
The numbers behind the merger
FirstBank was no small acquisition. Founded in 1963, the bank carried $26 billion in assets, $16 billion in loans and $23 billion in deposits at the time the deal closed in January. Its 95 branches, all of which are now being converted to PNC locations, effectively tripled PNC’s branch presence in Colorado, pushing its total to 120 and positioning it as one of the largest banks operating in the Denver metro area.
The integration has not come cheaply. PNC reported $98 million in pre-tax integration costs through its first-quarter earnings, with total integration expenses expected to reach $325 million once the process is complete. On the upside, PNC credited FirstBank’s loan portfolio with helping drive a 7% increase in average loans from the fourth quarter, bringing that figure to $23 billion a result that underscores why the acquisition made strategic sense even as its human costs become clearer.
What Colorado loses and what comes next
FirstBank was more than a bank to many Coloradans. It was a locally rooted institution that operated for more than 60 years under private ownership before the merger, building deep community ties across the state. Its conversion into PNC branches a process that will see customer accounts migrated to PNC systems starting June 18 marks the end of an era for Colorado banking.
PNC has offered one notable commitment to the state: it plans to make Denver a strategic technology hub, citing the region’s strong local talent pipeline as a key reason to invest in a long-term presence beyond the branch network. The FirstBank corporate offices at 12345 West Colfax Ave. in Lakewood will remain open after the integration concludes, with transitioning employees continuing to work on site as they move into their new roles under PNC’s structure.
For the 777 employees facing potential job loss, that longer-term vision offers little immediate comfort. The June 30 deadline is approaching fast, and for hundreds of Colorado families, the outcome of one of the state’s biggest banking deals is now a deeply personal countdown.
Source: The Colorado Sun
Leave a Reply