PNC spent $60,000 lobbying government in 4Q

(AP) — PNC Bank, a unit of PNC Financial Services Group Inc., spent $60,000 in the fourth quarter to lobby on financial regulatory restructuring and other issues, according to a recent disclosure report.

That's down slightly from the $70,000 it spent in the year-ago period during the height of the financial crisis and the $90,000 it spent in the 2009 third quarter.

The Pittsburgh-based bank has been under the government's watchful eye, ever since it has received $7.6 billion from the $700 billion bank rescue program. PNC Financial Services said earlier this month it will pay back the Treasury Department money it received as part of the government's bank bailout program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

PNC also lobbied on issues including mortgages and student lending.

In the October-December period, the company only lobbied Congress, according to the report filed Jan. 20 with the House clerk's office. The Obama administration has proposed a series of measures to tighten the reins on financial institutions in hopes of preventing a recurrence of the crisis that struck both Wall Street and Washington in the fall of 2008.