Commitments and Guarantees (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)	Sep. 30, 2011	Mar. 31, 2011	Sep. 30, 2011 Financial Standby Letter of Credit [Member]	Sep. 30, 2011 Total Recourse Obligations [Member]	Dec. 31, 2010 Total Recourse Obligations [Member]
Unfunded commitments - private equity investments	$ 270,000,000
Unfunded commitments - other investments	4,000,000
Standby letters of credit and risk participations in standby letters of credit and bankers' acceptances - Terms outstanding - Minimum			1
Standby letters of credit and risk participations in standby letters of credit and bankers' acceptances - Terms outstanding - Maximum			7
Standby letters of credit and risk participations in standby letters of credit and bankers' acceptances - aggregate maximum amount PNC could be required to make on future payments			14,200,000,000
Standby letters of credit and risk participations in standby letters of credit and bankers' acceptances - remarketing programs			7,600,000,000
Assets secured by certain specifically identified standby letters of credit			1,800,000,000
Standby letters of credit - recourse provisions from third parties			3,300,000,000
Guarantor obligations, current carrying value			254,000,000
Visa indemnification liability	32,000,000
Standby bond purchase agreements to support municipal bond obligations	546,000,000
Other liquidity facilities commitments	155,000,000
Commercial mortgage recourse obligations - potential exposure				3,900,000,000	4,000,000,000
Commercial mortgage recourse obligations - Unpaid principal balance of loans sold				12,900,000,000	13,200,000,000
Visa escrow account funding		400,000,000
PNC share of Visa escrow account funding		38,000,000
Repurchase Potential Excess Loss Range Maxmium	$ 110,000,000