Regions Bank

Regions Bank (chartered as the Regions Financial Corporation) is a publicly-held company based in Birmingham. The company provides retail and commercial banking, trust, securities brokerage, mortgage and insurance products and services. As of September 30, 2005 the corporation holds $84.6 billion in assets and serves 5 million customers from 1,300 offices in 16 states. A recently-announced merger with AmSouth Bank promises to create one of the 10 largest banking corporations in the United States.

The bank is currently headquartered in the Financial Center building at 4th Avenue North and 20th Street.

History

The current company was created as First Alabama Bancshares Inc. in a 1971 merger which produced a combined bank holding company (the first in Alabama) with 40 locations in Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomey and $543 million in assets.

In 1994 the company adopted the Regions Financial Corporation name.

In 1998 Regions bought out First Commercial in Little Rock, Arkansas. All First Commercial Banking Locations were renamed to Regions Bank.

On December 19, 2000, Regions agreed to purchase Memphis-based secruities brokerage firm Morgan Keegan for $789 million.

On January 24, 2004, the Regions Bank subsidiary announced that they would be merging with Memphis-based Union Planters Bank in a $5.9 billion dollar transaction. This merger was noteworthy (at least among large banks) for the fact that Regions, the acquiring bank, did not pay a premium above the currently trading stock price of Union Planters shares. Union Planters Bank, however, was to receive an equal number of board seats within the newly formed bank. This, coupled with the announcement that that Jackson W. Moore, the chairman, president, and CEO of Union Planters Bank was to become the CEO of the newly formed bank (a position formerly held by Carl E. Jones) one year post merger, led many to call this marriage a 'merger of equals' despite the fact that Regions Bank was half again larger than Union Planters at the time of the announcement. Shortly before assuming the duties of CEO of Regions Bank in 2005, Moore suffered a stroke, but was still able to assume his new post upon recovery.

On May 25, 2006, Regions announced it would be acquiring AmSouth Bank, another Birmingham-based bank, in a $10 billion deal. The new entity, and all of its branches, will carry the Regions Bank name. The deal is expected to finalize in late 2006 or early 2007. [1] Upon completion of the merger, Regions Financial will become the nation's 8th largest bank with total assets of nearly $140 billion and approximately 2,000 branches.

References

• "Regions Financial." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 May 2006, 03:59 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 30 May 2006 [2].

External links

• Regions Financial website