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. The merging of Regions with AmSouth Bank created one of the 10 largest banking corporations in the United States, with assets totaling over $140 billion. The company is part of the S&P 100 index and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol RF.

After the merger, the combined company moved its headquarters to the Regions Center, formerly the AmSouth Center, across 20th Street North from its former headquarters in the Regions Plaza building at 4th Avenue North and 20th Street. The banking division operates 2,000 branch offices and 2,600 ATMs, and employs 6,200 people in Birmingham, making it the area's largest private-sector employer.

History

Regions Financial Corporation was created on July 13, 1971 by the union of the First National Bank of Montgomery, the Exchange Security Bank of Birmingham, and the First National Bank of Huntsville. The combined company was known as First Alabama Bancshares, the first state-chartered bank holding company in Alabama. At this point, the combined banks operated 40 locations in Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery and held $543 million in assets. Other acquisitions expanded the holding company's reach.

Until their formal merger in March 1985, under revised banking regulations, the banks continued to operate independently.

In 1986, changes in the Interstate Banking Bill allowed bank holding companies to purchase bank branches outside the state in which they were chartered. First Alabama Bancshares expanded its operations first into Florida, continuing into Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas. To reflect its growth into a regional company, First Alabama Bancshares changed its name to Regions Financial Corporation and the name of its banking subsidiary to Regions Bank on May 2, 1992.

Over the years, Regions has added banking branches in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. In addition to the banking subsidiary, Regions Financial operates a mortgage bank, Regions Mortgage, a trust company, and an investment subsidiary, Regions Investment Company, Inc. Later, Resbamen Insurance Company was acquired, further expanding the range of financial services offered by the company. The company sold its subprime lending unit in March 2008 to reduce its exposure to risky mortgages, a prime factor in the poor performance of some Morgan Keegan mutual funds.

Significant acquisitions

• 1998: Regions purchased First Commercial Bank in Little Rock, Arkansas. All First Commercial Banking Locations were renamed to Regions Bank.
• August 27, 1998: Purchased State First National Bank of Texarkana, Texas
• September 11, 1998: Purchased Kilgore 1st National Bank of Kilgore, Texas, Longview National Bank of Longview, Texas, Lufkin National Bank of Lufkin, Texas, Stone Fort National Bank of Nacogdoches, Texas, Tyler Bank and Trust of Tyler, Texas, and First National Bank of Palestine, Texas
• December 19, 2000: Regions agreed to purchase Memphis-based secruities brokerage firm Morgan Keegan for $789 million.
• May 17, 2002: Purchased Independence Bank of Houston.
• July 12, 2002: Purchased Brookhollow National Bank of Dallas.
• January 24, 2004: A $5.9 billion dollar merger with Memphis-based Union Planters Bank was announced. 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 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.
• 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, now carry the Regions Bank name. The deal was finalized in November 2006. [1] Upon completion of the merger, Regions Financial became the nation's 8th largest bank with total assets of nearly $140 billion and approximately 2,000 branches.
• August 29, 2008: Regions paid $9 million to acquire $900 million in deposits and $33.4 million for five branch offices and other assets from the failed Alpharetta, Georgia-based Integrity Bank which was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. [2]
• February 6, 2009: Regions acquired $285 million in deposits and $17 million in assets from the failed Georgia-based FirstBank Financial Services which was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. [3]

Logos

• 1992

The first Regions Bank logo appeared in 1992 when the bank's holding company changed its name from First Alabama to Regions.

• 2004

In 2004, the Regions logo changed to show the former Union Planter's "cotton triangle" and the name "Regions" in the font that Union Planters had used previously.

• 2006

In November, 2006 the newly-combined Regions Financial Corporation unveiled a new logo featuring a pyramid rendered in "life green". According to internal communications, the pyramid symbolizes the company's "philosophy of always moving higher the bar of service. Always moving higher our goal of making life better. The three points of the pyramid represent those we serve - associates, customers and our communities." The logo was first revealed atop the newly-renamed Regions Center.

References

• Cantrell, Wanda (November 2006) "Merging Assets: The joining of Regions and AmSouth means combined deposits of massive proportions -- and big changes for some employees." Portico
• "Regions Financial." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 30 May 2006, 03:59 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 30 May 2006 [4].
• "Regions rolls out new logo." (November 7, 2006) Insider. Birmingham News
• Hubbard, Russell (July 14, 2008) "Regions bad year swamps high hopes born in AmSouth merger." Birmingham News

External links

• Regions Financial website