Ala.'s Regions Financial to buy Louisiana bank.

Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham, said Thursday it would acquire American Bancshares of Monroe, La., in a stock transaction valued at $61 million.

American is the parent company of First American Bank and Trust of Louisiana, which has $304 million of assets, $276 million in deposits and eight offices in Monroe, West Monroe, Shreveport, and Bossier City.

Regions, previously known as First Alabama Bancshares, has $10.4 billion of assets and one other transaction pending in Louisiana: the acquisition of BNR Bancshares of Baton Rouge.

The previous day, Hibernia Corp. signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pioneer Bancshares of Shreveport for $74.3 million in stock.

The addition of Pioneer, a one-bank holding company with $366 million of assets, deposits of $324 million, and 11 branches, will increase Hibernia's deposit market share in Shreveport and Bossier City to 22% from 12%.

Hibernia, which is based in New Orleans, will also pick up Pioneer's mortgage subsidiary, the largest in northwest Louisiana.

The $400 million servicing portfolio will boost the size of Hibernia's own $1.25 billion portfolio by 32%.

Hibernia currently has $5 billion of assets. The Pioneer transaction and four other pending mergers will increase that to $6.3 billion.

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