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Questions about M&A are likely to dominate first-quarter conference calls among regional banks in the coming weeks. But beyond the standard "we're open to opportunities" line from executives, the real story will be in the numbers.
April 12 -
Click on individual bank names in the table below to access American Banker's coverage of each company's earnings report. Links to relevant coverage, filings, releases, and bank benchmark profile data can be found in the Related Links area of each article.
April 29 -
A spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that Regions Financial will no longer accept new enrollments in its Relationship Rewards program as it braces for the impacts of the Durbin rule.
March 1 -
Regions Financial Corp. just can't seem to elude questions about the Troubled Asset Relief Program and its capital levels.
February 1 -
Both companies made progress cleaning up their books and retooling business lines, but they're finding weakness in asset quality and the overall recovery to be especially stubborn.
January 25
Regions Financial Corp. posted its second quarterly profit in a row on Tuesday, after a year and a half of losses, as credit costs declined.
The Birmingham, Ala., bank reported net income of $17 million, or a penny a share, after paying preferred dividends. That compares with a loss of $255 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.
First-quarter income was down slightly from the $36 million profit reported in the fourth quarter, but far exceeded analysts' expectations. Analysts polled by Bloomberg, on average, expected a loss of 10 cents per share.
Total revenue was up 3.8% from a year earlier to $1.71 billion, helped by an increase in net interest income, but was down 18% from the fourth quarter due to a decline in brokerage and investment banking revenue, as well as mortgage originations.
Regions said it made new or renewed loan commitments of $13.3 billion during the first quarter, consisting primarily of residential first mortgages and commercial loans. Still, its balance sheet continued to constrict. Total average loan balances at the end of the period were $82.41 billion, down 8.1% from a year earlier and 2% from the fourth quarter.
Credit trends continued to improve. Regions said net chargeoffs dropped 31% year-over-year to $481 million, or 2.37% of average loans on an annualized basis. Delinquencies fell for the fourth quarter in a row. Inflows of nonperforming loans also declined sharply.
Due to the better credit picture, the bank set aside less for future losses. The provision for credit losses totaled $482 million, down 37% from the year-ago quarter and 29% from the previous quarter.
Regions, which is concentrated in the Southeast, one of the regions hardest hit by the housing market bust, is the largest bank to have yet to repay funds it received under the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Grayson Hall, president and chief executive, has said that a return to sustainable profitability and a substantial improvement in credit are necessary before Regions can repay the $3.5 billion of Tarp funds. On Tuesday, Hall was upbeat on both of those prospects.
"We're making solid headway towards sustainable profitability and key credit metrics continue to improve," he said in a press release. "The economic recovery is slow —especially in our Southeastern markets — but our focus on customers is paying off. … We are improving productivity and efficiency and taking steps to expediently and prudently deal with credit problems and more stressed credit portfolios."
The $132-billion asset bank operates 1,800 branches in 16 states across the South and the Midwest.
