Regions Financial Corp. agreed to pay a $1 million penalty to settle claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission that its bank played a key role in an investment scheme that mostly took place in Latin America.
The SEC had claimed that Regions Bank and predecessor Union Planters Bank gave investors the impression that certain mutual funds would be secure. Regions said in a statement that the source of the problem was a trustee relationship with a third party it inherited from the 2004 purchase of Union Planters Corp.
The penalty paid by Regions will be placed in a fund to compensate investors.
