Regions Financial Corp (RF)

[mlkrborn]

RF $5.00 Regions Financial Corp. (RF) swung to a fourth-quarter loss, with the regional lender booking a hefty write-down following a long-planned deal to sell its brokerage unit. The operator of banks in 16 states across the southern and midwestern U.S., this month agreed to sell its regional brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co. to wealth manager Raymond James Financial Inc. (RJF) for $930 million, putting to rest a six-month auction process. The lender, which has faced a long road to recovery after taking heavy losses from soured real-estate loans during the financial crisis, still must repay $3.5 billion in government aid, and has cautioned it will have to raise more capital to make the repayment despite the Morgan Keegan sale.