New York, April 18, 2012 -- The following release represents Moody's Investors Service's summary
credit opinion on Regions Financial Corporation and includes certain regulatory
disclosures regarding its ratings. This release does not constitute
any change in Moody's ratings or rating rationale for Regions Financial
Corporation and its affiliates.
Moody's current ratings on Regions Financial Corporation and its
affiliates are:
Long Term Issuer rating of Ba3
Senior Unsecured (domestic currency) ratings of Ba3
Subordinate (domestic currency) ratings of B1
Senior Unsecured Shelf (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Ba3
Subordinate Shelf (domestic currency) ratings of (P)B1
Junior Subordinate Shelf (domestic currency) ratings of (P)B2
Preferred Shelf (domestic currency) ratings of (P)B2
Preferred Shelf -- PS2 (domestic currency) ratings of (P)B3
Short Term Issuer (domestic currency) rating of NP
Regions Bank
Long Term Issuer rating of Ba2
Senior Unsecured Bank Note Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Ba2
Long Term Bank Deposits (domestic currency) ratings of Ba1
Long Term Other Senior Obligations ratings of Ba2
Bank Financial Strength ratings of D+
Subordinate Bank Note Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)Ba3
Subordinate (domestic currency) ratings of Ba3
Short Term Bank Note Program (domestic currency) ratings of (P)NP
Short Term Bank Deposits (domestic currency) ratings NP
Short Term Other Senior Obligations ratings of NP
RATINGS RATIONALE
Moody's assigns a standalone bank financial strength rating (BFSR) of
D+ and a long-term deposit rating of Ba1 to Regions Bank.
The holding company, Regions Financial Corporation (Regions),
is rated Ba3 for senior debt. On February 14, 2012,
Moody's changed the rating outlook to stable from negative,
reflecting a reduction in Regions' risk concentrations and signs
of stabilization in asset quality. Specifically, commercial
real estate (CRE) and home equity (HE) have come down 31% and 8%,
respectively, from the prior year-end. Signs of stabilization
in asset quality are reflected in the declining amount of criticized and
classified loans as well as the reduced inflows of new nonaccrual assets
which were down 33% in 2011.
Despite the signs of stabilization, Regions' asset quality
is relatively weak and continues to be its primary credit challenge.
Regions' nonperforming assets (NPAs, including 90+ and
accruing TDRs) remain elevated at 7.91% of loans plus OREO
at year-end 2011. Regarding earnings, while Regions'
pre-provision, pre-tax income is in line with similarly-rated
US banks, its net income is weaker reflecting its asset quality
challenges.
The rating also incorporates Regions' good franchise in the Southeast
US, which drives the bank's healthy liquidity profile as core
deposits exceed total loans. In addition, Moody's views Regions'
liquidity position at the parent company to be good, as it maintains
sufficient cash on hand to meet its maturing obligations over the next
24 months without access to dividends from bank subsidiaries. These
franchise strengths support the current ratings.
Rating Outlook
The rating outlook is stable. The stable outlook reflects the reduction
in Regions' risk concentrations, CRE and HE, and signs
of stabilization in asset quality.
What Could Change the Rating - Up
For positive ratings pressure to emerge, we would need to see a
significant reduction in the level of NPAs as well as improved earnings.
What Could Change the Rating - Down
Downward rating pressure could result from asset quality deterioration
beyond our expectations, notably if the rate of new inflows of NPAs
significantly increase, negatively affecting profitability and capital.
Regions' remaining exposure to CRE and HE in its core Southeast
footprint expose it to further volatility in asset quality if a more adverse
economic climate were to develop.
The methodologies used in these ratings were Bank Financial Strength Ratings:
Global Methodology published in February 2007, Incorporation of
Joint-Default Analysis into Moody's Bank Ratings: A
Refined Methodology published in March 2007 and Moody's Guidelines
for Rating Hybrid Securities and Subordinated Debt published in November
2009. Please see the Credit Policy page on www.moodys.com
for a copy of these methodologies.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Although these credit ratings have been issued in a non-EU country
which has not been recognized as endorsable at this date, the credit
ratings are deemed "EU qualified by extension" and may still
be used by financial institutions for regulatory purposes until 30 April
2012. Further information on the EU endorsement status and on the
Moody's office that has issued a particular Credit Rating is available
on www.moodys.com.
For ratings issued on a program, series or category/class of debt,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to each rating of a subsequently issued bond or note of the same series
or category/class of debt or pursuant to a program for which the ratings
are derived exclusively from existing ratings in accordance with Moody's
rating practices. For ratings issued on a support provider,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the rating action on the support provider and in relation to each particular
rating action for securities that derive their credit ratings from the
support provider's credit rating. For provisional ratings,
this announcement provides relevant regulatory disclosures in relation
to the provisional rating assigned, and in relation to a definitive
rating that may be assigned subsequent to the final issuance of the debt,
in each case where the transaction structure and terms have not changed
prior to the assignment of the definitive rating in a manner that would
have affected the rating. For further information please see the
ratings tab on the issuer/entity page for the respective issuer on www.moodys.com.
Information sources used to prepare each of the ratings are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's considers the quality of information available on the rated
entities, obligations or credits satisfactory for the purposes of
issuing these ratings.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it
uses in assigning the ratings is of sufficient quality and from sources
Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate,
independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or
validate information received in the rating process.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for general disclosure on potential conflicts of interests.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on www.moodys.com
for information on (A) MCO's major shareholders (above 5%)
and for (B) further information regarding certain affiliations that may
exist between directors of MCO and rated entities as well as (C) the names
of entities that hold ratings from MIS that have also publicly reported
to the SEC an ownership interest in MCO of more than 5%.
A member of the board of directors of this rated entity may also be a
member of the board of directors of a shareholder of Moody's Corporation;
however, Moody's has not independently verified this matter.
Please see Moody's Rating Symbols and Definitions on the Rating
Process page on www.moodys.com for further information on
the meaning of each rating category and the definition of default and
recovery.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on www.moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history. The date on
which some ratings were first released goes back to a time before Moody's
ratings were fully digitized and accurate data may not be available.
Consequently, Moody's provides a date that it believes is
the most reliable and accurate based on the information that is available
to it. Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see www.moodys.com for any updates on changes to
the lead rating analyst and to the Moody's legal entity that has
issued the rating.
Gregory Frank
Vice President - Senior Analyst
Financial Institutions Group
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Robert Young
MD - Financial Institutions
Financial Institutions Group
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Releasing Office:
Moody's Investors Service, Inc.
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's Disclosures on Credit Ratings of Regions Financial Corporation