Mr. Murray: Regions Financial Corporation, formerly First Alabama Bancshares, was formed in 1971 with three Alabama banks: the First National Bank of Huntsville, the First National Bank of Montgomery, and Exchange Security Bank. I work for what used to be Merchants National Bank of Mobile, which was purchased by First Alabama in 1981. We adopted the Regions name in 1996. Over the years the bank has grown steadily through internal growth as well as through a number of acquisitions in most of the Southern states. In case you're unaware of it, the South has a rich football history with a number of fierce rivalries. Our Chairman of the Board at that time, Stan Mackin, was speaking at an investment conference just after we had made the name change, commenting on the change. He said that if we were going to grow outside of Alabama we would have to adopt a name that didn't have the word 'Alabama' in it. He didn't figure we would do well in Tennessee or anywhere else without a new name. Today, we have operations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. In 1998 Regions was added to the S&P 500, and our current market capitalization is about 7 billion. Regions acquired Morgan Keegan, Inc., in March 2001. Morgan Keegan, one of the South's largest investment firms, will operate as an independent subsidiary of Regions. This acquisition allowed Regions to increase its fee income as a percentage of total income. It also gives us greater distribution of the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Funds. We offer eight funds in total, and as a result of the Morgan Keegan merger, we have renamed our funds the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Funds. We have three stock funds: The Regions Morgan Keegan Select Growth Fund, the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Value Fund and the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Aggressive Growth Fund. Also, there is the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Balanced Fund, the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Fixed Income Fund, the Regions Morgan Select Limited Maturity Government Fund, the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Treasury Money Market Fund, and the Regions Morgan Keegan Select Government Money Market Fund. The Funds are listed in The Wall Street Journal under the heading RMK Select Funds.
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