Regions Financial Pays Bailout Bill

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Regions Financial ( RF) on Wednesday announced that it had fully repaid $3.5 billion in federal bailout funds.

The Birmingham, Ala., lender had issued preferred shares to the U.S. Treasury in November 2008, for assistance received through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

The repayment followed the company's sale of its Morgan Keegan brokerage subsidiary to Raymond James Financial, for $1.2 billion, and a $900 million offering of common shares, on March 19.

Regions said that it had "previously paid a total of $593 million in dividends to taxpayers,: and that "on an annual ongoing basis, the repurchase eliminates the payment of $175 million in dividends on these securities."

Regions Financial's shares were down over 3% in afternoon trading, to $6.44.

Interested in more on Regions Financial? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

-- Written by Philip van Doorn in Jupiter, Fla.

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Philip W. van Doorn is a member of TheStreet's banking and finance team, commenting on industry and regulatory trends. He previously served as the senior analyst for TheStreet.com Ratings, responsible for assigning financial strength ratings to banks and savings and loan institutions. Mr. van Doorn previously served as a loan operations officer at Riverside National Bank in Fort Pierce, Fla., and as a credit analyst at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, where he monitored banks in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Mr. van Doorn has additional experience in the mutual fund and computer software industries. He holds a bachelor of science in business administration from Long Island University.