On this page of StockholderLetter.com we present the 3/4/2024 shareholder letter from REGIONS FINANCIAL CORP — ticker symbol RF. Reading current and past RF letters to shareholders can bring important insights into the investment thesis.

 •  3/4/2024 Letter Continued (Full PDF)
 •  3/6/2023 RF Stockholder Letter
 •  3/3/2025 RF Stockholder Letter
 •  More "Banking & Savings" Category Stockholder Letters
 •  RF Benford's Law Stock Score = 97

RF 3/4/2024 Shareholder/Stockholder Letter Transcript:

true sign of character
owners the confidence and financial ability to effectively grow
their enterprises. Giving our associates the confidence that
comes from working for a company that provides meaningful
career opportunities while supporting their wellbeing. And
giving our communities the confidence of partnering with a
good neighbor and corporate citizen.
and leadership is the
Building this confidence has never been more important.
CONFIDENT IN OUR PLANS,
FOCUSED ON EXECUTION
It   s been said that the
way you conduct
yourself in times of
challenge and
uncertainty.
OPENING DOORS AND FINANCIAL
CONFIDENCE THROUGH HOMEOWNERSHIP
For Regions customer Lindsie Hudzina of Jonesborough,
Tennessee, nothing inspires confidence and personal
satisfaction like first-time homeownership.
Thanks to Regions Greenprint   personalized financial
plan     and the advice and guidance of Regions    bankers    
Lindsie was able to achieve that dream for herself and her
family in 2023.
By that measure alone, Regions    dedicated team of
20,000 associates more than rose to the occasion in
2023, a year that saw challenges in the U.S. regional
banking sector, lingering economic uncertainty in
America and abroad, and growing armed conflicts
around the world.
By focusing on what we could control     serving our
customers, innovating across our operating system,
reducing our risk exposure, and investing in our
associates and communities     Regions delivered
the highest return on capital compared to
regional banks with similar asset size in 2023.
That effort, passion and commitment played out
in so many powerful ways, from helping first-time
homebuyers like Tennessean Lindsie Hudzina build
credit and gain financial security, to supporting
thousands of business owners across our dynamic
and diverse 15-state regional banking footprint.
Our plans are built on a foundation of soundness,
profitability and growth, in that order of priority,
and we are committed to delivering consistent,
sustainable, long-term performance for all of our
stakeholders.
Our strategies are designed to build confidence.
Giving our customers the tools and counsel they
need to confidently manage their financial resources
in any economic climate. Giving our business
Lindsie   s
journey began
at the Regions
branch in
Jonesborough,
a beautiful,
close-knit East
Tennessee town
where she met
with Regions
Team Lead
Renee Honaker. Renee promptly introduced Lindsie to
the bank   s no-cost Regions Greenprint   personalized
financial planning tool, which has already created more
than a million plans annually for personal and small
business customers.
Using the tool and thoughtful counsel from Renee,
Lindsie identified her homeownership goal and its
biggest obstacle: credit. Over the next year, she opened
a secured Regions Explore Visa   credit card and paid it
off, and then did the same with a small Deposit Secured
Loan with her own collateral.
Now that Lindsie had experience making timely payments
on two credit products, she felt ready to apply for a Regions
mortgage. The Regions team walked her through the
process to get pre-approved for a mortgage loan.
For Regions, it   s all about building confidence    
one homeowner at a time.

FACING CHALLENGES IN A
POSITION OF STRENGTH
The bank failures that took place early last year impacted
the global financial system in 2023. At Regions, we stood
in a position of strength throughout the turmoil because
our business is fundamentally sound.
With more than 5 million customers, we serve a
highly diversified and loyal base of depositors,
including individual customers along with small,
medium and large businesses across a range of
industries and specialty areas.
DRIVING TOP FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Perhaps nothing speaks more to our customers    confidence
than rewarding us with the gift of their business.
Throughout 2023, we continued to focus on offering our
customers the advice, guidance and resources needed
to improve their financial wellbeing and enhance their
confidence in how they manage their money.
These and other achievements allowed our team to
deliver full-year 2023 earnings of $2 billion, reflecting
record pre-tax pre-provision income1 of $3.2 billion on a
reported basis. Our $7.6 billion in total revenue reflects 5
percent year-over-year growth and, once again, we have
the best full-year return on average tangible common
equity1 in our peer group at 22 percent.
Regions    business reflects broad diversification across our
consumer, wealth, commercial and corporate banking in both
geography and sector. And by keeping customers at the
center of everything we do, our three business groups
finished the year in a position of strength.
   As we enter 2024, we do so with a
balance sheet that provides consistent
and sustainable returns, and a business
model that puts the needs of our
customers first.   
CREDIT QUALITY REMAINS RESILIENT
DESPITE ONGOING ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

Our loan portfolio is balanced across all sectors, and
we do not have any significant concentrations within
asset classes. Our commitment to risk adjusted returns
and capital allocation has led us to build a strong and
resilient balance sheet, and the investments we have
made have allowed us to grow non-interest revenue
and meet more customers    needs.
Asset quality continued to normalize to
pre-pandemic levels, operating well within our expectations. Certain Commercial
& Industrial and Commercial Real Estate
sectors have exhibited signs of stress given
the current economic environment, but we
believe those risks are well managed.
    We continued to de-risk our balance sheet,
and in 2023, we reduced risk within our
Retail segment by strategically divesting
an unsecured loan portfolio.
Because of these and other factors, Regions remains
one of the top financial institutions in the U.S. today.
With approximately 1,250 retail branches and
specialty offices from coast to coast, we are the
19th largest bank in the U.S. in total deposits.
    Due to our strong credit risk management
framework, both our hedging strategy
and our highly diversified loan portfolios
position us well to withstand any economic
environment.
As we enter 2024, we do so with $152 billion in assets, a
balance sheet that provides consistent and sustainable
returns, and a business model that puts the needs
of our customers first. When you combine this with a
passion for making life better for the communities we
serve, you   ve got a formula that inspires confidence
in every stakeholder we touch.
2

CONSUMER BANKING
CORPORATE BANKING
The Consumer Bank served 4.5 million
consumer household and small business
customers in 2023.
Despite challenging market conditions, the Corporate Banking
Group   s performance remained consistent throughout 2023.
Regions Bank is the highest-rated
bank in Forbes    2024 list of the top 300
U.S. Companies for Customer Service.
We earned this opportunity by providing
personalized advice and guidance through
our digital channels, contact centers,
mortgage loan offices and branch network.
As part of our commitment to helping
our customers manage their money with
confidence, last summer we launched
Regions Overdraft Grace, a service giving
customers an additional business day
to make deposits to cover an overdraft.
More than 30 percent of customers have
benefited from the service. In addition,
our bankers helped customers create
more than 855,000 personalized Regions
Greenprint   financial plans. We believe
that everyone deserves a personalized
path to financial confidence from
someone who cares, and the performance
results from 2023 indicate our approach to
relationship banking works: we created
more primary banking relationships than
peers, grew net checking accounts,
generated $50 million in referral revenue,
responded to more than 4 million new
business leads, and finished 2023 with
the top Gallup KDS service scores. These
efforts produced 7 percent higher pretax
income for the Consumer Bank than
prior-year levels.
Average loan
balances grew 8
percent, driven
by growth across
Commercial,
Corporate, and
Real Estate
Banking, and
the growth is a
testament to the
effectiveness
of our team based approach to banking. We believe local bankers,
working with industry and product experts, provide unique ideas and
solutions to meet customer needs and distinguish Regions by the way
we team together to serve customers.
Treasury Management continued to deliver record performance
results throughout the year. The group reported 8 percent revenue
growth for the year, with 6 percent client growth, 3 percent growth
in Digital Payments and Integrated Services, and a 19 percent
increase in Global Trade Services dollar volume. Additionally, the
group expanded its support for international companies with the
launch of the International Subsidiaries Group.
WEALTH MANAGEMENT
Wealth Management also delivered record results in 2023
with growth in total relationships of 7.8 percent.
Net income
before tax grew
5 percent, with
flat net-interest
income and
growth in noninterest revenue
of 7 percent.
Our strategic
approach puts
clients first
by providing financial planning advice and solutions through all
cycles of the economy. Our Wealth Advisors were able
to anticipate the needs of our clients, prospects and stakeholders
and provide various solutions ranging from protecting assets to
improving yields. This focus and dedication allowed us to finish the
year showing continued strength in Private Wealth Management
client loyalty and satisfaction, with 86 percent of clients giving their
primary advisor a 5-star rating.
3

EXECUTING STRATEGIC PLANS WITH
A SENSE OF URGENCY
WHAT   S IN A FOOTPRINT? A LOT.
Our performance results in 2023 reflect the strength and
diversity of our balance sheet, robust liquidity position,
and prudent risk management.
We enjoy a wonderful geography. The fifteen states
that make up our footprint account for about 41
percent of the nation   s population, 40 percent of its
employment and 38 percent of its personal income.
Despite the many challenges in our operating
environment, we are confident our proven strategy
focused on soundness, profitability and growth will
continue to provide resiliency regardless of the economic
environment we experience.
With a combined GDP of nearly $9 trillion, these
states also represent the third-largest economy in
the world behind only the United States and China.
At Regions,
we   re happy
to call them
all    home.   
Our financial soundness is achieved through strong risk
management and a sharpened focus on risk-adjusted
returns and capital allocation. Profitability is the byproduct
of smart, strategic investments, continuous improvement,
and solid credit performance. Growth is the result of
innovating and transforming every aspect of our company
to best serve our customers and our communities.
While developing our strategic plans, we carefully
considered key differentiators like the attractive markets
we serve, customer loyalty and our relationship banking
model. At the heart of our strategy to enhance soundness,
profitability and growth is an intentional, deliberate
approach to prioritizing our work and making decisions
with the following factors in mind:

Resource Allocation: making sure we   re being
efficient in how we use our time, talent, technology
and investments to effectively execute our plans.

Customer Segmentation: taking a closer look at
who our customers are, how they want to bank with
us, and where we   re driving relationship returns and
profitability.

Markets: leveraging the strength of our footprint and
highlighting where there are opportunities to deepen
our density.

Prioritization and Transformation: organizing how
we invest to transform our business and deepen
customer relationships.
And what
an attractive
home it is. Our 15-state footprint consistently
posts faster job growth and a lower unemployment
rate than the U.S. as a whole. Of the 10 states with
the fastest growing population in 2023, six were
here in our geography.
We are banking in places where more and more
people are choosing to live, work and create
wealth.
And we   re proud to be here to serve them all.
In fact, today, we command a top five or better
market share in 70 percent of the metropolitan
areas across our footprint.
those that move and execute decisively, intelligently and
with the greatest sense of urgency. It   s about prioritizing
work that matters, having accountability and paying
attention to details.
We leveraged data and analytics to better understand where
we have opportunities and make fact-based decisions on
where we invest our resources. In addition, we stress tested
different scenarios to ensure we   re prepared for situations
that are outside of our control     like government
shutdowns, election outcomes or a recession.
To that end, we will continue to prioritize five critical areas
we can control to drive optimal performance     serving
our customers, innovating across our operating system,
effectively managing our risk exposure, investing in
our associates, and supporting our communities.
Of course, strong strategic planning is only part of the
equation. We also know that winning organizations are
4

SERVING OUR CUSTOMERS
MANAGING OUR RISK EXPOSURE
Our branch associates who are    the face and heartbeat of
Regions    worked hard in 2023 to ensure our customers
recognized the value of having a relationship with us.
Taking a similar approach, our teams are now
building new data-driven models that will
assess fraud probability for check and cash
deposits while providing more timely holds on
potentially fraudulent deposits in our branches.
We   re also working with customers so they can
better understand fraud relating to social
engineering, payments and bank account
takeover. These three most common forms of
online banking fraud contributed to more than
$9 billion in losses in the U.S. this past year,
according to the Federal Trade Commission.
In 2023, our Digital and Cybersecurity teams
introduced a new Enterprise Authentication
Portal, the underlying technology behind the
improvements we   ve made to our online banking
login and credential reset experiences. This is a
significant innovation milestone for Regions as
the Enterprise Authentication Portal is the first
major customer-facing application developed
and launched using our cloud-based
infrastructure.
   From bankers taking time to discuss the
protocols we have in place to protect customers   
financial information, to the launch of new
mobile app features that offer greater access
and convenience, we made solid progress to
enhance every customer interaction and
experience with Regions.   
Additionally, in 2023, we introduced My GreenInsights budget
and planning tools, a mobile app that allows customers to
aggregate external accounts, set budgets and create financial
goals. The tools have received high praise from users while
giving them another compelling reason to bank with Regions.
By using cloud-native technology, we can
increase our speed to market to match changes
in customer preferences, improve our self-service
capabilities and protect against the evolving
cybercrime landscape. Just one more example of
how we put our customers at the heart of
everything we do, including cybersecurity.
INNOVATING ACROSS OUR OPERATING SYSTEM
This past year, we also reached an important milestone in the
effort to modernize our core systems and elevate the customer
experience by selecting a real-time, digital-centric technology
platform for our new deposit system. The new system that
we are building will help us deliver personalized customer
experiences, streamline new capabilities and provide greater
convenience across our existing banking channels. Equally
important, it will enable us to do all of this work faster and
more efficiently.
Another great example of how we   re innovating is our
Customer Journey Redesign effort that helps us identify the
most pressing service problems facing our customers. This
important work allowed us to eliminate friction points that
interrupted a customer   s service request while also providing
additional self-service opportunities for customers to
complete various requests where and when they choose.
5
Effectively managing risks is at the core of
our business. Rapidly rising rates created
liquidity and interest rate risk management
challenges for many. At Regions, our teams
anticipated the potential impacts and
reacted with mitigation strategies that
positioned Regions well. Likewise, as
inflation and rising rates have begun to
affect borrowers and credit metrics are
returning to more traditional levels, our
bankers have been actively managing their
relationships to minimize the effects of the
return to normal.



 3/4/2024 Letter Continued (Full PDF)