Regions, Arkansas Banking To Merge

Regions Financial Corp., Birmingham, Ala., and Arkansas Banking Co., Jonesboro, Ark., have announced an agreement in principle to merge.Under the agreement, Regions would exchange 2.85 shares of its common stock for each share of Arkansas's common stock, and Arkansas would be merged into Regions. The merger is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, pending approval by Arkansas's stockholders and regulatory authorities, and to be accounted for as a pooling of interests. Regions is a bank holding company with operations in nine states. It is the parent of Regions Mortgage Co., Montgomery, Ala., which ranked 38th in the nation in retail mortgage originations in the first quarter, according to the Database Products Group, a MortgageWire affiliate.