Regions Financial, an Alabama regional bank that caters to 16 states with over 1,800 branches, posted a loss of $277 million for the last quarter.

This comes as Regions had just put aside $200 million for the Securities and Exchange probe that was started to look into Morgan Keegan & Co investment banks. This is also added to the $100 million that will show as the fallout from the Gulf Oil Spill.

Loans are Improving, Even When Losses are Posted

Even with all of these hassles going on for the bank, their loans seem to be holding firm. With other banks raising loan losses to all-time highs, Regions has been able to hold its reserves in check.

This is a great sign showing that the bank’s future losses forecast has improved a bit. They also wrote off permanent losses of up to $651 million in loans that were felt to be unrecoverable in the last quarter.

With businesses and individuals becoming more cautious about the whole banking system and loans in general, avoiding debt, Regions still looks out for high credit worthy borrowers to hold them up until things in the economy can have the time to turn back around.