Regions Exports Growth with Fundation Group Partnership
March 2016
By David Zaslawsky
Photography by Robert Fouts
About 20 percent of Regions Financial Corp. customers and prospects in the business banking segment wanted an “alternative lending vehicle.”
Translated, they wanted to apply online and skip the visit to a brick and mortar branch.
“We started looking for a partnership,” said Mike Hart, Montgomery market president for Regions. “We looked at a lot of different organizations and vetted them. We found Fundation (Group).”
The partnership is two-fold for Regions, the state’s lone Fortune 500 company, which has its headquarters in Birmingham. “We should attract some new businesses where they don’t have that (online) availability wherever they are banking now,” Hart said. “No. 2, it helps us retain our good customers who want that kind of delivering.”
The online loan application for small businesses takes less than 10 minutes and will fund in three days or less. Those loans are typically for working capital or expansions, according to Hart. The term loans are from one year to five years and are for $25,000 to $1 million.
Regions partnered with Fundation because they, too, “have a high standard for customer service that we have,” Hart said. The bank also wanted to partner with a company that had similar lending structures.
“This unique agreement with Fundation allows Regions Bank to expand loan product offerings and method of delivery for small businesses while also cultivating long-term revenue and loan growth opportunities,” Joe DiNicolantonio, head of Regions business banking, said in a statement. “Small businesses continue to drive growth throughout the economy and in order to meet their ever-evolving needs and desire to utilize online and digital processes, the financial services industry must provide innovative solutions that offer flexibility, speed and capital access in a responsible manner.”
Hart expects that demand in the program will increase. He said that millennials “want a bank (where there’s) this online platform that works for them and if they don’t find that – that’s probably what’s going to lead them to moving (to another bank). It’s not how many branches you have or how convenient you are.”
Meanwhile, the bank has undergone some restructuring in Montgomery. Business banking (clients with annual revenue of $1 million to $15 million) and commercial and industrial banking (clients with annual revenue of more than $15 million) have been combined under the business services umbrella. The difference is one team instead of two, Hart said.
“There is no customer impact. It’s not that we’ve changed the way we’re delivering anything.” He said it pertains to just the Montgomery market and not across the bank’s 16-state footprint.
The bank did announce 262 layoffs from its workforce of about 24,000. The Montgomery market has more employees now – 317 – than it did a year ago. “We’re a net positive in Montgomery,” Hart said. “We’re growing our associate population in Montgomery. We are continuing to add customer-facing positions,” he said, referring to bank tellers, but primarily relationship managers. There were no branch closures in the Montgomery market.
Regions, which has 1,600-plus branches and 2,000 ATMs, reported net income of $1 billion from continuing operations last year.
0Getting Financially Fit
March 2016
By David Zaslawsky
There is a pent-up demand for personal financial information, according to a Regions Financial Corp. executive, and the Fortune 500 company is doing something about it.
Regions has plenty of information online for business groups and private wealth, said Mike Hart, Montgomery market president for Regions. The bank conducts seminars for private wealth “that have been built around women and wealth,” Harts aid. There are seminars on succession planning for business owners. The information is for “all aspects of a financial life cycle,” Hart said.
There are a wide range of subjects online that help customers with buying a home; saving for college and retirement “or looking for a new job and the financial ramifications that might come with that,” Hart said.
The third annual Regions Financial Fitness Fridays was held in January as a tie-in to New Year’s resolutions. The bank wants people to talk to Regions “about their financial fitness, ”Hart said.
“It all goes back to this notion of what do you want the bank to be. How will you utilize and leverage their services? How will that be delivered to you? Regions is doing a lot more of what we call advice, guidance and education.”
Hart asked where do individuals learn about financial matters, and that’s answered with Regions 360. “As the 360 indicates, we have the ability to help in every aspect of our financial life,” Hart said. “We think that as a bank we have an obligation to deliver those services – particularly around education and advice.”
