S&P lifts Regions Financial

Standard & Poor's said it raised the long- and short-term issuer credit ratings on Regions Financial Corp. to BBB-/A-3 from BB+/B.

The agency also raised the ratings on primary bank subsidiary Regions Bank to BBB/A-2 from BBB-/A-3.

The outlook is stable.

S&P also raised its preferred shares rating to BB from B+.

Regions Financial recently announced that it planned to redeem $3.5 billion in series A cumulative perpetual preferred shares issued to the U.S. Treasury under the Troubled Asset Relief Program's (TARP) Capital Purchase Program and that it priced a common stock offering of about $900 million, the agency said.

Regions also announced that the Federal Reserve has completed its review of the company's capital plan and informed the company that it had no objections to the capital actions set forth in its plan, the agency said.

The upgrade reflects a view that Regions' capital and earnings have improved, S&P said.

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