Morgan Keegan Opens Investment Banking Office in Chicago.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Memphis-based Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc., a full-service brokerage and investment banking firm with 145 offices in 15 states, announces the opening today, in Chicago, of its 18th fixed income investment banking office.

Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. is a subsidiary of Regions Financial Corp. The recently approved merger between Regions and Union Planters Corp. extends Regions' footprint into Midwestern states such as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri.

The Chicago office will focus on public finance investment banking, including public and nonprofit healthcare investment banking, and will be managed by George Pitt. Pitt has more than 30 years of public finance experience in Chicago as a bond attorney and investment banker, most recently as a managing director with UBS Financial Services Inc. Prior to that, he was a managing director and head of municipal and investment-grade corporate securities origination with Banc One Capital Markets, Inc. Pitt joins Morgan Keegan as a managing director and will manage the firm's Midwest public finance effort and its national healthcare finance effort, both based in Chicago. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Northwestern University.

Pitt has been joined in the Chicago office by J.C. McKenzie, whose public finance career began at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York and included subsequent investment banking positions with Salomon Brothers Inc., Smith Barney & Co., and GE Capital Corporation. Pitt and McKenzie first worked together in 1983, when Pitt's firm served as bond counsel and McKenzie's firm served as underwriter of special facility revenue bonds issued by the City of Chicago to finance terminal facilities at Chicago-O'Hare International Airport for American Airlines. McKenzie joins Morgan Keegan as a managing director. He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and his master of business administration degree from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration.

Morgan Keegan's Fixed Income Capital Markets Division is nationally recognized as one of the largest fixed income sales, trading, and research operations outside Wall Street. The division includes 425 sales people, traders, analysts and bankers working from institutional sales offices located throughout the South and in Boston, Chicago, and New York. In 2003, Morgan Keegan managed 740 bond issues raising a total of $22.5 billion. According to Thomson Financial, Morgan Keegan ranked 11th nationally in 2003 in negotiated municipal bond issues (full credit to book-running manager).

Morgan Keegan is a subsidiary of Regions Financial Corp., a full-service provider of banking, securities brokerage, mortgage, and insurance products and services. As of March 31, 2004, Regions had $48.8 billion in assets and shareholders' equity of $4.4 billion. Regions ranks among the 25 largest financial services companies in the nation; its common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RF).

Regions Financial Corp. announced its definitive merger agreement with Memphis, Tenn. - based Union Planters Corp. in January. The merger, which has received customary shareholder and governmental approvals, is expected to be completed this summer. When the transaction is legally closed, the new combined company, to be called Regions Financial Corporation, will be among the nation's top bank holding companies with more than $80 billion in assets. The new Regions will be a major financial institution in 15 states across the South, Midwest, and Texas with 1,400 branches and more than 140 brokerage offices. It will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol RF.