TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Birmingham-based Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF), one of the nation’s Top 15 financial services providers, has given $1 million to The University of Alabama in honor of its outgoing CEO Carl E. Jones Jr. and his wife Ann Karpinski Jones, both UA graduates. In addition, the Joneses have matched the gift with a $1 million donation of their own.

The gifts will establish an endowed scholarship fund to support the education of students in both the UA Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration and the College of Arts and Sciences. Students who are selected will receive the Carl E. and Ann K. Jones Regions Endowed Scholarship.

“We are very grateful for these generous gifts in honor of two of the University’s most loyal alumni. This endowment will benefit generations of students,” said UA President Robert E. Witt.

Regions President and CEO-Designate Jackson W. Moore, also a UA graduate and a current member of the UA President’s Cabinet, said the company was pleased to honor Carl Jones, who began his career with Regions in 1962 and was named chief executive officer in 1998.

“It is particularly fitting that we honor Carl and Ann in the form of a scholarship, given that one of Regions’ values is growth and learning opportunities for performance-oriented associates,” said Moore, who will succeed Carl Jones as CEO of Regions July 1. (Carl Jones will continue to serve as the company’s chairman of the board until July 2006.)

“It was important to us as a company to properly recognize Carl and Ann’s years of dedicated service to Regions, to the University and to the state of Alabama,” Moore said. “We appreciate the University’s partnership in this effort., and would like to thank the Joneses for the generosity and leadership they have demonstrated by making their own personal contribution to the scholarship fund.”

Priority consideration for the Carl E. and Ann K. Jones Regions Endowed Scholarship will be given to full-time undergraduate students who are dependents of employees of Regions Financial Corporation and any of its subsidiaries. Each scholarship will provide the recipient with full tuition for up to four years. The first of the scholarships will be awarded to students enrolling for the fall 2006 semester, and students will be able to apply online on the University’s Web site, www.ua.edu.

Carl Jones, who received his bachelor’s degree in banking and finance from the University in 1962, has served on the President’s Cabinets of all UA presidents since the 1970s. He has also served on UA’s National Advisory Board, the Campaign for Alabama Steering Committee and the Board of Visitors of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. Ann Jones, who received her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UA in 1962, has served as chair of the Leadership Board for the UA College of Arts and Sciences and as a member of the Advisory Board for the Blackburn Institute.

While a student at the University, Carl Jones was a member of the Jasons, Omicron Delta Kappa honor society, Delta Sigma Pi and Beta Gamma Sigma. As a student, Ann Jones served as president of Delta Gamma sorority and president of Associated Women Students. She was honored with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, one of the University’s top student awards. After college, she served as a college counselor and middle school math and English teacher at UMS-Wright Preparatory School in Mobile and as president of the Junior League of Mobile. In Birmingham, she has been a member of the board of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

After graduating from the University, Carl Jones joined Regions predecessor Merchants National Bank in Mobile as a participant in the bank’s management training program. He pursued and achieved graduate degrees from the Graduate School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University and the Graduate School of Credit and Financial Management at Dartmouth College. He was elected president of Regions Bank in Mobile in 1978 and was promoted to chief executive officer there in 1981, later going on to be named regional president of southern Alabama in 1981 and regional president for Louisiana in 1993.

In 1997, Carl Jones brought his community-banking, values-oriented perspective to the position of president of Regions, going on to be named chief executive officer in 1998 and assume the additional role of chairman of the board in 2001. He has guided Regions through mergers with First Commercial Corp., Morgan Keegan & Company Inc. and, most recently, Tennessee-based Union Planters Corp.

About Regions Financial Corporation

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF), headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., is a full-service provider of retail and commercial banking, trust, securities brokerage, mortgage, and insurance products and services. With its merger with the former Union Planters Corp. complete, Regions had $84.3 billion in assets as of March 31, 2005, making it one of the nation’s Top 15 financial services providers. Regions’ banking subsidiaries, Regions Bank and Union Planters Bank, operate some 1,400 offices and a 1,700-ATM network across a 15-state geographic footprint in the South, Midwest and Texas. Its investment and securities brokerage, trust and asset management division, Morgan Keegan & Company Inc., provides services from nearly 250 offices. Additional information about Regions, which is a member of both the Forbes and Fortune 500 and has one of the top mortgage companies in the United States, can be found at www.regions.com.

About The University of Alabama

The University of Alabama, the state’s flagship university, is a premier student-centered, research university and one of the top 40 public universities in the country. Since 1831, UA has been committed to supporting the aspirations of its students. That commitment is reflected in an educational experience that demonstrates an unwavering commitment to teaching excellence, the advancement of scholarship, and service to society. More information about the academic, research and outreach programs at The University of Alabama can be found at www.ua.edu.