By PYMNTS | October 16, 2026
Regions Financial Corp., parent company of Regions Bank, expects the cost of cybersecurity to increase its adjusted noninterest expense by between 1.5% and 3.5% for full-year 2026, Chief Financial Officer Anil Chadha said Friday (Oct. 16) during an earnings call.
The company’s investments in technology and infrastructure drove a 6% increase in its equipment and software expense, according to a presentation released Friday.
“That is just investment in cybersecurity,” Chadha said of the adjusted noninterest expense figure. “So, think about frontier AI and investments that we are making to ensure we have a trustful platform for our customers.”
Asked by an analyst about banks redirecting tech investment toward cyber risk due to the cyber threat posed by AI, Chadha said such investments have always been critical but are of heightened importance now. This involves “meaningful expense,” both new and redirected, Chadha said.
“We do expect that to continue through time,” Chadha said. “It is the new reality that we live in today. We are definitely front and center with that.”
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Regions Financial has $163 billion in assets; serves customers across the South, Midwest and Texas; and, through Regions Bank, operates more than 1,200 banking offices, according to a Friday press release.
Regions Financial is also investing in implementing a cloud-based deposit platform and other modernization efforts, Chairman, President and CEO John Turner, Jr., said during the call.
“This is one of the most significant technology investments in our company’s history, and we remain confident in both our approach and the long-term benefits this investment will delivery,” Turner said.
Regions Bank will begin piloting its cloud-based deposit platform in the next week or two, expand the pilot during the first quarter of 2027 and then complete the conversion of customers over to the platform late in the second quarter or early in the third, Turner said.
“The platform will be a contemporary platform,” Turner said. “We think this gives us a lot of capabilities that we do not have today. It is a real-time system and we think that will be an advantage that we have and something we can bring to our customers.”
Chadha said during call that Regions Bank is monitoring how AI is being used across different platforms and how it may impact the bank’s deposit base.
“We are seeing very low traffic through that,” Chadha said. “We will continue to monitor that. We have talked before about while we do not believe that is a meaningful threat to our deposit base, we can monitor that as well.”