By Associated Press
Birmingham, AL – AmSouth Bancorp. said Thursday it agreed to sell 52 branches in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee to settle Justice Department concerns over possible antitrust violations in its nearly ten (B) billion dollar merger with Regions Financial Corp. AmSouth said the branches have total assets of about two-point-seven (B) billion dollars. The largest number of the offices are in the Mobile area, where 22 are located in two counties. In exchange for the sale, the Justice Department said it agreed not to challenge the merger on antritrust grounds. The deal is in the final stages of review by the Federal Reserve board. The Birmingham-based AmSouth has 691 branches and 52-point-eight (B) billion dollars in assets. Regions, also with headquarters in Birmingham, has about one-thousand-300 branches and 84-point-six (B) billion dollars in assets.