Financial

Shares of Regions Financial Corp. tumbled on Tuesday after the bank posted a wider-than-expected loss on sales of troubled real estate assets and an increase in charge-offs of bad loans.

Shares of the Birmingham-based regional bank fell 57 cents, or about 8.1 percent, to $6.46 in morning trading.

For the July-September period, Regions Financial reported a loss of $209 million, or 17 cents per share, narrower than the loss of $437 million, or 37 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

For the latest quarter, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast a loss of 9 cents per share, on average.

Regions Financial has been hit hard by the real estate market slump across its 16-state region, covering the South, the Midwest and Texas. President and CEO Grayson Hall said economic recovery in most of the bank’s markets “remains slow and uneven.”

Regions Financial sold about $350 million of troubled properties in a bulk sale during the quarter, resulting in $108 million in charge-offs of loans written off as not being repaid. The sale also led to $30 million in losses record as non-interest expenses.

Including the bulk sale, Regions sold or transferred to “held for sale” status about $1 billion in assets during the quarter.

Those moves helped trigger the quarter’s $759 million in total net charge-offs, of 3.52 percent of average loans. That was up from a charge-off rate of 2.86 percent in last year’s third quarter.

However, the bank’s provision for loan losses fell 28 percent to $760 million from more than $1 billion in last year’s third quarter.

Net interest income — the difference between what a bank makes from lending money and how much it costs to borrow money — rose nearly 3 percent to $868 million from $845 million.

Non-interest income, derived from fees and other charges, slipped nearly 3 percent to $750 million from $772 million.