Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The public policy priorities are as follows:

• Closing the Digital Divide
• Declaring Racism a Public Health Crisis
• Expanding Access to Telehealth
• A Path Toward Greater Food Equity
• Expanding Economic Opportunity Through CDFIs
• Equity in Early Childhood Education
• Decriminalizing Poverty: Fines, Fees, and Cash Bail Reform
• Advancing a National Police Misconduct Registry

The corporate engagement priorities are as follows:

• Advancing Corporate and Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Collaboration
• Expanding Reach and Sustaining Engagement
• Expanding Beyond Supplier Diversity to a Business Diversity Ecosystem
• Mobilizing Untapped Talent: Destigmatizing Reentry through Support for Fair Chance Hiring

CEO Action for Racial Equity is also committed to advancing these priorities through their place-based approach in Oakland, CA and additional cities such as Birmingham, Detroit, Baltimore, and Dallas.

Local Commitments

Regions continues its commitment to equity through its relationship with Momentum, Alabama’s premier leadership organization, empowering promising women to develop leadership skills that positively impact business, culture and politics in Alabama. Momentum utilizes a number of programs to advance equity for women in leadership throughout the state. Regions is also a member of Men with Momentum, a membership-based program of Momentum that is designed for men to have open dialogue about challenges they face in recruiting, managing, and promoting women and people of color. Men with Momentum’s goal is to identify common barriers to creating an equitable work environment in the state and define innovative approaches to overcome them.

Cultivating a More Diverse and Inclusive Work Environment

We believe it is important for our team of associates to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve. One of the primary ways we execute our Build the Best Team strategic initiative is by cultivating a workforce informed by a full range of thoughts, backgrounds, and perspectives; we all benefit from the creativity, varied perspectives, innovation, and energy that arises out of a diverse and inclusive workforce. To follow through on these principles, we seek to recruit, develop, promote, and retain talented people from a diverse candidate pool. Regions’ DEI Center of Expertise (COE) forms the core of our DEI strategy.

Other examples of the DEI COE’s work in 2021 include:

• Growing our “Bring Your Whole Self to Work” philosophy.
  • Bring Your Whole Self to Work: Regions has a passion for creating an inclusive environment that promotes and values diversity of race, color, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sex, pregnancy, and many other primary and secondary dimensions that make each of us unique as individuals and provide valuable perspective that makes us a better company and employer. More importantly, we recognize that creating a workplace where everyone, regardless of background, can do their best work is the right thing to do.
• Launching a three-year journey to enhance our inclusive culture through The Path to Inclusion model, starting with surveying where we are along The Path and identifying actions to continue our journey on the continuum.
• Devoting resources to identify and develop diverse talent, making meaningful progress in diverse talent attraction, acquisition, development, and retention.
• Further expanding our DEI Networks to 19 Networks in total, representing approximately 70 percent coverage of our associate population.
• Improving how we fill vacant enterprise-critical positions with diverse candidates and continuing to attract diverse talent.
• Implementing internal mobility strategies that promote development opportunities for all associates, including diverse talent pools.
• Nurturing an environment where associates feel psychological safety, seeing increases in both disability and LGBTQ+ self-identification rates.
• Hosting our second annual Week of Understanding, a dedicated time for associates to gather and have intentional conversations around allyship and support of marginalized groups.

Disability Inclusion, Services, and Outreach

In 2021, we continued to provide our associates with the opportunity to self-identify as having a disability. To ensure an inclusive environment that embraces these associates, each year we celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month, as one of our inclusion observances, by hosting a series of educational events.

Our disability-related efforts extend beyond associates to customers and communities. Regions has a dedicated Disability Services and Outreach Manager who manages our external and internal outreach efforts: Maintaining relationships with advocates for accessibility, staying abreast of their concerns, and working alongside Regions’ internal partners to address those concerns so that we can ensure we are providing accessible banking services. Our commitment includes raising awareness of autism spectrum disorders and creating an autism-friendly environment in our branches, as well as investing in programs that both promote independent living and increase access to job readiness and employment.

• Targeted veteran transition development programs in Regions Edge, the Regions interactive training platform.
• Veteran-to-veteran mentoring through MentorcliQ, a mentoring platform. In 2021 this was expanded to include military spouses.
• Easy access to military-specific resources, such as benefits, military leave, and specialized components of our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• Support from Regions’ DEI Networks.
• Community engagement opportunities.
• Updated Military Careers Page, which includes a military skills translator on regions.com/BRAVE.

Regions was recognized as a 2021 Military Friendly Employer by Military Friendly^® for creating professional opportunities that leverage military experience. Regions also continued offering Skillbridge fellowships in collaboration with Hiring Our Heroes for the third year in a row, supporting veterans’ successful transitions and hiring. We are also proud to support the spouses of military service members. In 2020, Regions committed to recruiting, hiring, promoting, and retaining military spouses by joining the MSEP. Regions also has a dedicated Service Members and Veterans Affairs Manager who maintains relationships within the military community, providing an open line of communication among Regions, service members, and veterans’ groups.

Human Rights Statement

Honoring and affirming protections for human rights is embodied in our values and mission. Regions’ support of fundamental rights is also reflected in our policies and in our everyday interactions with associates, suppliers, customers, and the communities where we do business. We strive to conduct business in a manner that is consistent with fundamental human rights principles, such as those stated in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We are committed to maintaining a work environment where all associates at every level are treated with dignity and respect, free from discrimination and harassment, and can devote their full attention and best efforts to their job. These same standards apply to our interactions with customers and others with whom we do business, including suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors. Regions expects that the entities with which we do business also respect individual human rights and conduct their business operations free from human rights abuses, such as forced or child labor, human trafficking, and slavery.

Finally, Regions supports the communities in which we operate through our commitment to financial inclusion. Regions has displayed a commitment to providing all customers access to the preferred financial tools, industry-leading products, and the expert advice and guidance we have to offer. We provide a broader discussion of our financial inclusion efforts in the “Expanding Access Through Financial Inclusion” section that appears later in this report.

Supplier Diversity

We view our vendors and suppliers of goods and services as extensions of Regions. We expect them to maintain our same high standards of integrity, operate responsibly, and support our mission to create shared value.

Regions is committed to increasing supply chain opportunities for certified diverse suppliers by providing access to contracting opportunities and supporting supplier development. The supplier diversity initiative at Regions focuses on building supplier relationships with U.S.-based small and disadvantaged businesses and those that are owned and controlled by minorities, women, veterans, disabled individuals, and LGBTQ+ individuals.

In carrying out our day-to-day business, Regions contracts with thousands of suppliers, many of whom subcontract goods and services related to the work they perform for us. Several measures have been incorporated into our processes to encourage our prime suppliers to create more subcontracting opportunities for high-performing diverse business enterprises. We also continually strive to increase our own minority supplier spend.

In 2021, we continued to support supplier diversity within the city where our corporate headquarters are located, through the City of Birmingham’s Valuing Inclusion to Accelerate and Lift (VITAL) Program. The VITAL Program focuses on providing local Minority- and Women-Owned businesses with opportunities to enhance diverse supplier relationships. We also enlisted additional resources that support our application of business enterprise classifications in compliance with federal regulations and industry standards; these classifications enable eligible businesses to participate in our Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs as minority-owned, female-owned, service-disabled-owned, LGBT-owned, or disability-owned business enterprises. All of these initiatives are helping us realize our objective to grow diverse suppliers as a percentage of total spend to industry standards.