Regions Financial Corp. posted a loss of $377 million for the third quarter, compared to a profit of $79 million in the same time period last year but said that results for its Morgan Keegan unit showed a steady performance buoyed by its private client revenue.

Birmingham, Ala.-based Regions said in a press release that Morgan Keegan’s results were “solid during the quarter, driven by increased private client revenues, reflecting incremental improvement in the equity markets, as well as the addition of new financial advisors.”

Morgan Keegan’s net income for the quarter was $29 million, down 6.5% from $31 million in the same time period last year. Total revenue for the quarter was $333 million, up approximately 10% from $303 million in the year-ago period. In the second quarter of 2009, Morgan Keegan had $30 million in net income on $337 million in total revenue. It’s total dropped by 1.2% from the second quarter.
 
Broken down further by division, Morgan Keegan’s Private Client unit revenue was $83 million for the quarter. Its Fixed Income Capital Markets unit posted $108 million in revenue and its Equity Capital Markets revenue posted $22 million. The Regions MK Trust unit reported $51 million in revenue   while Asset Management posted $45 million. “Interest and Other” had revenues of $24 million for the third quarter.

Morgan Keegan did not give details on the number of new advisors. The company did not comment further.

In the release, Regions also said that trust and asset management revenues improved in the quarter, benefiting from strong markets, which drove customer assets and trust assets up by 6% and 4%, respectively. “While slightly behind the previous quarter, third quarter fixed income revenues were solid, driven by institutional customers’ demand for government, mortgage-backed and municipal securities,” the company said.

Regions Financial, which has $140 billion in assets and operates in 16 states, said that the parent company’s overall loss was partly due to the $1 billion loan loss provision, as well as a $41 million charge related two consolidating 121 branches.