Regions Financial Enters Private Student Loan Business Through Agreement with First Marblehead; New School Channel Offering Complements Bank's Existing FFELP Loan Business

The new private student loan program will complement Regions'existing Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) offering. In2005, Regions generated more than $200 million in FFELP loans.

"Regions is an important addition to our growing list of customers-- a list that has fully embraced the significant value proposition ofthe First Marblehead outsourced private student loan model," said JackL. Kopnisky, President and Chief Executive Officer of FirstMarblehead. "Together with First Marblehead, Regions gains the abilityto offer a complete private student loan product to its schoolcustomers while benefiting from the high return on investmenteconomics inherent in our unique make-and-sell model."

Bruce Austin, Executive Vice President, Student Loans, at RegionsBank, said: "Regions is committed to giving customers the confidencethey need to manage their finances throughout their lifetime and, withFirst Marblehead, we can continue to meet this goal. As a majorprovider of federally-backed student loans for more than 30 years, wehave seen significant changes in the market. Financing the rapidlyexpanding gap between tuition and existing loan options such asgovernment-backed loans has become a challenge for many students. Withour new private loan offering, we now have a solution that candramatically help students and their families reach their educationalfunding goals while enabling us to more efficiently deploy our capitaland serve our shareholders."

Students interested in educational financing through Regions Bankcan obtain information from their school's financial aid office.Additional information is available through Regions' Online StudentLoan Center at www.regions.com.

About The First Marblehead Corporation

First Marblehead provides outsourcing services for private,non-governmental, education lending in the United States. The companyhelps meet the growing demand for private education loans by providingnational and regional financial institutions and educationalinstitutions, as well as businesses and other enterprises, with anintegrated suite of design, implementation and securitization servicesfor student loan programs tailored to meet the needs of theirrespective customers, students, employees and members.

About Regions Financial Corporation

Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE: RF), headquartered inBirmingham, Ala., is a full-service provider of retail and commercialbanking, trust, securities brokerage, mortgage and insurance productsand services. Regions had $84.8 billion in assets as of Dec. 31, 2005,making it one of the nation's Top 15 banks. Regions' bankingsubsidiary, Regions Bank, operates some 1,300 offices and a 1,600-ATMnetwork across a 16-state geographic footprint in the South, Midwestand Texas. Its investment and securities brokerage, trust and assetmanagement division, Morgan Keegan & Company Inc., provides servicesfrom over 280 offices. Additional information about Regions, which isa member of both the Forbes and Fortune 500 and has one of the topmortgage companies in the United States, can be found atwww.regions.com.

This is a "Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private SecuritiesLitigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statementscontained herein, including statements related to our outlook for theindustry and for our performance for fiscal year 2006 and beyond, arebased upon the Company's historical performance and on current plans,estimates and expectations. The inclusion of this forward-lookinginformation should not be regarded as a representation by us or anyother person that the future plans, estimates or expectationscontemplated by us will be achieved. These forward-looking statementsrepresent First Marblehead's expectations as of February 13, 2006.Subsequent events may cause our expectations to change, and wedisclaim any obligation to update the forward-looking statements inthe future. You are cautioned that matters subject to forward-lookingstatements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties,including economic, regulatory and competitive and other factors thatmay cause First Marblehead's performance or achievements to bematerially different than those expressed or implied byforward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause FirstMarblehead's actual results to differ from its expectations includethe factors set forth under the caption "Factors That May AffectFuture Results" in First Marblehead's quarterly report on Form 10-Qfiled with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 8, 2006.These risks could cause actual results of the industry or our actualresults for fiscal year 2006 and beyond to differ materially fromthose expressed in any forward-looking statement made by or on behalfof the Company.