Loans Loans are the single largest category of interest-earning assets for AmSouth and produce the highest level of revenues. At December 31, 2000, loans, net of unearned income, totaled $24.6 billion, a decrease of 6.3 percent from the $26.3 billion reported at the end of 1999.
The decline in the loan portfolio at December 31, 2000, was primarily the result of increased sales of participations in certain narrow-spread loans to third-party conduits, as well as the securitization of $1.0 billion of automobile dealer indirect loans during the year.

The residential mortgage portfolio continued to decline in 2000 as the result of management’s decision in 1997 to reduce the amount of these loans on the balance sheet. This was accomplished through normal runoff, selling a portion of new originations into the secondary market and participating loans into third-party conduits. At the end of 2000, there were approximately $2.7 billion of outstanding mortgage loans that had been sold to conduits, or approximately $1.0 billion higher than at year-end 1999.

During 2000, AmSouth continued to reduce the amount of low-yield commercial loans on the balance sheet through the use of commercial loan conduits. At the end of 2000, there were approximately $1.8 billion of commercial loans in third-party conduits, approximately 24.9 percent higher than at the end of 1999.

AmSouth also sold, in 2000, low-spread dealer indirect automobile loans to conduits. At the end of 2000, there were approximately $793.6 million of outstanding dealer indirect loans in conduits.

Major Loan Categories Table 7

				December 31
(In millions)				2000	1999	1998	1997	1996
Commercial:
	Commercial and industrial			$ 7,313	$ 7,967	$ 7,943	$ 7,653	$ 7,014
	Commercial loans secured by real estate			1,765	2,036	1,833	2,496	2,407
		Total commercial		9,078	10,003	9,776	10,149	9,421
Commercial real estate:
	Commercial real estate mortgages			2,323	2,295	2,221	1,465	1,337
	Real estate construction			2,517	2,417	1,800	1,321	1,091
		Total commercial real estate		4,840	4,712	4,021	2,786	2,428
Consumer:
	Residential first mortgages			1,358	1,701	2,306	3,482	3,755
	Other residential mortgages			4,656	3,874	3,346	3,378	3,108
	Dealer indirect			2,990	4,149	2,909	1,883	1,834
	Revolving credit			505	489	477	682	688
	Other consumer			1,189	1,339	1,610	2,055	1,891
		Total consumer		10,698	11,552	10,648	11,480	11,276
Total loans net of unearned income				$ 24,616	$ 26,267	$ 24,445	$ 24,415	$ 23,125