,Regional banks chief executives say that, while they face significant funding cost pressure, their small size relative to the major banks gives them an advantage.The Australian Financial Review continues its overview of the banking sector with an article in today's edition, focusing on the regional banks - Bank of Queensland, Suncorp and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.These banks are more reliant than their big bank rivals on customer deposits for funding. This is a positive in an environment where the regulator wants banks to have more stable funding.But in recent times it has been a negative because strong competition for customer deposits has pushed the cost of this source of funding up more than other funding.Bank of Queensland chief executive Stuart Grimshaw said regional banks were nimble enough to compete effectively in selected markets. He nominated relationship banking as one of those areas.