FBMS Company Profile

Our company, The First Bancshares, Inc. was incorporated on June 23, 1995 to serve as a bank holding company for The First, A National Banking Association (“The First”), headquartered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The First began operations on August 5, 1996 from our main office in the Oak Grove community, which is now included within the city of Hattiesburg. At year end, the First had 27 branches, one motor bank facility and four loan production offices in the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

We exited the recent recession with strong asset quality metrics compared to most of our peers, which we believe illustrates our historically disciplined underwriting and credit culture. As such, we benefited from our strength by taking advantage of growth opportunities when many of our peers were unable to do so. Since that time, we focused on growing earnings per share and increasing our tangible common equity and tangible book value per share. In addition, we returned to strong levels of loan growth by continuing to strengthen our relationships with existing clients and creating new relationships.

In April 2013, we completed our first post-recession acquisition with the purchase of First National Bank of Baldwin County, which resulted in our strategic entry into the south Alabama market. Then in July 2014 we completed our acquisition of Bay Bank, previously headquartered in Mobile, Alabama. The conversion and integration of these acquisitions have been successful to date, and we are optimistic that this market will continue to contribute to our future growth and success. Also in 2014 we established a de novo branch in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a loan production office in Slidell, Louisiana.

We strive to provide our customers with the breadth of products and services offered by large regional banks, while maintaining the timely response and personal service of a locally owned and managed bank. In addition to offering a full range of deposit services and commercial and personal loans, we have a mortgage division. The following is a description of the products and services we offer.

Deposit Services. We offer a full range of deposit services that are typically available in most banks and savings and loan associations, including checking accounts, NOW accounts, savings accounts, and other time deposits of various types, ranging from daily money market accounts to longer-term certificates of deposit. The transaction accounts and time certificates are tailored to our principal market area at rates competitive to those offered by other banks in the area. All deposit accounts are insured by the FDIC up to the maximum amount allowed by law. We solicit these accounts from individuals, businesses, associations and organizations, and governmental authorities. In addition, we offer certain retirement account services, such as Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

Loan Products. We offer a full range of commercial and personal loans. Commercial loans include both secured and unsecured loans for working capital (including loans secured by inventory and accounts receivable), business expansion (including acquisition of real estate and improvements), and purchase of equipment and machinery. Consumer loans include equity lines of credit and secured and unsecured loans for financing automobiles, home improvements, education, and personal investments. We also make real estate construction and acquisition loans. Our lending activities are subject to a variety of lending limits imposed by federal law. While differing limits apply in certain circumstances based on the type of loan or the nature of the borrower (including the borrowers relationship to the bank), in general we are subject to a loans-to-one-borrower limit of an amount equal to 15% of our unimpaired capital and surplus.

Mortgage Loan Division. We have a mortgage loan division which originates loans to purchase existing or construct new homes and to refinance existing mortgages.

Private Banking Division. We have a Private Banking Division, which offers financial services and wealth management services to individuals who meet certain criteria.

Other Services. Other bank services we offer include on-line internet banking services, voice response telephone inquiry service, commercial sweep accounts, cash management services, safe deposit boxes, travelers checks, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, and automatic drafts for various accounts. We are associated with the Interlink, Plus, Pulse, Star, and Community Cash networks of automated teller machines that may be used by our customers throughout our market area and other regions. The First also offers VISA and MasterCard credit card services through a correspondent bank.