Strength, Stability, & Opportunity:
Our Hancock Bank Legacy

Hancock County Bank (circa 1899)

     One hundred ten years ago, 19 enterprising Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, men and women responded to South Mississippi's bustling turn-of-the-century economy by establishing the Hancock County Bank on core values of honor & integrity, strength & stability, commitment to service, teamwork, and personal responsibility. From that point, our company assumed a pivotal role in helping the people of our communities achieve their financial goals and dreams and in facilitating commerce and opportunities for people across our greater Gulf Coast.

     Since first opening on October 9, 1899, with $10,000 in capital and $8,277.41 in first-day deposits, Hancock Bank has evolved as a premier regional financial services leader and a catalyst for Gulf South growth. An FDIC insured institution, Hancock Bank consistently rates among America's strongest, safest banks, according to BauerFinancial, Inc. Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ: HBHC) - parent company of Hancock Bank (Mississippi), Hancock Bank of Louisiana, Hancock Bank of Florida, and Hancock Bank of Alabama - has assets of approximately $6.7 billion.

     Hancock offers comprehensive consumer and business financial solutions through 164 offices and 136 automated teller machines across South Mississippi, south central Louisiana, southern Alabama, and north Florida, including subsidiaries Hancock Investment Services, Inc., Hancock Insurance Agency and its divisions of Ross King Walker and J. Everett Eaves, and Harrison Finance Company; and corporate trust centers in Gulfport, MS, Jackson, MS, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Orlando. Additional corporate information and 24-hour e-Banking and e-Pay services are available at www.hancockbank.com.

The Early Days

     As South Mississippi lumber, cotton, wool, turkey, and produce trades thrived during the early 1900s and as the Mississippi Gulf Coast evolved as a popular tourist destination, Hancock County Bank began cultivating opportunities for expansion. Within weeks of signing the bank's charter, the original board of directors purchased a site at Main Street and South Beach Boulevard and initiated construction of Bay St. Louis's first two-story brick building to house the Hancock County Bank, the post office, and the United States Customs Office. The main Bay St. Louis branch still operates from that building.

     Hancock County Bank opened the first branch of a Mississippi Coast bank at Pearlington on January 8, 1902. On April 29, 1902, the bank established a branch at Pass Christian, a popular "Newport-of-the-South" retreat for Northerners fleeing brutal winters and affluent New Orleanians and North Mississippians seeking relief from sweltering summer heat. As the Pearlington branch closed in 1918, a Logtown branch opened and operated until 1937, when the South Mississippi timber supply dwindled and the fervor of early saw mill production paled.

Mississippi Gulf Coast "Bathing Beauties" (1920s)

     The Mississippi Gulf Coast reveled in the gaiety and prosperity of the "Roaring Twenties." The first banana ship arrived at the Port of Gulfport; and 14 new hotels drew hoards of tourists to sparkling ballrooms, beachside tea dances, and luxurious rooms with a view. In 1927 Hancock County Bank opened a branch in Long Beach, a hamlet with a truck farming trade and volume of red radish and bean exports that earned the community notoriety as the "Radish Capital of the World." Similar to today's pretzels and peanuts, Long Beach's radishes were popular snacks in northeastern taverns. The "Long Red" radish fields and trade succumbed to real estate fever sweeping the Gulf South in the 1920s and, ultimately, to the crushing economic blow of the 1929 stock market crash.

Gulfport domicile (circa 1933)

     As America spiraled into the economic abyss of the Great Depression, 162 Mississippi banks failed, eventually leaving Gulfport without a bank. Since many Gulfport residents already patronized the Long Beach branch, Gulfport businessmen appealed to the Hancock County Bank to establish a downtown Gulfport branch. On August 5, 1932, Hancock County Bank opened at the corner of 13th Street and 26th Avenue in the former First National Bank of Gulfport building. As the nation and the region regained economic footing, Hancock County Bank moved to a new location at the corner of 25th Avenue and 14th Street. Anticipating this relocation, board members and stockholders amended the bank's charter to move the domicile from Bay St. Louis to Gulfport; and Hancock County Bank became Hancock Bank. The Long Beach operation moved to Gulfport in 1933. However, in 1955, the Long Beach office reopened at the present Jeff Davis Avenue site as the first Mississippi Gulf Coast bank to offer residents drive-up teller window service.

Gulf South Growth

     Through economic uncertainty (including the Depression and more than 20 recessions), social revolution, and a new century, Hancock Bank has remained a stronghold of financial stability, instigating Gulf Coast economic growth and strategically establishing new

One Hancock Plaza Headquarters (Gulfport, MS)

branches and locations through acquisitions, mergers, and de novo offices. Construction of a new corporate complex at One Hancock Plaza in the early 1980s spawned downtown Gulfport's Harbor Square development; and a $65-million post-Hurricane Katrina restoration of that corporate campus in 2006 led the way for a new Main Street revitalization movement.

     Hancock's 1990 merger with American Bank of Baton Rouge established a formidable Hancock Bank presence in Louisiana. The success of that Baton Rouge venture prompted subsequent expansions through Livingston, Washington, Tangipahoa, St. Tammany, and West Feliciana parishes and 15 Louisiana communities. Between 1973 and 1998, Hancock acquired 14 Mississippi

Hancock Bank Centre at CitiPlace Baton Rouge, LA

and Louisiana financial institutions, increasing corporate assets from $158 million to $2.7 billion in less than 25 years. In January 1999, American Security Bank (ASB) in Ville Platte, LA, became a wholly owned holding company subsidiary, adding 18 new branches in five Louisiana parishes to the Hancock family. As ASB joined Hancock Bank of Louisiana (HBLA) in July 1999, corporate assets hit $3 billion. In late summer 2001, HBLA opened the Hancock Bank Centre at CitiPlace, a flourishing Baton Rouge residential and commercial development within minutes of the Louisiana State University campus.

     With the 2001 acquisition of 97-year-old, Purvis, Mississippi, based Lamar Bank, Hancock welcomed south central Mississippi customers from economic hubs such as Hattiesburg - home of the University of Southern Mississippi and William Carey College - to the Hancock corporate family.

     In February 2003, Hancock Bank established a long-awaited presence south of Lake Pontchartrain through the purchase of two Dryades Savings Bank, F.S.B., branches in the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, communities of Metairie and Kenner. Hancock Bank ushered in 2004 by opening a third Jefferson Parish branch at Clearview, an upscale Metairie retail and residential district adjacent to one of the country's most highly traveled crossroads. A new financial center at Carondelet and Common streets in New Orleans's Central Business District and permanent facilities on LaPalco Boulevard in the Crescent City's West Bank region and at Elmwood in Jefferson, LA, debuted in late 2007.

     In July 2003, Hancock launched eastward expansion by opening the company's Mobile, Alabama, Business Financial Center in the booming western region of that Bay City. Immediately following Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, the State of Alabama granted Hancock Bank limited retail banking privileges to help displaced storm evacuees and, ultimately, issued a Hancock Bank of Alabama charter in 2006. Hancock Bank opened its downtown Mobile financial center on Dauphin Street at historic Bienville Square in spring 2007 and four new branches on Alabama's Eastern Shore and in West Mobile in 2008.

     In March 2004, with the acquisition of Tallahassee's Guaranty National Bank, Hancock Bank introduced the company's "financial illumination" to Florida's capital city with a downtown financial center and four other branches not far from the Florida State and Florida A&M university campuses. Hancock Bank of Florida soon entered the metropolitan Pensacola market with a full-service downtown financial center in the historic five-story Thiesen Building - erected in 1901 as Pensacola's first "skyscraper" - and a financial center in Pensacola's thriving Cordova district.

     Hancock's fall 2004 acquisition of 103-year-old Ross King Walker, Inc., in Hattiesburg and summer 2005 acquisition of J. Everett Eaves, Inc. - founded in New Orleans in 1918 - considerably augmented insurance services available to Gulf South businesses and consumers through Hancock Insurance Agency (established 1902).

Leadership by Example

Carl J. Chaney, President & CEO  Hancock Holding Company & Hancock Bank

John M. Hairston, CEO & Chief Operating Officer  Hancock Holding Company & Hancock Bank

     Only eight chief executives have led Hancock Bank through 110 years of financial services excellence, including bank presidents Peter Hellwege (1899-1907), Eugene H. Roberts (1908-1918), Horatio S. Weston (1918-1931), Leo W. Seal, Sr. (1932-1963), Leo W. Seal, Jr. (1963-1990), and George A. Schloegel (1990-2006). Today, Schloegel serves as Hancock Holding Company chairman. In December 2006, Carl J. Chaney and John M. Hairston became chief executive officers of Hancock Holding Company. With a management committee representing 350-plus years of collective experience, Chaney and Hairston perpetuate Hancock's century-old team oriented leadership traditions and ongoing management succession strategy.

Foundations for A Bright Future

Fountain of Opportunity The symbolic fountain at One Hancock Plaza's Lighthouse Park, one of Mississippi's largest corporately owned downtown green spaces, reiterates Gulf South resilience and Hancock's core values.

     As a corporation, Hancock Bank has far exceeded the confines of its original wood-frame site. However, the fundamental tenets upon which the company was built - honor & integrity, strength & stability, commitment to service, teamwork, and personal responsibility - remain unwavering. To us, our mission of helping people achieve their financial goals and dreams means offering unparalleled customer service and quality financial solutions to make life easier and better for our customers and ensure value for our shareholders.

     Our successes stem from a passionate corporate commitment to our founding values and a conservative business philosophy, from the continued confidence of our stockholders and customers, and from our steadfast devotion to helping local families and businesses discover the customized financial management choices they need, expect, and deserve.

     Through 110 years of natural disasters, national crises, economic fluctuations, and cultural change, we have helped our customers weather literal and figurative storms and provided them a safe place to deposit their money. Likewise, we have never lost sight of our obligations to our shareholders, customers, nearly 2,000 associates, and the hometowns we serve to uphold the highest standards of service; to invest time, energy, and resources in nurturing well-planned community and corporate growth; and to foster an exceptional quality of life across the Gulf South.

     Whether proactively implementing innovative business banking options or helping our neighbors secure their families' futures, we look forward to another century of dedicated service to the cities, towns, and landscapes we call home.

The Story of Hancock Bank’s Hallmark – the Ship Island Lighthouse