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BancorpSouth, Inc. announced today that it has selected Viewpointe of Charlotte, N.C., to provide check image exchange activities through its check image clearing service, Pointe2Pointe™. As a result, BancorpSouth will become the third financial institution in less than sixty days to join the Viewpointe membership. Other Viewpointe members with whom BancorpSouth is now eligible to directly exchange check images include: Bank of America, BB&T, Compass, JP Morgan Chase, First Horizon, HSBC Bank USA, Harris Bank, National City, SunTrust, Synovus Financial, US Bancorp, Wells Fargo and Zions Bancorporation.

"BancorpSouth is intent on taking advantage of Check 21 legislation," commented Bill Gully, BancorpSouth first vice president. "Viewpointe's growing exchange membership represents a large percentage of our check clearing volume. We look forward to being a part of and adding value to a group that is clearly providing industry leadership."

"BancorpSouth has a market reputation as a progressive institution and that is illustrated in their early adoption of Check 21 technologies," stated Jerry Chambers, Viewpointe's interim chief executive officer. "Their in-depth experiences in image technology and image exchange relationships will contribute greatly to our growing membership of organizations."

Pointe2Pointe™ enables any financial institution to safely and directly send and receive check images, rather than paper, with the nation's largest banks while maintaining their current image archive environment. BancorpSouth will immediately join the Viewpointe User Group -- a collaborative team made of Viewpointe bank peers that is chartered to execute image sharing and exchange relationships and operational business practices decisions.

"This being the third image exchange agreement in less than sixty days for Viewpointe, we are experiencing a growing sense of momentum in the adoption of Check 21 technologies that will ultimately assist the banking industry in reducing significant costs associated with paper check processing," Chambers said.

BancorpSouth and existing Viewpointe members will begin prioritizing image exchange production scheduling to take advantage of image clearing benefits. Settlement will be facilitated by the National Clearing House (NCHA).

About BancorpSouth, Inc.:

BancorpSouth, Inc. is a financial holding company headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi with approximately $10.8 billion in assets. BancorpSouth Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BancorpSouth, Inc., operates approximately 250 commercial banking, insurance, trust and broker/dealer locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. In addition to providing traditional banking services, credit cards, mortgages, trust and fiduciary services, the company provides investment services through its subsidiary BancorpSouth Investment Services, Inc. and insurance services through its subsidiary BancorpSouth Insurance Services, Inc. BancorpSouth's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol BXS.

About Viewpointe:

Viewpointe is the leading provider of check image and "Check 21" related services to the nation's top financial institutions. Viewpointe operates the largest national archive of check images and information and is the only institution able to provide image exchange on demand through ImageShare™ and direct bank to bank image exchange through Pointe2Pointe™. Viewpointe members include: BancorpSouth, Inc., Bank of America, BB&T, Compass, First Horizon National Corp., Harris Bank, HSBC Bank USA, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., National City Corporation, SunTrust Bank, Synovus Financial Corporation, U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo and Zions Bancorporation. For more information about Viewpointe and its services, please visit www.viewpointe.com

SOURCE: BancorpSouth, Inc.