The First Bancshares is a community bank holding company headquartered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, operating through its subsidiary The First Bank across 116 locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana. The First offers a standard community banking product suite: commercial and consumer loans, real estate construction loans, SBA loans, deposit accounts, residential mortgage origination, wealth management, and cash management services. The bank's customer base includes individuals, businesses, municipal entities, and nonprofits. The First earns primarily through net interest income — the spread between loan and securities yields and deposit costs. Management targets mid-single-digit annual loan growth, funded largely by rotating cash flows from its securities portfolio into higher-yielding loans. The First manages deposit costs through relationship-based banking in community markets, and supplements net interest income with gain-on-sale income from its SBA lending division, which originates and sells SBA loans in the secondary market. The First has grown primarily through acquisitions, expanding from Mississippi into four additional southeastern states, with newly integrated lending teams continuing to drive organic loan growth post-deal. The First is pending an all-stock merger with Renasant Corporation, expected to close in the first half of 2025.