Thirty years before Elvis Presley’s birth put Tupelo, Mississippi, on the map, a group of prominent businessmen from Lee County joined together to form The Peoples Bank & Trust Company, which would one day become Renasant Bank. Thanks to excellent leadership during its early days, “Peoples” as it was affectionately known, withstood the Bankers’ Panic of 1907 that shut down approximately 100 Mississippi banks.
Through this same perseverance, the Bank also survived the 1929 “National Bank Holiday” that shut down an additional 68 banks in Mississippi. As World War II broke the economic stagnation of the 1930s, the Bank began to rapidly grow, its asset size increasing from $3 million in 1954 to $73 million in 1973.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the Bank acquired or opened de novo banks throughout Northern Mississippi by adding locations in West Point, Pontotoc, Aberdeen, Calhoun City, Amory, Water Valley, Coffeeville, Iuka and Southaven. In 1981, the Bank opened its current Corporate Headquarters in downtown Tupelo.
The growth of the Bank continued to accelerate in the 1990s as it acquired banks in Grenada, Louisville, New Albany, DeSoto County and Batesville while opening de novo banks in Olive Branch and Aberdeen.
In 1999, the Bank purchased its first insurance agency in Tupelo to provide clients with a more complete financial services package. Adding to the insurance group, in 2000, the Bank acquired another insurance agency out of Corinth, Mississippi.
Following the beginning of its second 100 years, the Bank made its first out-of-state move by acquiring Renasant Bancshares of Memphis, Tennessee, in July 2004. Shortly after this merger, the Bank took advantage of the rights it acquired with the Renasant Bancshares merger and changed its name to "Renasant Bank.”
Renasant acquired Capital Bancorp, Inc., in Nashville, giving the bank seven locations in Middle Tennessee. Between 2003 and 2007, Renasant grew from a little more than $1 billion in assets to more than $3.4 billion in assets.
In 2010 and 2011, Renasant acquired Crescent Bank and Trust of Jasper, Georgia, and American Bank and Trust of Roswell, Georgia, through FDIC banking transactions, which gave Renasant 13 locations in the North Georgia and suburban Atlanta markets. This $1 billion FDIC acquisition expanded Renasant’s footprint into Georgia, giving the bank more than 75 locations in four Southern states and a total of $4.2 billion in assets at the end of 2012.
Renasant acquired First M&F Corporation, the parent of M&F Bank, of Kosciusko, Mississippi, which added $1.6 billion in assets and 42 banking and insurance locations throughout Renasant’s Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee banking franchises in 2013. The merger significantly increased Renasant’s deposit market share in the Birmingham and Memphis MSAs and the key Mississippi markets of Tupelo, Oxford and Starkville, while providing entrance into the markets surrounding Jackson, Mississippi.
In 2015, Renasant acquired Heritage Financial Group, Inc., the parent of HeritageBank of the South, headquartered in Albany, Georgia. The merger enhanced Renasant’s presence in the metro markets of Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta, Georgia, with minimal existing overlap while providing entry into new markets, such as Albany, Statesboro, Macon, Valdosta, and Savannah, Georgia; Auburn, Alabama; and Ocala and Gainesville, Florida.
In 2018, Renasant acquired BrandBank, headquartered in Lawrenceville, Georgia, adding 13 locations in and around the Atlanta MSA, and more than $2 billion in assets.
In early 2025, Renasant acquired The First Bancshares, Inc., the parent company of The First Bank, headquartered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which added more than $8 billion in assets, 111 locations and introduced the company into the state of Louisiana. This is Renasant’s largest merger to date.
Renasant currently has approximately $26.6 billion in assets and operates more than 280 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana, and offers factoring and asset-based lending on a nationwide basis.
Moving past those character building years in the banking industry to multiple mergers, acquisitions and de novo expansion, Renasant has strengthened its position in the marketplace and is poised for even more success in its second 100 years.