LAFAYETTE, La., March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- MidSouth Bank President and CEO Rusty Cloutier has been invited to testify on Wednesday, March 4, before the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. A live Webcast of "TARP Oversight: Is TARP Working for Main Street?" will be available at 1:30 p.m. (CT) via the House Committee on Financial Services' Web site. The hearing takes place in the Rayburn House Office Building, located southwest of the Capitol. Cloutier is the only banker participating in the hearing. Also scheduled to testify are Dean Baker, Ph.D., co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research; David S. Scharfstein, Ph.D., Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Finance and Banking at Harvard Business School; Robert W. Davenport, president, The National Development Council; and Joseph Zucchero, owner, Mr. Beef Deli of Chicago. Speaking on behalf of MidSouth Bank and community bankers across the country, Cloutier hopes the format will help answer critical questions healthy banks now have about accepting TARP funds. In late December, MidSouth Bank elected to sell $20 million worth of its preferred stock to the U.S. Treasury in association with the Capital Purchase Program, a component of TARP that was designed for healthy banks. At the time, the bank's management and board of directors believed they were entering into a public-private partnership with the federal government. Since then, however, the Treasury has been attempting to put the same sweeping restrictions on healthy banks as troubled banks. "I hope they can finally tell me just what they want community bankers to do," Cloutier said. "It was sold to us by the feds as a partnership, but it's turning out to be something very different. It's looking more and more like the federal government wants to treat this like it was a needs-based issue, and we didn't need the money." Cloutier also said he will elicit information on the federal government's plan to address the "too big to fail" major financial institutions that are now bankrupt. More important, however, he anticipates that the format will allow him to reiterate his message that continuous bailouts are not the answer. Those deteriorating major banks today control 60 to 64 percent of the nation's assets, he said, and the best low-cost solution to the financial crisis that has devastated the country is to break them up. "Continuing to pump money into them is not going to be the answer. Breaking up some of their operational units and selling them off into the open market is the only way to ignite competition and bring back the banking industry." Cloutier noted that investors are going to sit on the sidelines until the federal government announces that it will take this action. "Nobody is going to put fresh capital into the banking business when your major competitor is going to be continuously bailed out by the U.S. government with more and more money," he said. To access the Webcast, visit the House Committee on Financial Services Web site at http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/hr0304092.shtml. About MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Lafayette, La., with total assets of $936.8 million as of Dec. 31, 2008. Through its wholly-owned bank subsidiary, MidSouth Bank, N.A., the Company offers complete banking services to commercial and retail customers in south Louisiana and southeast Texas. It has 34 locations in Louisiana and Texas and more than 170 ATMs. The group is community oriented and focuses primarily on offering commercial and consumer loan and deposit services to individuals, and small and middle market businesses. Established in 1985, MidSouth Bank has 27 offices extending along the Interstate 10 corridor in south Louisiana located in Lafayette (9), Baton Rouge (3), New Iberia (3), Lake Charles (2), Sulphur, Jeanerette, Jennings, Thibodaux, Larose, Opelousas, Breaux Bridge, Cecilia, Morgan City and Houma. Additionally, the Company has seven full-service offices in the southeast region of Texas, including Houston, Beaumont (3), Vidor, College Station and Conroe. It also has a mortgage loan center in Conroe. DATASOURCE: MidSouth Bancorp, Inc. CONTACT: Rusty Cloutier, MidSouth Bank President and CEO, +1-337-962-9900, or Alex Calicchia, Chief Marketing Officer, +1-337-593-3008, both of MidSouth Bancorp, Inc.

Copyright