Southside Bancshares, Inc. to Present at the Midwest 2004 Super-Community Bank Conference

February 23, 2004
                     NASDAQ National Market Symbol (SBSI)

TYLER, Texas, Feb. 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of Directors of Southside Bancshares, Inc. (Nasdaq: SBSI), (the "Company") parent company of Southside Bank, announces the Company will present at the Midwest 2004 Super- Community Bank Conference to be held in Chicago on February 24 - February 25, 2004. Twenty-nine presenting banks sponsor the Midwest 2004 Super-Community Bank Conference. The presenting banks are small and mid-cap banks. The Company's presentation is scheduled to begin at 5:15 p.m. eastern time, on February 24, 2004.

This event will be webcast and may be accessed at www.super-communitybanking.com/midwest.htm or at Southside's website at www.Southside.com . Listeners should go to the website at least fifteen minutes before the presentation to download and install any necessary audio software. For those unable to attend the live broadcast, a replay will be available for approximately 60 days after the conference. There is no charge to access the event.

Website: http://www.super-communitybanking.com/midwest.htm

http://www.southside.com

Contact: B. G. Hartley, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Sam Dawson, President and Chief Operating Officer, or Lee R. Gibson, Chief Financial Officer, all of Southside Bancshares, Inc. at 903-531-7111.

Southside Bancshares, Inc. is a $1.4 billion bank holding company that owns 100% of Southside Bank. The bank currently has twenty-five banking centers in the East Texas area.

To learn more about Southside Bancshares, Inc., please visit our investor relations website at www.southside.com/investor . Our investor relations' site provides a detailed overview of our activities, financial information, and historical stock price data. To receive e-mail notification of company news, events, and stock activity, please register on the e-mail notification portion of the website. Questions or comments may be directed to Susan Hill at (903) 531-7220, or SusanH@southside.com .

Certain statements of other than historical fact that are contained in this document and in written material, press releases and oral statements issued by or on behalf of Southside Bancshares, Inc., (the "Company") a bank holding company, may be considered to be "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements may include words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "anticipate," "could," "should," "may," "intend," "probability," "risk," "target," "objective" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties and the Company's actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward- looking statements. For example, certain market risk disclosures are dependent on choices about key model characteristics and assumptions and are subject to various limitations. By their nature, certain of the market risk disclosures are only estimates and could be materially different from what actually occurs in the future. As a result, actual income gains and losses could materially differ from those that have been estimated. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to general economic conditions, either nationally or in the State of Texas, legislation or regulatory changes which adversely affect the businesses in which the Company is engaged, changes in the interest rate environment which reduce interest margins and may impact prepayments on the mortgage-backed securities portfolio, changes effecting the leverage strategy, significant increases in competition in the banking and financial services industry, changes in consumer spending, borrowing and saving habits, technological changes, the Company's ability to increase market share and control expenses, the effect of compliance with legislation or regulatory changes, the effect of changes in accounting policies and practices and the costs and effects of unanticipated litigation.

SOURCE  Southside Bancshares, Inc.
    -0-                             02/23/2004
    /CONTACT:  Lee R. Gibson of Southside Bancshares, Inc., +1-903-531-7221/
    /Web site:  http://www.super-communitybanking.com/midwest.htmhttp://www.southside.com /
    (SBSI)

CO:  Southside Bancshares, Inc.
ST:  Texas, Illinois
IN:  FIN
SU:  CCA MAV

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4048 02/23/200411:36 ESThttp://www.prnewswire.com