Allegiant Announces Project 2004.

Business Editors

ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 15, 2002

Allegiant Bancorp, Inc. (Nasdaq:ALLE)(www.allegiantbank.com), the largest bank holding company exclusively serving the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area, today announced that it has undertaken a profit improvement strategy that it has labeled "Project 2004." The goal of Project 2004 is to focus Allegiant's resources on increasing revenue and improving operating efficiencies over the next two years.

Shaun Hayes, Allegiant's President and CEO, stated "the name Project 2004 has a dual meaning for Allegiant. As a St. Louis institution, Allegiant will join the community in celebrating the centennial of the Summer Olympics and World's Fair held in St. Louis in 1904. Internally, calendar year 2004 will represent the culmination of efforts to focus Allegiant on becoming an even stronger and more profitable bank."

"We completed three acquisitions over the past twenty-one months and developed significant experience in successfully integrating acquisitions." Hayes continued, "The objective of Project 2004 is to focus this acquisition expertise internally and approach this project as if we were acquiring ourselves. We are looking at all areas where we can operate more efficiently. We do not anticipate elimination of jobs because we are a growing organization. We will use our acquisition strategies and models to evaluate each internal department and function. For example, following the acquisition of Southside Bancshares in 2001 we reviewed the trust departments of Allegiant and Southside. We combined the strengths of both departments, which resulted in a trust department operated more like Southside's. Allegiant is also investing significant time and resources into implementing a new customer relationship management system. This system will allow us to improve the profitability of our customer relationships and also help us to identify products and services to better serve our customers and our community. The improvements that Allegiant expects to realize from Project 2004 are intended to help make Allegiant more profitable, continue our record of earnings growth and further Allegiant's position as St. Louis' bank."

Allegiant recently announced the acquisition of Investment Counselors, Inc., a St. Louis asset management firm. Later this year, Allegiant expects to integrate Investment Counselors, a company that has over thirty years of asset management experience. Most of Investment Counselors' systems will be retained and are expected to improve Allegiant's asset management products and services.

Allegiant Bancorp, Inc. is the parent company of Allegiant Bank, Bank of St. Genevieve and State Bank of Jefferson County. Allegiant has 39 full service banking locations and is the largest banking institution exclusively serving the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. Allegiant focuses on providing banking services to small and middle-market businesses and individuals by offering a full range of banking services, including mortgage banking, private banking, on-line banking, brokerage services, insurance products, trust services and cash management products, in addition to traditional retail and commercial loan and deposit products.

Certain statements in this report relating to present or future trends or factors affecting the banking industry, and specifically, the operations, markets and products of Allegiant Bancorp, Inc., may be deemed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Allegiant's actual strategies and results in future periods may differ materially from those currently expected due to various risks and uncertainties. Additional discussion of factors affecting Allegiant's business and prospects is contained in Allegiant's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Allegiant undertakes no obligation to report revisions to these forward-looking statements or reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.