BancorpSouth Bank's board authorized the Tupelo, Miss.-based company to repurchase up to 8 million of its common shares.

The share repurchase plan will become effective Jan. 2, 2020, and will expire Dec. 31, 2020.

BancorpSouth Bank has repurchased 2,173,081 common shares of the 3 million common shares authorized for repurchase under its existing authorization. The company may or may not repurchase the remaining 826,919 common shares on or before Dec. 31.