First Midwest Bancorp, Inc. Increases Quarterly Cash Dividend by 5.1% to $0.31 per Share

ITASCA, IL--(Marketwire - November 29, 2007) - First Midwest Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: FMBI) today announced an increase in the quarterly cash dividend on its common stock. The new quarterly cash dividend of $0.31 per share represents an increase of 5.1% from the previous quarterly dividend of $0.295. The dividend will be payable on January 15, 2008 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on December 21, 2007 and represents the 100th consecutive quarterly dividend distribution since the Company's formation in 1983.

"We are once again pleased to be able to announce an increase in dividends, the seventeenth increase that First Midwest has declared in the past fifteen years," said John M. O'Meara, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

First Midwest also announced that its Board of Directors approved an authorization to repurchase 2.5 million shares of its common stock.

First Midwest is the premier relationship-based banking franchise in the growing Chicagoland banking market. As one of the Chicago metropolitan area's largest independent bank holding companies, First Midwest provides the full range of both business and retail banking and trust and investment management services through 103 offices located in 63 communities, primarily in metropolitan Chicago. First Midwest was recently recognized by the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workforce Flexibility in the greater Chicago Area.

Contact Information: CONTACT: Cynthia A. Lance Executive Vice President and Corporate Secretary (630) 875-7345 www.firstmidwest.com