﻿<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<InstanceReport xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <Version>2.2.0.7</Version>
  <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
  <ReportName>SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION</ReportName>
  <ReportLongName>006120 - Disclosure - SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION</ReportLongName>
  <DisplayLabelColumn>true</DisplayLabelColumn>
  <ShowElementNames>false</ShowElementNames>
  <RoundingOption />
  <HasEmbeddedReports>false</HasEmbeddedReports>
  <Columns>
    <Column>
      <LabelColumn>false</LabelColumn>
      <Id>1</Id>
      <Labels>
        <Label Id="1" Label="6 Months Ended" />
        <Label Id="2" Label="Jun. 30, 2010" />
      </Labels>
      <CurrencyCode>USD</CurrencyCode>
      <FootnoteIndexer />
      <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
      <hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios>
      <Segments />
      <Scenarios />
      <Units>
        <Unit>
          <UnitID>u000</UnitID>
          <UnitType>Standard</UnitType>
          <StandardMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>USD</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace>iso4217</MeasureNamespace>
          </StandardMeasure>
          <Scale>0</Scale>
        </Unit>
        <Unit>
          <UnitID>u002</UnitID>
          <UnitType>Divide</UnitType>
          <NumeratorMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>USD</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace>iso4217</MeasureNamespace>
          </NumeratorMeasure>
          <DenominatorMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>shares</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace>xbrli</MeasureNamespace>
          </DenominatorMeasure>
          <Scale>0</Scale>
        </Unit>
        <Unit>
          <UnitID>u001</UnitID>
          <UnitType>Standard</UnitType>
          <StandardMeasure>
            <MeasureSchema>http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance</MeasureSchema>
            <MeasureValue>shares</MeasureValue>
            <MeasureNamespace>xbrli</MeasureNamespace>
          </StandardMeasure>
          <Scale>0</Scale>
        </Unit>
      </Units>
      <CurrencySymbol>$</CurrencySymbol>
    </Column>
  </Columns>
  <Rows>
    <Row>
      <Id>2</Id>
      <Label>Notes to Financial Statements [Abstract]</Label>
      <Level>0</Level>
      <ElementName>wtny_NotesToFinancialStatementsAbstract</ElementName>
      <ElementPrefix>wtny</ElementPrefix>
      <IsBaseElement>false</IsBaseElement>
      <BalanceType>na</BalanceType>
      <PeriodType>duration</PeriodType>
      <ShortDefinition>No definition available.</ShortDefinition>
      <IsReportTitle>false</IsReportTitle>
      <IsSegmentTitle>false</IsSegmentTitle>
      <IsSubReportEnd>false</IsSubReportEnd>
      <IsCalendarTitle>false</IsCalendarTitle>
      <IsTuple>false</IsTuple>
      <IsAbstractGroupTitle>true</IsAbstractGroupTitle>
      <IsEquityPrevioslyReportedAsRow>false</IsEquityPrevioslyReportedAsRow>
      <IsEquityAdjustmentRow>false</IsEquityAdjustmentRow>
      <IsBeginningBalance>false</IsBeginningBalance>
      <IsEndingBalance>false</IsEndingBalance>
      <IsReverseSign>false</IsReverseSign>
      <PreferredLabelRole />
      <IsEPS>false</IsEPS>
      <FootnoteIndexer />
      <Cells>
        <Cell>
          <Id>1</Id>
          <ShowCurrencySymbol>false</ShowCurrencySymbol>
          <IsNumeric>false</IsNumeric>
          <IsRatio>false</IsRatio>
          <DisplayZeroAsNone>false</DisplayZeroAsNone>
          <NumericAmount>0</NumericAmount>
          <RoundedNumericAmount>0</RoundedNumericAmount>
          <NonNumbericText />
          <NonNumericTextHeader />
          <FootnoteIndexer />
          <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
          <hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios>
          <DisplayDateInUSFormat>false</DisplayDateInUSFormat>
        </Cell>
      </Cells>
      <OriginalInstanceReportColumns />
      <ElementDataType>xbrli:stringItemType</ElementDataType>
      <SimpleDataType>string</SimpleDataType>
      <ElementDefenition>No definition available.</ElementDefenition>
      <IsTotalLabel>false</IsTotalLabel>
    </Row>
    <Row>
      <Id>3</Id>
      <Label>SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION</Label>
      <Level>1</Level>
      <ElementName>us-gaap_DisclosureOfCompensationRelatedCostsShareBasedPaymentsTextBlock</ElementName>
      <ElementPrefix>us-gaap</ElementPrefix>
      <IsBaseElement>true</IsBaseElement>
      <BalanceType>na</BalanceType>
      <PeriodType>duration</PeriodType>
      <ShortDefinition>No definition available.</ShortDefinition>
      <IsReportTitle>false</IsReportTitle>
      <IsSegmentTitle>false</IsSegmentTitle>
      <IsSubReportEnd>false</IsSubReportEnd>
      <IsCalendarTitle>false</IsCalendarTitle>
      <IsTuple>false</IsTuple>
      <IsAbstractGroupTitle>false</IsAbstractGroupTitle>
      <IsEquityPrevioslyReportedAsRow>false</IsEquityPrevioslyReportedAsRow>
      <IsEquityAdjustmentRow>false</IsEquityAdjustmentRow>
      <IsBeginningBalance>false</IsBeginningBalance>
      <IsEndingBalance>false</IsEndingBalance>
      <IsReverseSign>false</IsReverseSign>
      <PreferredLabelRole />
      <IsEPS>false</IsEPS>
      <FootnoteIndexer />
      <Cells>
        <Cell>
          <Id>1</Id>
          <ShowCurrencySymbol>false</ShowCurrencySymbol>
          <IsNumeric>false</IsNumeric>
          <IsRatio>false</IsRatio>
          <DisplayZeroAsNone>false</DisplayZeroAsNone>
          <NumericAmount>0</NumericAmount>
          <RoundedNumericAmount>0</RoundedNumericAmount>
          <NonNumbericText>&lt;div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;NOTE 12&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;SHARE-BASED COMPENSATION&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;Whitney maintains incentive compensation plans that incorporate share-based compensation.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The plans for both employees and directors have been approved by the Company's shareholders.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Descriptions of these plans, including the terms of awards and the number of Whitney shares authorized for issuance, were included in Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;During 2010, share-based compensation awards were made under the employee and director plans as follows.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;table style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="85%"&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: black 1.5pt solid" valign="middle" width="32%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: black 1.5pt solid" valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: black 1.5pt solid" valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Grant Date&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-TOP: black 1.5pt solid" valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Total&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td valign="middle" width="32%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Number&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Fair Value of&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Share-based&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid" valign="middle" align="left" width="32%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;(dollars in thousands, except per share data)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid" valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Awarded&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid" valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Unit or Share&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid" valign="middle" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Compensation&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" align="left" width="32%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Employee plan:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" align="left" width="32%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Tenure-based restricted stock unit grant&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" align="right" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;509,316&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;$10.06 &lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;(a)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;$4,869 &lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;(b)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid" valign="bottom" align="left" width="32%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Tenure-based restricted stock unit grant&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid" valign="bottom" align="right" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;8,577&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: center" valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;$14.26 &lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;(a)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 2px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: center" valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;$122 &lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;(b)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" align="left" width="32%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;Director plan:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 4px double" valign="bottom" align="left" width="32%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Stock grant&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 4px double" valign="bottom" align="right" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="right"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;42,172&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 4px double; TEXT-ALIGN: center" valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;$9.25 &lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-STYLE: italic"&gt;(a)&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td style="BORDER-BOTTOM: black 4px double; TEXT-ALIGN: center" valign="bottom" width="5%"&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman"&gt;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;$390&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;table style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" align="center" border="0"&gt;&lt;tr valign="top"&gt;&lt;td style="WIDTH: 18pt"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;(a) Market price of Whitney common stock on the grant date.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;table style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: times new roman" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" align="center" border="0"&gt;&lt;tr valign="top"&gt;&lt;td style="WIDTH: 23px"&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;&amp;#160; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td width="958"&gt;&lt;div align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-STYLE: italic; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;(b) Based on grant date fair value and number of shares that are expected to be issued, taking into consideration expected forfeitures.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; TEXT-INDENT: 0pt"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;Employees forfeit their restricted stock units if they terminate employment within three years of the award date, although they can retain a prorated number of units in the case of retirement, death, disability and, in limited circumstances, involuntary termination.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;During the three-year period, they cannot transfer or otherwise dispose of the units awarded.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Additional restrictions apply to the units awarded to certain highly-compensated award recipients as long as the preferred stock issued to the U.S. Department of Treasury, as discussed in Note 15, is outstanding.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The directors' stock grants are fully vested upon award.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN-LEFT: 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 36pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0pt" align="left"&gt;&lt;font style="DISPLAY: inline; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman"&gt;The Company recognized share-based compensation expense with respect to awards under the employee plan of $1.3 million ($.8 million after-tax) in the second quarter of 2010 and $1.9 million ($1.3 million after-tax) in the second quarter of 2009.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;Share-based compensation expense for the employee plan was $2.6 million ($1.7 million after-tax) for the first six months of 2010 and $2.4 million ($1.6 million after-tax) for the comparable period in 2009.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</NonNumbericText>
          <NonNumericTextHeader>NOTE 12SHARE-BASED COMPENSATIONWhitney maintains incentive compensation plans that incorporate share-based compensation.&amp;#160;&amp;#160;The plans for both</NonNumericTextHeader>
          <FootnoteIndexer />
          <hasSegments>false</hasSegments>
          <hasScenarios>false</hasScenarios>
          <DisplayDateInUSFormat>false</DisplayDateInUSFormat>
        </Cell>
      </Cells>
      <OriginalInstanceReportColumns />
      <ElementDataType>us-types:textBlockItemType</ElementDataType>
      <SimpleDataType>textblock</SimpleDataType>
      <ElementDefenition>Disclosure of compensation-related costs for share-based compensation which may include disclosure of policies, compensation plan details, allocation of stock compensation, incentive distributions, share-based arrangements to obtain goods and services, deferred compensation arrangements, employee stock ownership plan details and employee stock purchase plan details.</ElementDefenition>
      <ElementReferences>Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
 -Publisher FASB
 -Name Statement of Financial Accounting Standard (FAS)
 -Number 123R
 -Paragraph 64, 65, A240

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
 -Publisher AICPA
 -Name Statement of Position (SOP)
 -Number 93-6
 -Paragraph 53

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
 -Publisher SEC
 -Name Staff Accounting Bulletin (SAB)
 -Number Topic 14

</ElementReferences>
      <IsTotalLabel>false</IsTotalLabel>
    </Row>
  </Rows>
  <Footnotes />
  <NumberOfCols>1</NumberOfCols>
  <NumberOfRows>2</NumberOfRows>
  <HasScenarios>false</HasScenarios>
  <MonetaryRoundingLevel>UnKnown</MonetaryRoundingLevel>
  <SharesRoundingLevel>UnKnown</SharesRoundingLevel>
  <PerShareRoundingLevel>UnKnown</PerShareRoundingLevel>
  <HasPureData>false</HasPureData>
  <SharesShouldBeRounded>true</SharesShouldBeRounded>
</InstanceReport>
