GENERAL

First Merchants Corporation (the "Corporation") is a financial holding company headquartered in Muncie, Indiana. The Corporation's Common Stock is traded on NASDAQ's National Market System under the symbol FRME and was organized in September 1982. Since its organization, the Corporation has grown to include eight affiliate banks with over sixty-five locations in seventeen Indiana and three Ohio counties, a trust company, a multi-line insurance agency, a reinsurance agency, and a title agency.