DBRS assigns BBB (high) Sub Debt; BB (high) Preferred Stock Ratings to FirstMerit Corp.; Trend Neg

DBRS, Inc. (DBRS) has today assigned a BBB (high) rating with a Negative trend to FirstMerit Corporation’s (FirstMerit or the Company) $250 million issuance of subordinated debt and a BB (high) rating with a Negative trend to its $100 million issuance of non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock. The subordinated debt is positioned one notch below FirstMerit’s Issuer & Senior Debt rating of A (low), which carries a Negative trend. Meanwhile, the preferred stock is positioned four notches below the Company’s Issuer & Senior Debt rating. This notching is consistent with DBRS’s methodologies for subordinated debt and preferred shares.

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.
The principal applicable methodology is the Global Methodology for Rating Banks and Banking Organisations. Other applicable methodologies include the DBRS Criteria: Intrinsic and Support Assessments, DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Preferred Shares & Equivalent Hybrids and DBRS Criteria: Rating Bank Subordinated Debt & Hybrid Instruments with Discretionary Payments. These can be found at: http://www.dbrs.com/about/methodologies

[Amended on June 17, 2014, to reflect actual methodologies used as well as inserted the following: This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union]

The sources of information used for this rating include the issuer, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and SNL Financial. DBRS considers the information available to it for the purposes of providing this rating was of satisfactory quality.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union

Lead Analyst: Mark Nolan
Rating Committee Chair: Alan G. Reid
Initial Rating Date: February 3, 2005
Most Recent Rating Update: February 14, 2013

For additional information on this rating, please see the linking document below.