Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000712534-25-000077
Chunk: 37

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 37
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 to fix executives’ total compensation as nearly as practicable, taking into account all relevant factors, near or above the median for similar positions at peer institutions, with an appropriate balance between salary and incentive compensation, cash and equity, and short and long-term incentives. The peer group for 2024 consisted of the following 20 publicly traded financial institutions of relatively similar size to the Company:

| Ameris Bancorp.                 |     | Heartland Financial USA, Inc. |
| Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp. |     | Lakeland Financial Corp.      |
| Customers Bancorp Inc           |     | Northwest Bancshares, Inc.    |
| Enterprise Financial Services   |     | Old National Bancorp          |
| FB Financial Corp               |     | Park National Corp            |
| First Bancorp                   |     | Renasant Corp.                |
| First Busey Corp.               |     | Simmons First National Corp.  |
| First Financial Bancorp.        |     | Trustmark Corp.               |
| Fulton Financial Corp.          |     | United Community Banks, Inc.  |
| Glacier Bancorp, Inc.           |     | WesBanco, Inc.                |

The peer group was jointly selected by the Company and Aon and reflects the asset size of the Company. The banks in the peer group were selected based on asset size, financial metrics, and an expanded geographic area (i.e., only banks in the western portion of the country were excluded).

#### COMPENSATION CONSULTANT
The Compensation and Human Resources Committee believes it is essential for the Company to provide a competitive compensation opportunity to its executives in order to attract, retain and motivate a highly qualified leadership team. The Committee has periodically engaged an executive compensation consultant to review the Company’s executive salaries and compensation programs and to make recommendations to the Committee concerning possible adjustments to executive compensation and compensation programs. The Committee engaged Aon in 2023 to analyze a database of executive compensation information Aon had compiled from the financial institutions in the peer group, and that analysis was taken into consideration in determining the NEOs' compensation for 2024.

INFORMATION CONCERNING EACH MATERIAL ELEMENT OF NEO COMPENSATION

The following paragraphs describe the provisions of the material elements of the NEOs’ compensation during 2024, including their specific application to each of the NEOs. Reference is also made to relevant information contained in the compensation tables and related material on pages 37-43.

31 First Merchants Corporation 2025 Proxy Statement

#### BASE SALARY