Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000712534-25-000058
Chunk: 149

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-02-24
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 9A
Chunk 149
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 connection with the evaluation referenced above that occurred during the Corporation’s last fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, the Corporation’s internal control over financial reporting.

FORVIS MAZARS, LLP, the independent registered public accounting firm that audited the financial statements included in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, has issued an attestation report on the Corporation’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, which appears as follows.

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PART II: ITEM 9., ITEM 9A., ITEM 9B. AND ITEM 9C.

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders, Board of Directors and Audit Committee 

First Merchants Corporation

Muncie, Indiana

Opinion on the Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited First Merchants Corporation’s (the “Corporation”) internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework: (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO). In our opinion, the Corporation maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework: (2013) issued by COSO.

We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (“PCAOB”), the consolidated financial statements of the Corporation as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and our report dated February 24, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements.

Basis for Opinion

The Corporation’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management Report of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Corporation’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit.

We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Corporation in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit