Company: FRME
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0000712534-25-000077
Chunk: 23

Company: FIRST MERCHANTS CORP
Filing Date: 2025-04-01
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 23
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 the qualifications for serving on these committees;

• annually reviewing the composition of the Board as a whole, including the balance of independence, business expertise, experience, diversity and other desired qualities;

• maintaining up-to-date criteria for selecting Board members;

20 First Merchants Corporation 2025 Proxy Statement

• reviewing the credentials of individuals suggested as prospective directors;

• nominating individuals to serve as members of the Board, including the annual slate of directors for election by the shareholders;

• nominating the Board’s officers;

• overseeing the Company’s compliance with laws and regulations that relate to its governance structure and processes, including those of the SEC and Nasdaq;

• reviewing compliance with the non-employee director FMC stock ownership guidelines;

• providing for and promoting director continuing education and periodic self-assessments of the Board’s and Board Committees’ effectiveness;

• reviewing and making recommendations to the Board concerning FMC’s Code of Conduct, Code of Ethics for Financial Management, Regulation O Insider Lending Restrictions Policy, Insider Trading Policy and Section 16a Reporting Procedures;

• receiving and making recommendations to the Board regarding shareholder proxy initiatives, if any; and

• overseeing the Company's ESG Program.

In 2023, the Nominating and Governance Committee made several recommendations to the Board to address shareholder issues with certain corporate governance-related policies and practices. The Board approved those recommendations and the shareholders approved the changes to the Company's Articles of Incorporation at the 2024 Annual Meeting. In addition, in 2024, the Company's Corporate Governance Guidelines were amended to include a provision whereby a nominee director that did not receive a majority of the votes cast in an uncontested election must tender his/her resignation for consideration by the Board.

The Company has adoptedinsider trading policies and procedures governing the purchase, sale and/or other dispositions of the Company's stock by officers, directors, and other persons who have access to material nonpublic information that are reasonably designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations and any listing standards applicable to the Company. A copy of the Insider Trading Policy was attached as an exhibit to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.

THE COMMITTEE’S POLICY AND PROCESS FOR CONSIDERING DIRECTOR CANDIDATES RECOMMENDED BY SHAREHOLDERS

Article IV, Section 9, of FMC’s Bylaws describes the process by which a shareholder may suggest a candidate for consideration by the Nominating and Governance Committee as a director-nom