Fitch Revises FirstMerit Corporation's Outlook to Negative; Affirms at 'A-/F1'.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch has revised the Rating Outlook for FirstMerit Corporation (Nasdaq:FMER FMER FirstMerit Corporation (stock symbol) FMER First Marblehead Education Resources ) and its principal subsidiary, FirstMerit Bank, N.A., to Negative from Stable. Fitch has also affirmed all current ratings for FMER and its banking subsidiary, (Long-term Issuer Default Rating 'A-'/ Short-term rating 'F1'). A complete list of ratings follows at the end of this release. Fitch's revision of FMER's Rating Outlook to Negative from Stable reflects the company's credit quality and operating performance, which continue to compare unfavorably to similarly rated peers. Despite ongoing efforts to improve credit quality, nonperforming assets Nonperforming asset An asset that is not effectively producing income, such as an overdue loan. nonperforming asset An asset that produces no income. and net charge-off levels have not significantly improved. Fitch recognizes that in recent periods FMER has demonstrated modest improvements in earnings performance. However, on a risk-adjusted basis, profitability levels and asset quality indicators remain at the lower end of peers. Positively, the company maintains solid tangible capital, a strong liquidity position and fairly diversified revenue sources, which support the rating affirmation. A ratings downgrade Downgrade A negative change in the rating of a security. Notes: For example, an analyst may downgrade a stock from strong buy to buy, or a bond rating agency may downgrade a bond from AAA to AA. would likely result from the lack of material improvement in core earnings and asset quality or any further deterioration in these areas. The following ratings are affirmed with a Negative Rating Outlook: FirstMerit Corporation --Issuer Default Rating (IDR IDR In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Indonesian Rupiah. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ), 'A-'; --Short-term debt, 'F1'; --Individual 'B'; --Support '5' FirstMerit Bank, N.A. --Long-term deposits, 'A' --Issuer Default Rating (IDR), 'A-'; --Short-term deposits, 'F1' --Short-term debt, 'F1'; --Subordinated debt, 'BBB+' --Individual, 'B'; --Support '5' Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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