FirstMerit predecessors go back as far as 1845. In 1981, First National Bank of Ohio and Old Phoenix National Bank of
Medina merged into First Bancorporation of Ohio (First Ohio). The next year, First Ohio purchased Twinsburg Banking Company. In 1985, Exchange Bank in
Canal Fulton in
Stark County, Ohio was acquired by First Ohio. The Bank continued expansion in Ohio buying bank branches in many Ohio counties for the following nine years. Following the 1995 purchase of CIVISTA Corporation in
Canton, Ohio, parent of Citizens Savings, the holding company name changed from First Bancorporation to FirstMerit Corporation. FirstMerit added to its portfolio in 1997 Abell & Associates, a life insurance and financial consulting firm. Expansion of the corporation continued in Ohio and
Lawrence County, Pennsylvania with the purchase of 32 more branches. With the stock payment worth less than the stock's tangible book value, several law firms started looking into a possible case of breached fiduciary duties by Citizens Republic Board of Directors. Sandy Pierce was appointed in January 2013 as FirstMerit's vice chair and chairman and CEO of FirstMerit Michigan. In early April, both Bank Corporations' shareholders approved the merger. On April 12, 2013, FirstMerit Corporation closed the acquisition of company which will operate as of April 13 as "Citizens Bank, now part of FirstMerit Bank." The banks owned by Citizens Republic Bancorp were officially renamed FirstMerit Bank on June 13, 2013. In November 2013, the landmark Citizens Bank
weather ball on top of the former Citizens Republic Bancorp headquarters in
Flint, Michigan was refaced with the letters C B replaced with F M.
Huntington acquisition On January 26, 2016,
Huntington Bank announced it would purchase FirstMerit, subject to regulatory approval, in a deal that would make Huntington the largest bank in Ohio. Huntington completed the acquisition of FirstMerit on August 16. Due to
anti-trust concerns by the
Justice Department, 11 branches in Canton and two in
Ashtabula were sold to
First Commonwealth Bank. Additionally 107 branches located within 2.5 miles of other Huntington / FirstMerit branches were closed. All remaining FirstMerit branches and accounts were converted to Huntington in early 2017. ==Headquarters==