First Merchants Corporation operates as the financial holding company for First Merchants Bank that provides commercial and consumer banking services. The company offers a range of financial services, including checking, savings, and deposit products; debit and credit cards; mortgages, refinance, construction or renovation of residential properties, agricultural lending, treasury management services and depository products. It also provides personal and commercial …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Strong Net Interest MarginNet interest margin proxy is strong (score 0.71).
Industry-Leading EfficiencyOperational efficiency is excellent (score 0.71).
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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First Merchants Corporation ranks #122 of 393
scored companies in Banks - Regional by moat score — the top 31%.
The widest moat in the group is 1st Source Corporation (SRCE)
at 86/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near FRME in Banks - Regional
A deposit franchise is the cheapest and most valuable thing a bank can own.
Lending Advantage
Score 69
· 18% of the moat score
Lending advantage is the ability to originate loans at attractive spreads without buying that volume with looser credit standards.
Capital Strength
Score 51
· 20% of the moat score
Capital is the buffer between loan losses and insolvency, and it is what regulators judge a bank on first.
Cost Discipline
Score 66
· 16% of the moat score
Banking carries high fixed costs in branches, compliance and technology, so what it costs to run the bank relative to what the bank earns is a genuine competitive variable.
Revenue Diversification
Score 47
· 14% of the moat score
A bank earning everything from net interest income is a leveraged bet on the rate cycle.
Risk Management
Score 61
· 10% of the moat score
Risk management is the defense that only reveals itself late.
First Merchants Corporation (FRME) scores 61 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #122 of 393 scored companies in Banks - Regional, the top 31%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 399 companies in Banks - Regional. Its strongest defense is Deposit Franchise (70/100) and its weakest is Revenue Diversification (47/100).
How does First Merchants Corporation compare with other Banks - Regional companies?
First Merchants Corporation ranks #122 of 393 scored companies in Banks - Regional by moat score. The widest moat in Banks - Regional is 1st Source Corporation (SRCE) at 86/100. The companies ranked closest are F.N.B. Corporation (FNB) at 61 just above it and First Merchants Corporation - D (FRMEP) at 61 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Bank Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 399 companies in Banks - Regional. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is First Merchants Corporation scored with the Bank Specialized template?
A bank does not sell a product at a margin. It funds itself, lends at a spread, and books profits that remain an estimate until the loans are actually repaid. That makes the usual margin-and-return questions misleading, so the Bank template scores what really determines a bank's durability: where its funding comes from, what it lends against, how much capital stands behind it, and whether it has been pricing risk honestly.
Which competitive defenses are measured for First Merchants Corporation?
The Bank Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and FRME scores: Deposit Franchise (70), Lending Advantage (69), Capital Strength (51), Cost Discipline (66), Revenue Diversification (47), Risk Management (61). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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