Huntington Bancshares Incorporated announced it has closed its acquisition of FirstMerit Corporation and is now operating as one company, having merged FirstMerit Bank into The Huntington National Bank.

"Huntington's acquisition of FirstMerit expands customer convenience extending our products and services and award-winning customer experience," said Stephen D. Steinour, chairman, president and CEO. "As we welcome our new customers and colleagues, we look forward to working with them and sharing our brand promise as a bank focused on doing the right thing. We will continue to build on a legacy of strengthening our local communities through commitments extending over more than 150 years."

Approved by both boards of directors on Jan. 25, Huntington's acquisition of FirstMerit grows the company to approximately $100 billion in assets, the largest bank in Ohio by deposits, and nearly 1,000 branch locations across the eight states of Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

"We are excited to extend Huntington's relationship banking value proposition to a larger customer base, and look forward to completing the integration of the FirstMerit and Huntington systems within the first quarter of 2017," Steinour said.

Both Huntington and FirstMerit customer relationships following the closing will continue business as usual through 2016, with customers kept informed about pending 2017 branch and account conversions and timing of previously announced branch consolidations and closings of certain locations.