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                                                                      EXHIBIT 99



FOR RELEASE:                        July 18, 1996

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:            Terry E. Patton
                                    Senior Vice President
                                    330-384-7033



                    FIRSTMERIT CORPORATION AMENDS RIGHTS PLAN


Akron, Ohio. . . .The Board of Directors of FirstMerit Corporation (Nasdaq-FMER)
today amended its Rights Agreement, first adopted in 1993. The amendments were
the result of a routine review and updating of individual provisions of the
Rights Agreement. Among other amendments, the threshold at which an acquiring
person will "trigger" the rights was lowered from 15% to 10% and the requirement
of continuing director approval to redeem the rights was eliminated.

John R. Cochran, President and CEO, FirstMerit Corporation, stated, "These
changes were made in the process of updating our Rights Agreement and were not
made in response to any takeover proposal."

A letter to shareholders regarding the amended Rights Agreement and a summary of
certain terms of the amended Rights Agreement will be mailed to shareholders
shortly.

FirstMerit Corporation is a $5.5 billion holding company. FirstMerit's
wholly-owned subsidiaries are First National Bank of Ohio, EST National Bank,
The Old Phoenix National Bank of Medina, Peoples National Bank-Wooster, Peoples
Bank, N.A.-Ashtabula and Citizens National Bank-Canton. The banks serve Summit,
Cuyahoga, Medina, Lorain, Stark, Wayne, Portage, Erie, Richland, Ashtabula, Lake
and Geauga counties in Ohio. FirstMerit Bank, N.A. serves the Clearwater,
Florida area.