First Merchants in Indiana Exits SBLF

First Merchants (FRME) in Muncie, Ind., has exited the Small Business Lending Fund.

The $4.3 billion-asset company said in a regulatory filing Friday that it had redeemed the final 34,000 shares of preferred stock tied to the Treasury Department program. First Merchants paid roughly $34 million to redeem the stock.

First Merchants, which issued the shares to the Treasury in September 2011, issued $70 million in debt earlier this month to exit SBLF and to pay off a loan from Bank of America.