GOODWILL AND OTHER INTANGIBLE ASSETS

Goodwill. Assets and liabilities acquired in a business combination are recorded at their estimated fair values as of the acquisition date. The excess of the purchase price of the acquisition over the fair value of net assets acquired is recorded as goodwill.

Changes in the carrying amount of goodwill for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and March 31, 2025 were as follows:


	Three months ended
	March 31,
(Dollars in thousands)		2026		2025
Balance at beginning of period		$	1,099,524	$	1,007,656
Goodwill resulting from business combinations		19		0
Balance at end of period		$	1,099,543	$	1,007,656

In the fourth quarter of 2025, First Financial recorded $91.9 million of goodwill related to the acquisition of Westfield Bancorp, Inc., an Ohio corporation. Upon completion of the transaction, Westfield Bank, FSB, a federal savings bank, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Westfield Bancorp, merged into First Financial Bank. This acquisition supplements First Financial's existing commercial banking and wealth management presence in Northeast Ohio by adding all of Westfield's retail banking locations and its commercial lending, insurance agency lending and private banking services. The measurement period for recording adjustments to the fair value of assets and liabilities acquired in the Westfield acquisition ends in November 2026.

Goodwill is evaluated for impairment on an annual basis as of October 1 of each year, or whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the fair value of a reporting unit may be below its carrying value. First Financial performed its most recent annual impairment test as of October 1, 2025 and no impairment was indicated. As of March 31, 2026, no events or changes in circumstances indicated that the fair value of the reporting unit was below its carrying value.

Other intangible assets. Other intangible assets consist primarily of core deposit intangibles, customer lists, mortgage servicing rights and other miscellaneous intangibles, such as purchase commissions, non-compete agreements and trade name intangibles.

Core deposit intangibles represent the estimated fair value of acquired customer deposit relationships on the date of acquisition and are amortized on an accelerated basis over their estimated useful lives. First Financial's core deposit intangibles have an estimated remaining life of 9.1 years.

First Financial recorded a customer list intangible asset in conjunction with the Agile, Summit and Bannockburn acquisitions to account for the obligation or advantage on the part of either the Company or customers to continue pre-existing relationships subsequent to the merger. These customer list intangibles are being amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. The Agile customer list was $2.3 million at both March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025, and is being amortized over an estimated remaining life of 10.9 years. The Summit customer list was $19.5 million and $20.1 million at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025, respectively, and is being amortized over an estimated remaining life of 7.8 years. The Bannockburn customer list was $15.8 million and $16.7 million at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025, respectively, and is being amortized over an estimated remaining life of 4.4 years.

Mortgage servicing rights represent the value of servicing fees First Financial expects to receive from the servicing responsibilities it retains when selling fixed and adjustable-rate residential mortgage loans. In those sales, First Financial retains servicing responsibilities and provides certain standard representations and warranties; however, the investors have no recourse to the Company’s other assets for failure of debtors to pay when due. First Financial receives servicing fees based on a percentage of the outstanding balance. When First Financial sells mortgage loans with servicing rights retained, these servicing rights are initially recorded at estimated fair value. First Financial has selected the “amortization method” as permissible within GAAP, whereby the servicing rights capitalized are amortized in proportion to and over the period of estimated future servicing income with respect to the underlying loan. At the conclusion of each reporting period, the carrying value of the MSR is assessed for impairment by comparing it to its fair value. Based on the comparison, no valuation allowance was required. MSR are carried at the lower of their amortized cost or fair value. The amortization of MSR is included within other noninterest income in the Consolidated Statements of Income.

Amortization expense recognized on other intangible assets for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and March 31, 2025 was $7.6 million and $3.2 million, which included MSR amortization of $1.3 million and $0.9 million, respectively.

The gross carrying amount and accumulated amortization of other intangible assets at March 31, 2026 and December 31, 2025 were as follows:


(Dollars in thousands)	March 31, 2026				December 31, 2025
	Gross carrying amount		Accumulated amortization		Gross carrying amount		Accumulated amortization
Core deposit intangibles	$	121,806	$	(41,428)	$	88,814	$	(36,777)
Customer lists	72,278		(34,703)		72,278		(33,127)
Other	9,269		(3,711)		9,269		(3,654)
Mortgage servicing rights	34,241		(11,825)		33,013		(10,984)
Total	$	237,594	$	(91,667)	$	203,374	$	(84,542)