First Defiance Financial Corp. Added to Russell 3000 Index

DEFIANCE, Ohio, June 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- First Defiance Financial Corp. (Nasdaq: FDEF) has been added to the U.S. broad-market Russell 3000® Index when Russell Investments reconstituted its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes on June 24, 2011.

Annual reconstitution of Russell's U.S. indexes captures and ranks the 4,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May by total market capitalization. Membership in the Russell 3000, which remains in place for one year, means automatic inclusion in the large-cap Russell 1000® Index or small-cap Russell 2000® Index as well as the appropriate growth and value style indexes. Russell determines membership for its equity indexes primarily by objective, market-capitalization rankings and style attributes.

"Inclusion in the Russell 3000® Index represents market recognition and acceptance," said William J. Small, Chairman, President and CEO of First Defiance. "This is another opportunity to increase our company's visibility, highlight our unique standing among community banks in the Midwest, and bring our focused strategy to the attention of a wider audience of investors."

First Defiance Financial Corp. is the holding company for First Federal Bank of the Midwest and First Insurance & Investments. First Federal Bank is a community bank serving northwest Ohio, southeast Michigan, and northeast Indiana where it currently operates 33 banking centers. First Insurance & Investments is a full line insurance agency with offices in Defiance and Bowling Green, Archbold and Bryan, Ohio.

The Russell 3000 also serves as the U.S. component to the Russell Global Index. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for index funds and as benchmarks for both passive and active investment strategies. An industry-leading $3.9 trillion in institutional assets currently are benchmarked to them. These investment tools originated from Russell's multi-manager investment business in the early 1980s when the company saw the need for a more objective, market-driven set of benchmarks in order to evaluate outside investment managers.

More information about Russell Indexes, including total returns, is available at http://www.russell.com/Indexes/data/default.asp.

About Russell:

Russell Investments provides strategic advice, world-class implementation, state-of-the-art performance benchmarks and a range of institutional-quality investment products. Russell has about $161 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2011, and serves individual, institutional and advisor clients in more than 35 countries. Founded in 1936, Russell is a subsidiary of The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.  

SOURCE First Defiance Financial Corp.