CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP INC/RI

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of

Citizens Financial Group, Inc.

Providence, Rhode Island

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Citizens Financial Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the "Company") as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in stockholders' equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2025, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "consolidated financial statements"). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2025, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2025, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated February 12, 2026, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.

Critical Audit Matter

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

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Allowance for Credit Losses - Refer to Note 4 to the consolidated financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

The Company’s estimate of expected credit losses in its loan and lease portfolios is recorded in the Allowance for Credit Losses (“ACL”) and considers extensive historical loss experience, including the impact of loss mitigation and restructuring programs that the Company offers to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty, as well as projected loss severity as a result of loan default. The ACL is maintained at a level the Company believes to be appropriate to absorb expected lifetime credit losses over the contractual life of a loan or lease and on unfunded lending commitments. The determination of the ACL is based on the periodic evaluation of loan and lease portfolios and unfunded lending commitments that are not unconditionally cancellable. A number of relevant underlying factors, including key assumptions and the evaluation of quantitative and qualitative information, are considered.

Key assumptions used in the ACL measurement process include the use of a two-year reasonable and supportable economic forecast period followed by a one-year reversion period to historical credit loss information. The evaluation of quantitative and qualitative information is performed by assessing groups of assets that share similar risk characteristics and certain individual loans and leases that do not share similar risk characteristics with the collective group. Loans are generally grouped by product type and are assessed for credit losses using econometric models.

The quantitative ACL utilizes economic forecasts primarily based on econometric models that use known or estimated data as of the balance sheet date and forecasted data over the reasonable and supportable period. Known and estimated data include current PD, LGD, and EAD for commercial loans, timing and amount of expected draws for unfunded lending commitments, and FICO, LTV, and term for retail loans. The mix and level of loan balances, delinquency levels, assigned risk ratings, previous loss experience, current business conditions, amount and timing of expected future cash flows, and factors specific to commercial credits such as competition, business, and management performance are also considered. Forward-looking economic assumptions include real GDP, unemployment rate, interest rate curve, and changes in collateral values. This data is accumulated to estimate expected credit losses over the contractual life of the loans and leases, adjusted for expected prepayments. Historical information, such as financial statements for commercial customers or consumer credit ratings, may not be as relevant in estimating future expected credit losses as forecasted inputs to the models during volatile economic time periods.

The ACL may also be affected by a variety of qualitative factors that the Company considers that are not measured in the statistical procedures including uncertainty related to economic forecasts, loan growth, backtesting results, regional geographic concentrations, credit underwriting policy exceptions, regulatory and audit findings, and peer comparisons.

Given the size of the loan and lease portfolios and unfunded commitments and the subjective nature of estimating the ACL, including the estimated impact of the factors noted above and related economic forecasting uncertainty, auditing the ACL involved a high degree of auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to the ACL for the loan and lease portfolios and unfunded commitments included the following, among others:

•We tested the design and effectiveness of controls over the (i) selection of the economic forecasts, (ii) development, execution, and monitoring of the econometric models, (iii) estimation of management’s adjustments to the economic forecast assumptions and used to model reserves for industry sectors facing challenges in the current macroeconomic environment, (iv) determination of the qualitative allowance, (v) transfer of data, and (vi) overall calculation and disclosure of the ACL.

•With the assistance of credit specialists, we (i) evaluated the reasonableness of the econometric models and related assumptions, (ii) assessed the reasonableness of design, theory, and logic of the econometric models for estimating expected credit losses, (iii) tested the accuracy of the data input into the econometric models, and (iv) tested the arithmetic accuracy of the models’ calculations of the expected credit losses.

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•We evaluated the appropriateness and relevance of management’s (i) judgments used to determine economic forecasts, (ii) selection of economic forecasts, and (iii) consideration of economic forecasting uncertainty and adjustments to the economic forecasts for industry sectors facing challenges in the current macroeconomic environment.

•We (i) evaluated the appropriateness and relevance of the qualitative factors, (ii) tested the accuracy and evaluated the relevance of the historical loss data used in determining the qualitative allowance, (iii) evaluated the reasonableness of the Company’s assessment and determination of the qualitative factors and related impact on the estimation of the qualitative allowance and (iv) tested the arithmetic accuracy of the calculation of the qualitative allowance.

•We tested the arithmetic accuracy of the calculation of the overall ACL and assessed the reasonableness of the related disclosures.

/s/Deloitte & Touche LLP

Boston, Massachusetts

February 12, 2026

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2000.

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