FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES INC /DE/

To the Board of Directors and Stockholders

First Citizens BancShares, Inc.:

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of First Citizens BancShares, Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, changes in stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2025, and the related notes (collectively, 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 years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2025, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.

We also have 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 24, 2026 expressed an unqualified opinion on the effectiveness of 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 these 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 consolidated 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 consolidated financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of a critical audit matter does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated 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.

Allowance for loans and lease losses and reserve for off-balance sheet credit exposures (ACL)

As discussed in Notes 1 and 6 to the consolidated financial statements, as of December 31, 2025, the Company had an allowance for loan and lease losses (ALLL) of $1.57 billion and a reserve for off-balance sheet credit exposures (AULL) of $260 million. Loans and leases are segregated into pools with similar risk characteristics, where models are utilized to estimate the ALLL. The ALLL models estimate the probability of default (PD) and loss given default (LGD) for individual loans and leases within each risk pool based on historical loss experience, borrower characteristics, collateral type, forecasts of future economic conditions, expected future recoveries, and other factors. The loan and lease level undiscounted ALLL is calculated by applying the modeled PD and LGD to forecasted loan and lease balances which are adjusted for contractual payments, prior defaults, and prepayments. The ALLL models utilize economic variables which are based on macroeconomic scenario forecasts which cover the lives of the loan portfolios. The macroeconomic forecasts utilize weighted baseline, upside and downside scenarios. ALLL model outputs may be adjusted through a qualitative assessment to reflect trends not captured within the models, which could include economic conditions, credit quality, concentrations, and significant policy and underwriting changes. Unfunded commitments are assessed to determine both the probability of funding as well as the expectation of future losses. The Company estimates the expected funding amounts and applies the ALLL PD and LGD models to those expected funding amounts to estimate the AULL.

We identified the assessment of the ACL as a critical audit matter. A high degree of audit effort, including specialized skills and knowledge, and subjective and complex auditor judgment was involved in the assessment of the ACL due to significant measurement uncertainty. Specifically, the assessment encompassed the evaluation of the methodology, including the models used to estimate the PD and LGD, the selection of the economic scenarios, and the weighting of each economic scenario. The assessment also included an evaluation of the conceptual soundness and performance of the ALLL models. In addition, auditor judgment was required to evaluate the sufficiency of audit evidence obtained.

The following are the primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter. We evaluated the design and tested the operating effectiveness of certain internal controls related to the Company’s measurement of the ACL including controls related to the:

•development and approval of the ACL methodology

•continued use and appropriateness of changes to the ALLL models, including the significant assumptions used in the ALLL models

•development of certain ALLL models

•selection of the economic scenarios and the weighting of each economic scenario

•performance monitoring of the ALLL models

•development of the qualitative adjustments, including the significant assumptions used in the measurement of certain qualitative adjustments

•analysis of the ACL results, trends, and ratios.

We evaluated the Company’s process to develop the ACL by testing certain sources of data, factors, and assumptions that the Company used, and considered the relevance and reliability of such data, factors, and assumptions. In addition, we involved credit risk professionals with specialized skills and knowledge, who assisted in:

•evaluating the ACL methodology for compliance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles

•evaluating judgments made by the Company relative to the development, assessment and performance testing of the ALLL models by comparing them to relevant Company-specific metrics and trends and the applicable industry and regulatory practices

•assessing the conceptual soundness of the ALLL models by inspecting the model documentation to determine whether the models are suitable for their intended use

•evaluating the selection of the economic scenarios and the weighting applied to each economic scenario by comparing them to the Company’s business environment and relevant industry practices and

•evaluating the methodology used to develop certain qualitative adjustments and the effect of those adjustments on the ACL compared with relevant credit risk factors and consistency with credit trends associated with the Company’s portfolio

We also assessed the sufficiency of the audit evidence obtained related to the ACL by evaluating the:

•cumulative results of the audit procedures

•qualitative aspects of the Company’s accounting practices and

•potential bias in the accounting estimate.

/s/ KPMG LLP

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2021.

Raleigh, North Carolina

February 24, 2026