MORGAN STANLEY

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Morgan Stanley:

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Morgan Stanley and subsidiaries (the “Firm”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated income statements, comprehensive income statements, cash flow statements and statements of changes in total equity for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “financial statements”). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Firm as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, 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 Firm’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, 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 22, 2024, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Firm’s internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These financial statements are the responsibility of the Firm’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Firm’s 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 Firm 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 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 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 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 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.

Valuation of Level 3 Financial Assets and Liabilities Carried at Fair Value on a Recurring Basis and Level 3 Loans Held for Sale—Refer to Note 4 to the financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

The Firm’s trading and financing activities result in the Firm carrying material financial instruments having limited price transparency. These financial instruments can span a broad array of product types and generally include derivatives, securities, loans, and borrowings. As described in Note 4, these Level 3 financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value on a recurring basis approximate $9.3 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively, and the Level 3 loans held for sale approximate $6.7 billion at December 31, 2023. Unlike financial instruments whose inputs are readily observable and, therefore, more easily independently corroborated, the valuation of these financial instruments is inherently subjective and often involves the use of unobservable inputs and proprietary valuation models whose underlying algorithms and valuation methodologies are complex.

We identified the valuation of Level 3 financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value on a recurring basis and Level 3 loans held for sale as a critical audit matter given the Firm uses complex valuation models and/or valuation inputs that are not observable in the marketplace to determine the respective carrying values. Performing our audit procedures to evaluate the appropriateness of these models and inputs involved a high degree of auditor judgment, professionals with specialized skills and knowledge, and an increased extent of testing.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to the valuation of Level 3 financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value on a recurring basis and Level 3 loans held for sale included the following, among others:

•We tested the design and operating effectiveness of the Firm’s model review and price verification controls. The Firm maintains these internal controls to assess the appropriateness

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of its valuation methodologies and the relevant inputs and assumptions.

•We independently evaluated the appropriateness of management’s valuation methodologies, for selected financial instruments, including the input assumptions, considering the expected assumptions of other market participants and external data when available.

•We developed independent estimates for selected financial instruments, using externally sourced inputs and independent valuation models, and used such estimates to further evaluate management’s estimates. For certain of our selected financial instruments, this included a comparison to the Firm’s estimates for similar transactions and an evaluation of the Firm’s assumptions inclusive of the inputs, as applicable.

•We tested the revenues arising from the trade date fair value estimates for selected structured transactions for which we developed independent fair value estimates to test the valuation inputs and assumptions used by the Firm and evaluated whether these methods were consistent with the Firm’s relevant valuation policies.

•We assessed the consistency by which management has applied significant and unobservable valuation assumptions used in developing the Firm's estimates.

•We performed a retrospective assessment of management’s fair value estimates for certain of our selected financial instruments, for which there were events or transactions occurring after the valuation date. We did so by comparing management’s estimates to the relevant evidence provided by such events or transactions, as applicable.

/s/Deloitte & Touche LLP

New York, New York

February 22, 2024

We have served as the Firm’s auditor since 1997.