WAFD INC

To the shareholders and the Board of Directors of WaFd, Inc.

Opinion on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of financial condition of WaFd, Inc. and subsidiaries (the

"Company") as of September 30, 2025 and 2024, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income,

shareholders' equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 2025, 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 Company as of September 30, 2025, and 2024, and the results of its operations and its

cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 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 September 30, 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 November 18, 2025, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over

financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

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

the Company'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 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 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 Matters

The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that

were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relate 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 matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on

the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.

Allowance for Loan Losses - Refer to Notes A and E to the financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

The estimate of the Company’s expected credit losses under the CECL methodology is based on relevant information about

current conditions, past events, and reasonable and supportable forecasts regarding collectability of the reported amounts. In

order to estimate the allowance for loan losses (“ALL”), the Company used either a cohort or weighted average remaining

maturities methodology to determine the historical loss rate, by loan portfolio class, then considered whether qualitative

adjustments to those historical loss rates were warranted.

Significant management judgments are required in determining whether, and to what extent, qualitative adjustments for each

portfolio loan class are required. These adjustments are made after considering the conditions over the period from which

historical loss experience was based and are split into two components: 1) asset or class specific risk characteristics or current

conditions at the reporting date related to portfolio credit quality, remaining payments, volume and nature, credit culture and

management, business environment or other management factors, not captured in the historical loss rates and 2) reasonable and

supportable forecasts of future economic conditions and collateral values.

Given the significance of the ALL and management judgment required for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of past

events, current conditions, and reasonable and supportable forecasts, performing audit procedures to evaluate the ALL requires

a high degree of auditor judgment and increased extent of effort.

We have identified the ALL estimate for certain loan portfolio classes as a critical audit matter based upon the above factors.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to the ALL estimate for loan portfolio classes for which we concluded the ALL was significant

included the following, among others:

•We tested the effectiveness of management’s controls over model applicability, qualitative adjustments, the

reasonable and supportable forecast adjustments, and management's review and approval process over the

final determination of the ALL.

•We tested the underlying data and mathematical accuracy of the cohort methodology used to determine most

loan portfolio class historical loss rates.

•We involved credit specialists to assist us in evaluating the reasonableness and conceptual soundness of the

methodologies applied in the credit loss estimation model.

•To test the qualitative adjustments, we performed analysis to evaluate management’s determination of the

qualitative adjustments made to account for specific risk characteristics or current conditions that differ from

the period over which the historical loss rate was determined. Our procedures included evaluating

management’s inputs and assumptions used in determining the qualitative and forecast adjustments by

comparing the information to internal and external source data including, among others, the economic

forecasts utilized by the Company and third-party economic forecasts for selected assumptions. In addition,

we performed procedures on the overall ALL amount, inclusive of the qualitative adjustments, by evaluating

the Company’s analysis of peers’ estimated current expected credit losses for loans to the Company’s

recorded ALL.

/s/Deloitte & Touche LLP

Seattle, Washington

November 18, 2025

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1982.