EQUITY BANCSHARES INC

Shareholders and the Board of Directors of Equity Bancshares, Inc.

Wichita, Kansas

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Equity Bancshares, Inc. (the "Company") as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "financial statements"). We also have audited the Company’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 (COSO).

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2023 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework: (2013) issued by COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company’s management is responsible for these financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Report on Management’s Assessment of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("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 audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the financial statements 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. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material

weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

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 the critical audit matter 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.

Allowance for Credit Losses on Loans – Qualitative Adjustments

The allowance for credit losses (the “ACL”) as described in Notes 1 and 4 is an accounting estimate of expected credit losses, measured over the contractual life of an instrument, which considers reasonable and supportable forecasts of future economic conditions in addition to information about past events and current conditions. As of December 31, 2023, the Company’s allowance for credit losses on loans was $43.5 million and the provision for credit losses on loans was $1.9 million for the year then ended.

The Company measures the allowance for credit losses utilizing a probability of default (“PD”) and loss given default (“LGD”) modeling approach for historical loss. The estimated PD and LGD rates are applied to the estimated exposure at default (“EAD”) to calculate expected credit losses. The Company’s ACL model utilizes a statistical regression of loss experience correlated to changes in economic factors for all commercial banks operating within the Company’s geographical footprint. The methodologies utilized to develop and implement the macroeconomic factors that drive the loss estimates use multivariate regression modeling techniques. The process involved the selection of the macroeconomic factors and the evaluation of regression analysis outputs to determine the statistical fit of the macroeconomic factors used to forecast expected credit losses. The Company also adjusts for changes in qualitative factors not inherently considered in the quantitative analyses. Significant management judgment is required in evaluating the qualitative adjustments used in the analysis.

We determined that auditing the allowance for credit losses on loans was a critical audit matter because of the extent of auditor judgment applied and significant audit effort to evaluate the significant subjective and complex judgments made by management. The principal considerations resulting in our determination included the following:

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Significant auditor judgment and effort were used to evaluate reasonableness of the PD, LGD and EAD assumptions.

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Significant auditor judgment and audit effort were used to evaluate the application of the reasonable and supportable forecast of economic variables.

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Significant auditor judgment and effort were used in evaluating the qualitative adjustments used in the calculation.

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Significant audit effort related to the relevance and reliability of the high volume of data used in the model computation.

The primary audit procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

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Testing the effectiveness of management’s internal controls over the Company’s significant model assumptions and judgments, reasonable and supportable forecasts, qualitative adjustments and model validation.

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Testing the effectiveness of controls over the relevance and reliability of loan data used in the computation of the PD models and LGD assumptions.

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Testing the effectiveness of controls over the Company’s preparation and review of the allowance for credit loss calculation, including the reasonableness of qualitative adjustments and mathematical accuracy and appropriateness of the overall calculation.

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Testing the effectiveness of controls over the relevant macroeconomic variables, including the review of the regression analysis output and the relevance and reliability of third-party data used.

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With the assistance of our valuation specialists, evaluating the reasonableness of assumptions and judgments related to the PD, LGD, EAD and loan segmentation, the conceptual design of the credit loss estimation models, model assumption sensitivity analysis and the adequacy of the independent model validation.

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Substantively tested management’s qualitative factor adjustments and assessed the relevance and reliability of the data used, including evaluating management’s judgments and assumptions for reasonableness.

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Substantively testing the mathematical accuracy of the PD, LGD and EAD model on a pooled loan level including the relevance and reliability of loan data used in the model.

Crowe LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2007.

Indianapolis, Indiana

March 07, 2024