Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp.

Shareholders and the Board of Directors of

Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp.

New York, New York

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of financial condition of Metropolitan Bank Holding Corp. (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 years in the three-year period ended December 31, 2025, 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, 2025, 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, 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 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, 2025, 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 Management’s Annual Report on 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 – Economic Scenarios used in Commercial Real Estate (“CRE”) and Commercial and Industrial (“C&I”) Loans Portfolio Segment Models

As described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company accounts for credit losses under ASC 326, Financial Instruments – Credit Losses, which requires the measurement of all expected credit losses for financial assets held at amortized cost at the reporting date. As of December 31, 2025, the balance of the allowance for credit losses on loans (“ACL”) was $97.1 million.

To calculate the ACL for loans collectively evaluated, the Company uses lifetime loss rate models. The CRE and C&I lifetime loss rate models calculate the expected losses over the life of the loan based on exposure at default loan attributes and reasonable, supportable economic forecasts.

To account for economic uncertainty, the Company uses multiple forecasted economic scenarios provided by the models in determining the quantitative ACL. The economic scenarios include various projections based on variables such as, Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”), interest rates, property price indices, and employment measures, among others. The economic scenarios are probability-weighted based on available information at the time of the calculation execution. Scenario weightings and model parameters are reviewed for each calculation and are subject to change.

We consider the auditing procedures related to management’s forecasted economic scenarios used within the quantitative CRE and C&I lifetime loss rate models to be a critical audit matter due to the extent of audit effort and high degree of specialized knowledge and skills required to evaluate the resultant lifetime loss rates produced from the models.

To address this matter, we tested the operating effectiveness of the Company’s controls related to evaluating, adjusting, and concluding on forecasted economic scenarios used for the CRE and C&I lifetime loss rate models, including the following:

Our substantive procedures related to the forecasted economic scenarios used for the CRE and C&I lifetime loss rate models included the following:

/s/Crowe LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2008.

New York, New York

February 20, 2026