Pioneer Bancorp, Inc./MD

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Board of Directors and

Shareholders of Pioneer Bancorp, Inc.

Albany, New York

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of condition of Pioneer Bancorp, Inc. and Subsidiaries (the Company) as of December 31, 2025 and 2024, and the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income, changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for the year ended December 31, 2025, the six months ended December 31, 2024 and the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, 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 inInternal 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 the year ended December 31, 2025, the six months ended December 31, 2024, and the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, 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 inInternal 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 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 consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Allowance for Credit Losses – Loans Collectively Evaluated

As described in Notes 2 and 5 to the financial statements, the Company’s allowance for credit losses on loans of $25.3 million reflects management’s expected credit losses that exist in the loan portfolio of $1.67 billion as of December 31, 2025, which related entirely to loans evaluated on a collective basis (the collective ACL on loans). The ACL is measured on a collective (pooled) basis for segments of loans when similar risk characteristics are present. The Company uses a discounted cash flow methodology where the respective allowance for each segment is measured by comparing the amortized cost to the present value of modeled cash flows projected using a probability of default (PD), and loss given default (LGD) methodology. The Company uses PD regression models to develop the PD, and LGD models to develop the LGD, using historical credit loss experience for both the Company and selected peers with similar risk profiles.

The application of these models incorporates external economic forecasts for the economic variables over the reasonable and supportable forecast period. After the reasonable and supportable forecast period, the Company reverts to long-term average economic variables over a reversion period on a straight-line basis. Contractual cash flows over the contractual life of the loans are the basis for modeled cash flows, adjusted for modeled defaults and expected prepayments and discounted at the loan-level stated interest rate. After quantitative considerations, the Company applies additional qualitative adjustments to adjust for asset-specific risk characteristics and current conditions, so that the collective ACL is reflective of the estimate of lifetime losses that exist in the loan portfolio.

We identified the assessment of the collective ACL on loans as a critical audit matter. The principal considerations for identifying this as a critical audit matter were (i) the significant judgment by management in determining the collective ACL on loans, (ii) a high degree of auditor judgment, subjectivity and effort in performing procedures and in evaluating audit evidence related to management’s determination of the collective ACL on loans, and (iii) the audit effort involved the use of professionals with specialized skill and knowledge.

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

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2014.

/s/Bonadio & Co., LLP

Pittsford, New York

March 12, 2026