Customers Bancorp Inc

REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM

To the Shareholders and the Board of Directors of

Customers Bancorp, Inc.

West Reading, Pennsylvania

Opinion on the Consolidated Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Customers Bancorp, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income (loss), changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements 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 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 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 and our report dated February 29, 2024, expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting.

Basis for Opinion

These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated 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 consolidated 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 – Refer to Notes 2 and 8 to the consolidated financial statements

Critical Audit Matter Description

Management’s estimate of expected credit losses in the Company’s loan and lease portfolios are recorded in the allowance for credit losses on loans and leases (the “ACL”). The ACL is a valuation account that is deducted from the loans or leases amortized cost basis to present the net amount expected to be collected on the loans and leases. The ACL on collectively assessed loans and leases is measured over the expected life of the loan or lease using lifetime loss rate models which consider historical loan performance, loan or borrower attributes and forecasts of future economic conditions in addition to information about past events and current conditions. It is deducted from the loans or leases amortized cost basis to present the net amount expected to be collected on the loans and leases.

The estimation of the ACL requires management to make significant judgments in regard to (a) selecting reasonable and supportable economic forecasts, (b) using models to estimate expected losses for each material loan portfolio, and (c) identifying loss factors not fully captured within the models or economic forecasts (e.g., asset specific factors or current conditions that are different from this historical loss information captured in the models) and quantifying those estimates in qualitative components.

We identified the ACL for the loans and lease receivables held-for-investment, excluding the residential real estate and manufactured housing portfolios, as a critical audit matter because it involves especially subjective and complex judgment in auditing the (1) model methodology, (2) model logic, (3) model assumptions, (4) determination of the macroeconomic forecast, and (5) use of qualitative adjustments. This required a high degree of auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort, including the need to involve credit specialists when performing audit procedures.

How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit

Our audit procedures related to the ACL for the loan and lease portfolios included the following, among others:

•We tested the effectiveness of controls over the (i) selection of the macroeconomic forecasts, (ii) execution and monitoring of the loss rate models, (iii) calibration of the loss rate models to peer and industry information, (iv) measurement of the qualitative allowance, (v) the monitoring, identification, and valuation of collateral dependent loans, and (vi) overall calculation and disclosure of the ACL.

•We used our credit and valuation specialists to assist us in evaluating the reasonableness of the loss rate models.

•We (i) evaluated the reasonableness of the loss rate models and related assumptions, (ii) assessed the reasonableness of design, theory, and logic of the loss rate models for estimating expected credit losses, (iii) tested the accuracy of the data input into the loss rate models, and (iv) assessed the reasonableness of the models’ calculations of loss rates derived from the loss rate models.

•We (i) assessed the reasonableness of the methodologies and appraisals used by management to estimate collateral values on collateral dependent loans, (ii) tested the arithmetic accuracy of the reserves or charge-offs, and (iii) considered available information subsequent to December 31, 2023 that provides additional evidence about conditions that existed at the balance sheet date.

•We (i) evaluated the reasonableness of management’s forecast selection, (ii) evaluated the appropriateness and relevance of the qualitative factors, and related quantitative measures included in the qualitative allowance, (iii) tested the accuracy and evaluated the relevance and reliability of the data, including third party data, used to calibrate the loss rate models to peer and industry information, and (iv) tested the arithmetic accuracy of the calculation of the qualitative allowance.

•We tested the arithmetic accuracy of the calculation of the overall ACL and assessed the reasonableness of the related disclosures.

/s/ Deloitte & Touche LLP

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

February 29, 2024

We have served as the Company’s auditor since 2019.