• A scaled-down Wells Fargo for the Central Plains.
• Like U.S. Bancorp, but concentrated in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma.

• Deposit Accounts: Provides a variety of checking, savings, money market, and time deposit accounts for individuals and businesses.

• Commercial Loans: Offers diverse financing solutions for businesses, including commercial and industrial loans, real estate loans, lines of credit, and equipment financing.

• Real Estate Loans: Provides loans for residential real estate, home equity, commercial real estate, construction, and homebuilders.

• Consumer Loans: Offers personal financial products such as installment loans, lines of credit, and overdraft protection for individuals.

• Digital Banking Services: Delivers convenient online and mobile banking solutions for account management, transfers, and bill payments.

• Treasury & Cash Management Services: Provides businesses with advanced services like wire transfers, ACH, lockbox, and remote deposit capture for efficient cash flow.

• Debit Cards: Issues debit cards to customers for convenient access to funds and transactions.

Equity Bancshares (EQBK) serves a broad and diversified customer base rather than relying on a few major named customers. Based on the company description, its customer base can be categorized as follows:

• Commercial Businesses: This category includes a diverse range of enterprises such as national and regional companies, restaurant franchisees, hoteliers, real estate developers, manufacturing and industrial companies, and agribusiness companies. These customers utilize a variety of commercial loan products, lines of credit, equipment financing, and treasury management services.
• Individuals and Professionals: This category comprises consumers and professionals who leverage the bank's services for residential real estate loans, home equity loans and lines of credit, installment loans, unsecured and secured personal lines of credit, and various deposit products like demand, savings, money market, and time deposits.

• Fiserv, Inc. (FI)

Brad S. Elliott, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Brad S. Elliott is the founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Equity Bancshares, Inc., which he established in 2002. Prior to founding Equity Bancshares, he held positions as Director of Marketing at Koch Industries, Inc. and Regional President at Sunflower Bank. He also gained experience in various capacities at Home State Bank and Trust for six years. Under his leadership, Equity Bank has expanded through strategic capital raises and bank mergers, and he led the company's initial public offering (IPO) in 2015.

Chris Navratil, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Chris Navratil serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Equity Bancshares, Inc. He joined Equity Bank in February 2019, initially as a Senior Vice President, and later served as Chief Financial Officer of Equity Bank before being promoted to the Company's CFO in August 2023. Before joining Equity, Mr. Navratil spent seven years with Crowe LLP's Financial Institutions Audit Practice, including two years as Senior Manager.

Richard M. Sems, Chief Executive Officer, Equity Bank

Richard M. Sems is the Chief Executive Officer of Equity Bank, a subsidiary of Equity Bancshares, Inc.

Julie Huber, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer

Julie Huber is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. She also serves as a regional representative for the Kansas Bankers' Association Board of Directors.

Brett A. Reber, Executive Vice President, General Counsel

Brett A. Reber holds the position of Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

• Credit Quality Risk: Equity Bancshares faces significant risk related to the credit quality of its loan portfolio. Increases in nonperforming assets and a potential uptick in credit loss provisions or charge-offs could negatively impact the company's earnings and financial condition. Deterioration in credit quality, particularly in commercial real estate loans, could require higher reserves and weigh on profitability.
• Interest Rate Risk: The company is exposed to interest rate fluctuations, which can significantly affect its net interest margin (NIM) and overall profitability. If long-term interest rates decline or the yield curve inverts, Equity Bancshares' net interest margins could shrink, impacting its earnings. While the company utilizes hedging instruments like interest rate swaps to manage this exposure, interest rate volatility remains a material risk.
• Integration Risk from Acquisitions: Equity Bancshares has a strategy of growth through strategic acquisitions. However, the integration of acquired entities presents operational and cultural challenges, along with one-off merger costs. These integrations can impact the company's core net interest margin and regulatory capital ratios, and a failure to effectively integrate new businesses could adversely affect its financial performance and future earnings potential.

The clear emerging threat for Equity Bancshares (EQBK) stems from the rise of purely digital-first financial service providers, including online-only banks (neobanks), specialized fintech lending platforms, and financial offerings from large technology companies. These competitors operate with significantly lower overhead due to the absence of physical branches, allowing them to often offer more competitive interest rates on deposits, lower fees, and faster, more convenient digital customer experiences for banking, lending, and payment services. This disruption mirrors historical examples where new business models or technologies fundamentally challenged established industries by offering superior convenience, efficiency, or cost structures, directly impacting Equity Bancshares' traditional deposit base, loan products, and overall customer acquisition and retention strategies.

1. Organic Loan Growth: The company anticipates mid-to-high single-digit organic loan growth, supported by strong loan pipelines. For instance, as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, Equity Bancshares reported a 75% probability pipeline of $450 million and a 50% probability pipeline of $260 million, totaling over $700 million. This strong pipeline, coupled with expectations of moderating rate pressures, is projected to lead to increased loan originations at improved yields. In the first quarter of 2025, loans increased by $131 million, demonstrating an annualized growth rate of 15.5% from strong organic production.
2. Strategic Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A): Equity Bancshares has actively pursued and completed acquisitions to expand its geographic reach and asset base. The merger with Rockhold Bancorp (parent company of Bank of Kirksville) contributed to an increase in net interest income in the first quarter of 2024. Furthermore, the acquisition of Frontier Holdings, LLC in late 2025 marked the company's entry into Nebraska, adding 7 locations, approximately $1.34 billion in loans, and $1.1 billion in deposits, and is projected to be 7.7% accretive to 2026 EPS. The company also completed the acquisition of NBC Oklahoma, further expanding its multi-state footprint. Such strategic M&A activities enhance scale and long-term revenue opportunities by expanding into high-growth mid-sized markets.
3. Net Interest Margin (NIM) Expansion and Optimized Interest Earning Assets: The company has demonstrated an ability to expand its net interest margin and enhance the yield on its interest-earning assets. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the net interest margin expanded to 4.47%, an increase of 2 basis points linked quarter, contributing to a full-year net interest income growth of 21.4% year-over-year. The successful origination of loans in the prevailing interest rate environment has contributed to an expanding coupon yield on interest-earning assets.
4. Growth in Non-Interest Income: Equity Bancshares is focusing on diversifying its revenue streams through non-interest income. The company has seen growth in non-interest income driven by increased mortgage revenue, loan sale benefits, service charges, and fees, including trust and wealth management income, and card income. For example, non-interest income grew by 7.4% quarter-over-quarter to $9.5 million, largely due to increased mortgage revenue and a significant loan sale benefit. Investment in digital banking and diversified services is expected to improve the income mix and support stable earnings growth.

Share Repurchases

• Equity Bancshares initiated multiple share repurchase programs from 2022 through 2025, reflecting management's confidence in valuation and commitment to returning capital to shareholders.
• A share repurchase program for up to 1,000,000 shares of outstanding common stock was authorized from October 29, 2021, to October 28, 2022.
• Further authorizations for repurchasing up to 1,000,000 shares of common stock were approved to commence on October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2025, and again from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026.

Share Issuance

• In December 2024, Equity Bancshares priced an underwritten public offering of 1,797,600 shares of its Class A common stock at $44.50 per share, totaling an $80 million aggregate offering. The net proceeds were intended to support growth, strategic acquisitions, investments in Equity Bank, and for general corporate purposes.
• The acquisition of NBC Corp. of Oklahoma in July 2025 involved approximately 80% of the consideration being settled with EQBK stock.
• The merger with Frontier Holdings, LLC, completed on January 1, 2026, included the issuance of 2.22 million shares of EQBK common stock as part of the consideration.

Outbound Investments

• Equity Bancshares completed the acquisition of American State Bancshares in October 2021.
• In July 2025, Equity Bancshares acquired NBC Corp. of Oklahoma, adding seven locations and approximately $908.9 million in assets.
• The company completed its merger with Frontier Holdings, LLC, parent company of Frontier Bank, on January 1, 2026, which added seven locations and approximately $1.4 billion in assets, including $1.3 billion in loans and $1.1 billion in deposits. The acquisition of Rockhold Bancorp (Bank of Kirksville) was an all-cash merger transaction valued at approximately $44.3 million.

Capital Expenditures

• Equity Bancshares invested $5.5 million in capital expenditures during the fourth quarter of 2025, primarily for funding long-term assets and infrastructure. This represented a 36.4% increase from the prior quarter.