Carter Bankshares, Inc.

Carter Bankshares, Inc. (the Company ) is a bank holding company headquartered in Martinsville, Virginia with assets of $4.9 billion at December 31, 2025. In October 2025, the Company elected to become a financial holding company under the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the BHCA ). As a financial holding company of a Virginia state bank, the Company is subject to regulation, supervision and examination by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the FRB ) and the Bureau of Financial Institutions of the Virginia State Corporation Commission (the Virginia BFI ). The Company is the parent company of its wholly owned subsidiary, Carter Bank & Trust (the Bank ). The Bank is a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ( FDIC ) insured, Virginia state-chartered bank, which operates 64 branches in Virginia and North Carolina. The Bank became a member of the Federal Reserve System on November 13, 2025. The Bank is subject to regulation, supervision and examination by the FRB (through the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond) and the Virginia BFI. The Company provides a full range of commercial banking, consumer banking, mortgage and services through the Bank. The Company’s common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol CARE . In this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless the context suggests otherwise, the terms we, us and our refer to the Company and its subsidiaries, including the Bank.