BBAR

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to BBVA Argentina's first quarter 2026 results conference call. Today with us are Mrs. Belén Fourcade, Investor Relations Manager, and Diego Cesarini, IRO and Head of Asset and Liability Management. This presentation and the first quarter 2026 earnings release are available on BBVA's investor relations website, ir.bbva.com.ar, and will also be available for download in the chat. First of all, let me point out that some of the statements made during this conference call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions found in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 under U.S. Federal Securities Law. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

Additional information concerning these factors is contained in BBVA Argentina's annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year 2025, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. During the company's presentation, all microphones will be disabled. At this time, we are going to open it up for questions and answers. If you have a question, please write it down in the Q&A section or click on Raise Hand for audio questions. You will receive a request to activate your microphone. Please activate it and pick up your headset to provide optimum sound quality when posing your question. I will now turn the call over to Belén Fourcade. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for BBVA Argentina's first quarter 2026 results conference call. During the first quarter of the year, our business model demonstrated resilience within a macroeconomic environment characterized by a gradual transition and the normalization of key financial variables. We observed a reduction in interest rate volatility, which sustained the downward trend initiated in the previous year, alongside ongoing adjustments in monetary and regulatory policy aimed at a better management of liquidity. While the combination of fiscal discipline and stabilizing external indicators establishes a more predictable framework for the financial sector, we maintain a cautious and prudent outlook regarding the pace, timing, and evolution of a broader private credit recovery in the upcoming quarters. Moving into our financial highlights for the quarter, BBVA Argentina posted an inflation-adjusted net income of ARS 85.2 billion for the first quarter of 2026.

This represents a 31.2% increase quarter-over-quarter, driven by revenue performance and expense management. This bottom-line expansion boosted our quarterly ROE to 8.3%. At the same time, net interest income grew by 5.9% sequentially to ARS 879.9 billion. Our funding costs fell faster than asset yields due to the shorter average life of our liabilities, expanding our total net interest margin to 18.6%. Regarding efficiency, our quarterly efficiency ratio stood at 51.4%, with personnel benefits and administrative expenses reflecting the ongoing management of our corporate structure. Let's look at the dynamics of our balance sheet and credit portfolio. Total financing to the private sector closed the quarter at ARS 15.7 trillion. While local currency loans fell 6.5% due to seasonal low commercial activity, our foreign currency private loans grew by 6.8% sequentially, which represents a 23.3% increase in dollar terms.

We continue to see continuous momentum in pledge and mortgage lines. Furthermore, we continue to capture business effectively, mainly driven by the commercial segment and foreign currency loans. Our consolidated loan market share rose to 12.15%, signaling a total gain of 95 basis points over the last 12 months. On the funding side, total deposits reached ARS 17.5 trillion. Private deposits saw a minor seasonal 8 basis points market share dip to 9.93%, but they remain up 78 basis points year over year. Regarding asset quality, systemic pressures caused our non-performing loan ratio to rise to 5.60%, primarily driven by the retail card and consumer portfolios. However, commercial delinquency remained exceptionally well-behaved at just 0.50%. Our cost of risk dropped from 8.11% last quarter to 6.14%, partially thanks to our strengthened origination policies, leaving our coverage ratio at 88.41%.

Looking at solvency and liquidity, our liquidity ratio closed at a very comfortable 45.5%. More importantly, our capital position remains robust with a regulatory capital ratio of 18.8%, representing 128.7% excess over minimum regulatory requirements. Before opening the floor to your questions, I want to highlight that on May 15, the Central Bank approved our dividend distribution for ARS 69 billion, which underscores our unyielding commitment to generating shareholder value. BBVA Argentina enters the rest of 2026 with an exceptionally solid foundation. Backed by robust capital, healthy liquidity, and an expanding market footprint, we possess all the necessary tools to lead the market and supply credit as the Argentine financial system normalizes. Thank you for your time. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Thank you. We are now going to start the Q&A session. To ask a question, you can click on the raise hand button. Our first question comes from Tito Labarta with Goldman Sachs.

Hi. Good morning, Belén, Diego. Thanks for the call. Excuse me. My question, I guess, on the asset quality outlook. Seems you're getting a little bit more constructive there, although we're still seeing NPLs deteriorate, but provisioning levels came down. We saw coverage come down a little bit more. Just to understand how comfortable you are on the credit quality improving from here, should we already begin to see that in the second quarter? What would that then mean for loan growth? Do you expect loan growth to accelerate as you see that? Just to get a sense of the timing on how this credit cycle should evolve from here. Thank you.

Hello, Tito. This is Diego. Thanks for the question. Well, as you say, we are a little more comfortable with asset quality, in this first quarter of the year. We have been able to make provisions at a below level of last quarter. There are certain one-off there, as we mentioned in our press release. We have a better rating on some wholesale customers that affected us positively. Besides that, I think that our origination policies are working, and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Having said this, of course, the situation still remains a little difficult. For many quarters, in general, we have been thinking that the worst one was over, finally, then the solution was delayed.

We remain reasonably comfortable that during the second quarter, we were stabilizing, and we could probably see a better outcome than in the first one. Regarding loan growth, well, we have been reviewing downwards our expectations. We started the year thinking about the range of 25%-30% growth in real terms. Now, we are thinking of a range between 15%-20%. Of course, the first quarter of the year was not easy. Seasonally, it's not the best quarter of the year. Peso demand is low in the first quarter. Dollar demand was still strong. Second quarter probably will be a little better. In the second half of the year, we are seeing probably a better performance. Regarding the retail business, of course, consumer and credit cards will take longer to recover. We need to be comfortable for new origination.

Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you, Diego.

You're welcome.

Our next question comes from Brian Flores with Citi.

Hi, team. Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. Maybe a follow-up on Tito's question. If you could provide maybe an update across the lines, Diego, on the guidance. We know we saw some interesting dynamics on the deposit side. I don't know if you could maybe double-click there as to what is happening. We saw very, I would say, competitive dynamics in terms of the funding in dollars. Just wanted to check if this is seasonality, if this is everybody fighting for these dollar deposits. Also, if you could provide your outlook for the overall NIMs, because we see that they were expanding maybe despite the challenges, right? Just trying to understand how sustainable do you think these good margins should be throughout the year. Thank you.

Okay. Hello, Brian. Well, starting with the guidance of deposits, probably we could adjust that guidance, regarding how much we are growing on loans. Many years have started slow on loan growth and then the year performed better. In the first quarter, of course, we saw a difficult dynamic in deposits. We reduced our size in real terms, but that is not to worry, in our opinion, because, of course, as loan demand was not picking up, we needed less deposits, so we were not fighting for commercial ones, especially. Regarding dollar deposits, they are growing slowly, but constantly. We are seeing a 2%-3% monthly growth. It's true that banks, the retail side of the business, is still buying dollars every day. We are keeping a portion of those deposits.

We are not really fighting for deposits, as I think that banks, in general terms, are still liquid. Loan to deposit in dollar terms is still, at a systemic level, probably below 50%, so there's still some room for banking industry to grow in dollar loans without having to fight for more deposits. We are being able to issue also local bonds at reasonable rates. I see a good dynamic, if you ask me, in this part of the business. Regarding NIMs, nominal NIMs have increased around 100 basis points in this quarter, but it's also true that inflation was also higher. We like to measure NIMs in real terms, and they have been mostly flat in the first quarter. They have grown, I guess, 15 basis points.

We have seen this real term NIM very stable, not just in the last quarter, but in the last year and even more than a year. We are expecting that behavior for the coming quarters. We expect next quarter to be also flat or maybe a little positive because inflation is going down. For the second semester, probably we could see, if inflation still keeps going down and rates follow that path, we could see a little deterioration in NIM. But in real terms, I would say that it will be a very similar year to last one. We think that net interest income is a positive contributor to the recovery of ROEs for this year.

No, perfect, Diego. Just to confirm, your ROE range is reiterated for 2026?

Yes, we keep that guidance. We have been talking about low to mid-teens. We keep that guidance, probably closer to low than to mid, but we are still there.

No, perfect. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Pedro Offenhenden with Latin Securities.

Hello. Good morning, Carmen, Diego, Belén. Thank you for taking my questions. I wanted to do a follow-on on a question on coverage. How should we think it going forward? It's maybe a goal or a target for the bank to bring it back closer to the previous levels.

Pedro, how are you? Well, we have seen our coverage ratio in line with the whole financial system going down a little below 100%. Probably, we are seeing the bottom of that ratio, and we should start seeing a recovery on that ratio in the coming quarters. We do not have a specific target. We do not have a specific timeline, but we know that it should go back at least to 100% in the coming future.

Hello, Pedro, this is Belén. I just wanted to add to what Diego was saying regarding coverage. There is not a specific number right now that we have in mind in terms of re-buffering that level of coverage. We are still focused on the needs that we have on provisioning. We are still not passed through the fall in the NPL matters and on cost of risks. Again, remember that coverage will always be rebuilt as long as we consider that it makes sense for us to increase cost of risk in change of that. Again, as Diego said, the system is at our same level. We are not worried on these levels of coverage.

Perfect. Thank you, Belén, Diego. If I might add on NPLs, how did you see asset quality, maybe through the quarter? It was January, February, much different from March, or it was an acceleration, maybe equally between months?

No. In March, I think that there was this acceleration. We are seeing that trend to continue. Probably April could be a little above March, but still mainly flat. From then on, we should see NPL stable for a couple of months and then starting to come down until we reach a level by the end of the year that could be a little below of what we are seeing right now.

Thank you, Diego.

You are welcome, Pedro.

Please hold while we poll for questions. Our next question comes from Carlos Gomez-López with HSBC.

Hello, and good morning. You have probably commented on this already, but can you tell us how the quarter is coming along? We're already in the middle, actually, at the end of May. We saw this negative growth in the first quarter. You have lower rates. You have perhaps a more stable framework. Are you starting to see demand come back, and if so, in which areas? Thank you.

Hello, Carlos. This is Diego. Well, the quarter started slowly, even with lower rates, in terms of ARS activity. In the last couple of weeks, we have seen more demand or more questions from the part of companies regarding ARS loans. When deposit rates were around 30-something, there was no interest in ARS loans. Now that deposit rates have fallen to a 20-something level, we are seeing more interest from companies. We are expecting a pickup in demand, mainly in commercial loans. As I said before, seasonally, the first three or four months of the year are usually very low on ARS demand, starting in May with tax payments and next month when companies pay the aguinaldo, the half complementary salary that they pay, we usually start to see a better demand in ARS.

Regarding dollar, of course, there have been pretty good demand in the first four months of the year. On the contrary, in May, we are seeing a little more calm in this currency.

In terms of the dollars, if I can ask, in the past, you have had continuous purchase by retail investors of physical dollars. How has that evolved in the last couple of months?

Retail investors have been buying U.S. dollars since all the regulations were lifted one year ago. Of course, we are not seeing the same level of demand that we saw in the third quarter of last year, but I would still say that it's high compared with historical levels. We are not at the highest, of course, but people are still buying and saving in U.S. dollars mainly.

Thank you very much, Diego.

You're welcome, Carlos.

Our next question comes from Matias Cattaruzzi with Adcap.

Hi, team. How are you? I have two questions. First, how do you see the TAMAR trajectory over the coming quarters? Do you expect peso NIM to hold or lower? Do you have an NPL guidance for year-end 2026? What is the view on GDP growth and a potential recovery in real wages in the second part of 2026?

Hi, Matias. I will start with TAMAR. We have seen a pretty strong decrease in TAMAR rates through March and April, probably. That has provided good fuel for our NII, as, of course, we have shorter-term liabilities than assets. What we are seeing is that this negative level of interest rates, of course, is not sustainable. Probably, we are seeing it coming to a neutral level or something close to neutral in the coming months, mainly because inflation is going down more than the TAMAR going down. Probably, we are expecting TAMAR to be in line with inflation for the coming months. Inflation keeps going down, TAMAR could go marginally down, not too much. I think that the big movement has already been done, this year at least. Regarding peso NIMs, as I was saying before, it has remained pretty stable in real terms.

We are expecting it nominally to fall a little as interest rates go down. When you consider that inflation is also going down, we are seeing a smaller loss on our net income on inflation. It's reasonable to say that peso NIMs will hold pretty stable in the coming quarters. Probably a little down, no more than 50 basis points or 100 at the most. Regarding NPL, we are not providing a specific guidance. As I said before, we think that it will be a little lower than the levels that we have seen at the end of this first quarter. It should be around 5%, we guess, or a little below. Regarding GDP, we are expecting 3%. I think that you have made another question.

Sorry, about real wages recovery.

Well, real wages should recover as inflation is going down, we guess. I think that one of the main reasons why real wages decreased in the latest last year was the pickup in inflation. We are expecting a reversal on that trend. We are pretty confident generally on the outlook. This first quarter has brought a lot of good news for the financial system and the country, we think that those good news should start to have an impact soon.

Great. As a follow-up, are you seeing a real interest rate in the coming quarters, but tighter than before?

Real interest rates, we are expecting them to come back to neutral levels.

Neutral. Okay.

More as a consequence of inflation going down than TAMAR going up.

Okay. Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Our next question comes from William Barranjard with Itaú BBA.

Thank you for the presentation. I have two quick ones. First, on your recently done layoff program, if you could share with us the amount of savings you're expecting from it. A second one, still on loan growth. If you could go through the year, in terms of expectations of growth, when it accelerates, and what is the amount expected for growth, if any, in the second half of the year? Those are the two ones.

Okay. Thanks, William. Regarding our layoff program, it's not really a program, I would say. The bank, in the latest two years, as a part of our growth plan, we've been very aggressive in growth. We have grown more than 400 basis points in loans through the last three years without having acquired any entity. In fact, we are the bank that has grown the most in the Argentinian financial system without buying or merging with another bank. We have been growing in payrolls. Now, this quarter, we are making a little efficiency, but it's usual business. Probably in the coming quarter, you could also see some more layoffs. As I said before, it's not a part of a program, it's just the usual business. Sometimes we grow, sometimes we go down on employees. Savings will impact relatively quick.

I think that it's less than approximately a year or 15 months. In that time, we recover what we have paid for those layoffs. In terms of loans, as I was saying, we are expecting every quarter to be a little better than the previous one. At the beginning, the focus, of course, will be on the commercial side, on bigger companies and medium-sized companies. Dollar demand, even if I said that May was coming a little soft, we are expecting to pick up quickly. We have many companies looking for dollar loans. Many projects were there. On the retail part of the business, we are more focused right now on our mortgages. Mortgages have shown a really low impact in NPLs. They are still at a very low level. People are paying. We are originating mortgages very cautiously with loans to value that are very safe.

We are not slowing down on mortgages. We were the only bank that, in the fourth quarter of last year, kept our very competitive prices, we are still leading the recovery in this market. The same with pledges, even if in car loans, even if the first quarter was not as big in new demand. We are partners with four brands, we have a substantial portion of the new car loans. We still want to be there. It's the same as in mortgages. We think that the retail demand of loans should be rotating from consumer, which consumer has had an abnormal portion of banks' portfolios in the past years as a consequence of the economic situation.

As stability is growing in Argentina, we should see that these investment lines, like cars or mortgages, should take a bigger part of our portfolio in the future. As I said before, probably this is not the year to be that aggressive in general terms in retail business. We have been growing very fast in the past two years. We grew more than 80% in real terms in 2024. We grew almost 50% last year. It doesn't really matter if this year we are growing 20%, 15%, or 25%. It's the same. We intend to keep growing in the country, and there is a lot of room to keep going. We are not really in a hurry, especially in the retail business, until general conditions start to improve.

Okay. Thank you very much.

You're welcome, William.

Our next question comes from Martín Argento with Delta Asset Management. Sir, you can open your microphone. I believe he's having some technical issues. Sir, can you open your microphone? We're gonna go ahead to-

Hello. Now you hear me? Sorry.

Yes, we can hear you.

Problem with the microphone.

Go ahead.

Yeah, sorry. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have a few quick questions. First, on efficiency, the ratio came in 51% this quarter. Partly, I know that impact by this one-off severance, where do you see the efficiency ratio landing by year-end, and what's the steady state in the long term now? The other question is about ROE. You have guided to mid-teens for 2026, I know it's tough to give a number for 2027, given the election cycle. Directionally, where do you see ROE in the longer term now, when the cycle fully normalized, if you imagine? Related with this, how much of drag is RECPAM for ROE nowadays? That's the questions.

Okay. Thanks, Martin, for the question. Regarding efficiency, well, last year as a whole, our efficiency was 53.9%. Last quarter of last year was really low, but because of one-offs probably. When you compare to this first quarter, you see a spike in the ratio that jumps to 51%. It also, as you mentioned, has some one-offs. For the whole year, for this year, we are expecting to be much better than the previous one as our fees are improving. We have been improving in fees. We have been improving in NII, of course, as we have been mentioning for some quarters. Our expenses are under control. We are expecting a better performance of this ratio. Probably it will be, the year as a whole, below 50%.

I could say that it could be around 48%, 49%, but it should be a substantial improvement compared to the past years. In the future, we need, of course, to keep improving on this ratio. It's still very high. We do not have a specific target, yet we know that banks, of course, and our bank is going to keep growth in place. Volume should offset the fall in NIMs, and fees should keep going, and as I said before, expenses should be kept under control. The trend for this ratio is that it will keep going down. Regarding ROE, yes, it's very difficult, as you said, giving guidance for coming years, as we do not have a track record of normal years, as I like to say, in Argentina.

We have been living under regulations and many regulations that have kept us from having normal banking activity. We know that we still have a lot of room to grow. We are confident that we'll reach higher ROEs. We know that when hyperinflation accountancy, when we get rid of that, we do not have a specific date for that. We know that Argentina could possibly comply with one of the requirements. That is, having an accrued inflation over the last statistics must be below 100%. That requirement could be met by the end of next year. It doesn't necessarily mean that the Central Bank is going to rule that we can get rid of that kind of accountancy. Of course, that makes us, right now, not comparable to banks in other geographies.

If we had to compare with a Brazilian or a Peruvian or a Colombian bank in countries where inflation is running among 3% and 4% or 5%, well, when we saw ROEs from those geographies, you should subtract 2%, 3%, 4% from those ROEs to make them comparable with banks in Argentina. The impact, the precise impact, let's suppose that in 2028, we are without that adjustment. The impact, it's difficult to consider because it will depend on how high inflation is at that moment. If inflation is running at 3%, let's say, it's difficult, but the impact will be small. If inflation is still running at 10%, 12%, the impact will be much higher.

Just trying to make it brief, we think that we have a lot of room to keep improving on our ROE, and we know that if we want to, even if we are very comfortable with our capital position, we know that if we want to be a bigger bank in a bigger financial system, we have to deliver on ROE. That's very clear for us.

Our next question comes from Marcos Serú with Allaria.

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. It is about NPLs. The central bank rules require to classify a loan as non-performing, even if that client isn't non-performing with you, but it is delinquent with another bank. I wanted to know how much of the NPL you reported is driven by this cross-bank reclassification rule, and how much is clients that are actually delinquent with the bank. Also, another question, if you could separate the deposits and loan growth, sorry, guidance between ARS and USD. Thank you.

Hello, Marcos. Thank you for your question. The first part, regarding what you said about having in stage three on IFRS or stage three and over on the Central Bank classification, this only applies for commercial loans, not for individuals. I think you mean this rule where you have to classify a client as non-performing if they are non-performing in another bank. This only applies for commercial, and we have had almost nothing. Our commercial NPL is below 1%, and the only maybe worsening, but that we are already seeing an improvement by April was with some SMEs, but we don't have any particular client or that is substantial to your question and to our provisionings. I think that's what you meant in this case, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes. Perfect.

Okay. Regarding the other question, Marcos, of course, we are seeing stronger growth on USD deposits and loans than in pesos for this year. Regarding pesos, Central Bank monetary policy has been very restrictive in the last couple of years. As a system, deposits have not grown in the last two years. The bank, BBVA, yes, we have grown a lot. We have gained market share, for this year, which is not especially strong, as I was mentioning in local currency, we are expecting both deposits and loan growth in local currency of around 10%-15% in real terms. Of course, that means that we are seeing a strong second half of the year, because the year started very slow. Regarding USD, we are seeing deposit growth of around 30%, and loan growth of around 40%.

Our next question comes from Brian Flores with Citi.

Hi, team. Thank you for the opportunity of circling back here. I think we didn't touch on the regulatory side. Just wanted to check with you because we know that the government has been really, I would say, flexibilizing some of the measures. Just wanted to check with you if there's any short-term, low-hanging fruits that the banking system as a whole is still asking for in terms of support on the regulation side. Diego, I think maybe the idea we get from what you mentioned today, along with Belén, is that, we are seeing more of a normalized cycle, right, in terms of credit. Just, you spoke a bit on, I would say, some better trends on, I wouldn't say very optimistic trends, but better trends in terms of credit demand.

If you could maybe, in your view, provide a view of what is missing here as the missing piece to maybe turn the whole cycle around in a more, I would say, strong way given the solid initial traction that we are seeing.

Thanks, Brian. Regarding your first questions about regulations, we all know what happened in the third quarter of last year and all the reserve requirement regulations that were put in place. That meant, of course, interest rates going up very, very quickly. The impact that it had in our NIIs and all the difficulties we had operationally, because it was very difficult to comply on those reserve requirements on a daily basis. Those regulations have been mainly removed. I think that made sense. It was on the Central Bank agenda that as soon as elections were over, they were going to dismantle all this, and they have complied with that. We are seeing an environment of less volatility, rates going down. Everything has normalized pretty well. There are minor issues.

Of course, reserve requirements are still very high in Argentina, even if not the 100% of those requirements mean necessarily some harm to our incomes. If you consider local currency, reserve requirements reach 30% of our deposits, but just 1/3 of that, we complied on a Central Bank account at zero rate, and the remaining 2/3 of those requirements are met with bond positions that we would hold anyway. What we assume is that whenever a loan demand in ARS pick up and Central Bank is comfortable regarding the path of inflation, they will start to release these abnormally high reserve requirements. In the meantime, I have to say that we have more liquidity. We have free liquidity. We have enough liquidity to grow, even if Central Bank doesn't decrease this level of requirements in the short term. We are not worried about liquidity.

We think that we still can gain some market share in local currency and, of course, in foreign currency, too. Liquidity is not really an issue. To complete your question regarding all other regulatory issues, I think that there's nothing really very important, very substantial. We are always talking, and Central Bank is always willing to receive our comments on small issues. I think that the system is working really good right now. Regarding what is needed to normalize the cycle of credit, I think that we should bear in mind that a lot of things are happening in Argentina and not everything has its effect that quick. We come from many decades of doing things wrong from the economic and institutional and political points of view. Just to have to bear in mind, a lot has happened in the past four or five months.

Argentina has passed two or three very important reforms, labor reform, Glacier Law amendment. We have the new RIGI. We have passed a budget. The Central Bank has started buying USD. A rating agency has improved the rating of the country. We keep the fiscal load, and inflation keeps going down. Argentinian companies and some sovereigns have been issuing plenty of USD in foreign markets. We have lower rates. We have lower taxes for exports. I'm probably forgetting a lot of things good that are happening to Argentina, and that probably those things will start to have an effect on activity soon. Probably we are a little anxious regarding how quick this can happen, but we have to bear in mind that we come from many decades of mismanagement on these issues. I think that we are on the right path.

Eventually, things will start to get better. Of course, I cannot tell when this is going to happen, having lower rates, just to give an example, and lower inflation in the coming months and quarters probably should prove to be two very good pieces of news for our short-term activity. We think that, of course, when we originate, just to take the example of retail business, of course, we keep originating retail loans at a much lower extents than a year ago. We are giving those loans to our best customers, let's say, at lower rates. Those loans are proving to behave better. They are behaving really good. With time, we will start to be a little more loose on how we can keep originating those kinds of loans. We will be making proofs, and eventually, we will get more comfortable with this origination.

Of course, we are not in a hurry. As I said before, we have been growing fast in the past two years. We have gained a place of relevance in the financial system. We are number two bank in market share in private loans. We were number four, three or four years ago. All this without having acquired any other entity. We are very confident that we are on the right path.

Thank you. This concludes today's Q&A. I would now like to hand the floor back to BBVA's team for closing remarks.

Okay, thanks. Well, I want to thank again for joining. We are really pleased, as we said, at how BBVA has been able to carry out our strategy in a context that all of you know that has not been the ideal in the last three quarters, and especially having been able to make the necessary tactical amendments to our strategy. We know that we have been able to keep our growth strategy, as I said. We have shown for our second quarter in a row with a sequential improvement in our net income, though we are still very far from what we think is our potential.

Of course, we remain very focused and confident that with all these reforms that are taking place in the country and the better financial conditions that we are starting to see these quarters, we should be soon able to resume growth and keep this path of improvement in our financial performance. That's all, and thanks again for joining.

Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to BBVA Argentina's 4Q '25 and Fiscal Year 2025 Results Conference Call. Today with us are Mrs. Belén Fourcade, Investor Relations Manager; Diego Cesarini, IRO; and Mrs. Carmen Morillo, CFO, who will be available for the Q&A session. This presentation and the 4Q '25 earnings release are available on BBVA's Investor Relations website, ir.bbva.com.ar, and will also be available for download in the chat. First of all, let me point out that some of the statements made during this conference call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions found in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 under U.S. federal securities law. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these factors is contained in BBVA Argentina's annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year 2024 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. [Operator Instructions] I will now turn the call over to Mrs. Belén Fourcade. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. After a third quarter that was marked by political instability with its consequent monetary and exchange rate tensions, the results of the midterm legislative elections reaffirmed support for the government's fiscal reform and order policy. This translated into a rapid normalization of financial variables, which returned to pre-event levels. BBVA Argentina continues to consolidate its growth strategy, reflecting its commitment to being a key player in Argentina's recovery of activity. This was achieved despite a year ultimately marked by interest rate volatility in the second half and the progressive deterioration of credit quality within specific segments of the retail portfolio. In this line, on December 22, 2025, the bank secured a credit line of up to $150 million from the International Finance Corporation. These funds allow BBVA to expand its financing capacity for small- and medium-sized enterprises, thereby reaffirming its commitment to the productive sector. BBVA Argentina's non-performing loan ratio on private loans reached 4.18% as of December 2025, a figure that remains below the system average of 5.29% for the same period. The bank stands out for having consistently lower delinquency ratios than the sector average, which reflects the quality of its credit risk management and its prudent approach to portfolio origination. Before diving into numbers, it is important to mention that on December 10, 2025, the transaction through which BBVA Argentina acquired 50% of the share capital of FCA Compañía Financiera has been closed. This had a ARS 1 billion impact in the P&L and all balance sheet figures include FCA, including loans and deposits. Nonetheless, market shares expressed in this report and on this call do not include FCA as the consolidation was made as of the last day of December. Moving to Slide 2 to 5 of the webcast presentation, I will now comment on the bank's fourth quarter 2025 and 2025 fiscal year financial results. BBVA Argentina's inflation adjusted net income in 2025 was ARS 267.4 billion, decreasing 43.2% versus 2024. This implies an accumulated ROE of 7.3% and accumulated ROA of 1.1%. The year-over-year decline in results is mainly explained by the deterioration of loan loss allowances in a context of high delinquency ratios in the financial system. Also, in spite of observing a 29.4% lower net interest income as a result of lower interest rates and inflation, this should be considered in comparison to lower losses from the net monetary position, which more than offset the lower NII. It is worth noting the 36.9% increase in net fee income, thanks to a proactive approach in improvements, and also in foreign currency and gold gains, the latter explained by an increase in activity after the partial lift in FX controls on April 14, 2025. In the fourth quarter of 2025, net income was ARS 59.3 billion, increasing 44.5% quarter-over-quarter. This implied a quarterly ROE of 6.5% and a quarterly ROA of 0.9%. Quarterly results were mainly explained by higher income along with lower expenses. The increase in income is mainly due to: one, better net interest income; and two, an increase in results from write-down of assets at amortized cost and OCI. The latter due to the sale of bonds classified in the OCI model. Expenses improved mainly on the side of personnel expenses and administrative expenses. These were negatively offset by, one, loan loss allowances; two, an increase in operating expenses mainly due to turnover tax; and three, lower net fee income in the quarter. Net income from the net monetary position was 32% higher quarter-over-quarter, explained by a higher quarterly inflation. Net interest income in the quarter was ARS 758.9 billion, increasing 20.2% quarter-over-quarter. After the uncertainty surrounding the midterm elections were off, average market interest rates declined. With the liabilities repricing at a faster pace than assets, we observed the reverse effect from the one seen in the third quarter of 2025, with income from public securities and loans increasing and expenses from funding increasing, but to a much lower extent. In the year, net interest income decreased 29.4%, as mentioned before, more than offset by the lower losses on the side of the net results from the net monetary position. Loan loss allowances increased 31.3% in the quarter and 181.2% accumulated year-over-year, explained by the deterioration of non-performing loans, in particular, on the retail book, which implied higher provisioning. The effect of loan loss allowances can be observed in the evolution of the cost of risk, which reached 8.11% in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 5.54% on an annual basis. During 2025, personnel and administrative expenses decreased by 11% and 12.6%, respectively. This was achieved, thanks to the active pursuit of efficiencies during the year. During the fourth quarter of 2025, in particular, total operating expenses were ARS 537.5 billion, remaining stable quarter-over-quarter. Both the efficiency ratio as well as the fee to expenses ratio evidence the stability and the improvements that are taking place on these lines of the income statement, and we expect them to improve even further for 2026. Going on to Slide 6 and 7. Private sector loans as of the fourth quarter of 2025 totaled ARS 14.8 trillion, increasing 7.6% in real terms quarter-over-quarter and 47.6% year-over-year. In the quarter, growth was mainly driven by an increase in loans in pesos. In total currency, the products that increased the most were mostly commercial loans such as financing of projects and exports and discounted instruments. On the peso portfolio, discounted instruments, pledged loans and credit cards stood out. Pledged loans are mainly affected by the introduction of FCA into the loan book. In the case of consumer loans, prudency policies taken in a context of higher deterioration of non-performing loans were noticeable on this line with a 2.2% quarter-over-quarter decline. BBVA Argentina's consolidated market share of private sector loans reached 11.91% as of the fourth quarter of 2025, improving 64 basis points from 11.27% a year ago. As for asset quality, the NPL ratio of BBVA Argentina on private loans reached 4.18% as of December 2025. As mentioned before, BBVA is renowned for presenting delinquency ratios spread consistently below the sector average, which reflects the quality of its credit risk management and its prudent approach to portfolio origination. By the end of 2025, total gross loans and other financing over deposit ratio was 88%, above the 78% in December 2024. Participation of total loans over assets is 57%, the highest since 2020 and above the 51% recovery in 2024. As of the fourth quarter of 2025, the total NIM was 17.5%, higher than the 15.2% in the third quarter of 2025 and below the 20.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024. While the NIM in pesos increased by 277 basis points to 20.2% quarter-over-quarter, the NIM in dollars fell 91 basis points to 4.8%. In the quarter, the increase in NIM is mainly explained by a better yield on public securities and loans in pesos, while the drop in dollar NIM is explained by a higher volume and rate of interest-bearing liabilities. In the accumulated annual comparison, although the total NIM presents a considerable drop, it should be understood that this is a consequence of the rapid decrease in inflation and therefore, the level of rates and is more than offset by the lower cost of inflation adjustment. This can be seen in the adjusted NIM, which dropped from 17.30% to 13.75%. On the funding side, as of the fourth quarter of 2025, total private deposits reached ARS 16.7 trillion, increasing 3.1% quarter-over-quarter, and 29.7% year-over-year. The bank's consolidated market share of private deposits as of the fourth quarter of 2025 reached 10.04% from 8.60% a year ago. Private non-financial sector deposits in pesos, totaled ARS 10.5 trillion, a decrease of 1.4% quarter-over-quarter, explained by a decrease in time deposits and in other deposits, including interest-bearing checking accounts. This effect was partially offset by an increase in savings accounts. Private non-financial sector deposits in foreign currency expressed in pesos increased by 11.6% quarter-over-quarter. This is mainly due to an increase in savings accounts and in time deposits. In hard currency, U.S. dollar loans increased 12.7% quarter-over-quarter and 26.6% year-over-year. As of the fourth quarter of 2025, capital ratio reached 18.3%. The quarterly increase in the ratio was due to a 9.4% increase in Common Equity Tier 1, mainly impacted by the recovery in the value of government bonds at fair value through OCI. Public sector exposure, excluding Central Bank totaled ARS 3.9 trillion, implying a 15.5% exposure, below the 16.4% recorded in the third quarter of 2025 and 17.9% in the fourth quarter of 2024. For the year, the drop in exposure is mainly explained by the increase in assets led by the growth of loans over that of financial instruments. It is important to highlight that more than 90% of the National Treasury's public debt portfolio in pesos is at TAMAR floating rate. These bonds represent approximately 65% of the bank's sovereign portfolio and in the context of higher real interest rates in the second half of the year added value to the financial margin. In the quarter, the liquidity ratio reached a level of 44.2%. The liquidity ratio in local and foreign currency reached 37.7% and 55.2%, respectively. In line with our commitment of generating value for our shareholders, the bank continued the payment of dividends corresponding to the 2024 fiscal year in 10 installments, having paid 9 of the 10 installments required by the Central Bank's regulation up to the date of this report. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now take your questions. Operator, please open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Tito Labarta with Goldman Sachs.

I guess my main question is really on asset quality and how that continues to evolve and what that could mean for loan growth for 2026. We kind of expected already that you're still not out of the credit cycle, but it seems provisions jumped a bit more than expected. NPLs went up a bit. I mean do you still think 1Q, 2Q should be the worst of it? Do you think that can get delayed and the credit cycle can last a bit longer? I just want to understand how comfortable you feel on credit quality stabilizing and potentially improving? And what could that mean for loan growth? You have pretty good loan growth in the quarter, but is there some risk to your ability to grow loans if credit quality does not improve?

Tito, good morning. Hi, everyone. This is Carmen Morillo. Thank you for your question. Related to asset quality growth and yes, we think that these are the main questions for this year. So first of all, I would like to highlight that during 2025, we have been able to gain market share in a quite solid way, this 11.91% market share that means 60 basis points increase in market share is quite solid. And in terms of credit risk, we've been under the system ratios. Having said that, we believe that first quarter will be also a tough one. But from then on, what we believe is that credit indicators should go downwards. So for us, the peak should be in the first quarter in terms of NPLs for sure, and in terms of cost of risk also. In terms of growth, maybe it's too soon to answer this question. What we believe is that depending on what the financial system growth is. And what we still believe is that we are -- so our strategy is to gain market share. So we see the credits in the system growing around 18% in real terms. So we should be growing above that. So our guidance was to grow between 25% and 30% for the 2026. And we think it's too early to change our guidance. So we would maintain these figures. So yes, around -- so to grow faster than the system. And also in terms of deposits. So we believe that our strategy is the good one in that sense. We've been growing also in deposits during 2025. We've been able to gain -- to be more -- so to have a better participation in the transactionality of our clients. And in that sense, we will be also beating the system in deposits. So I hope I could have answered your question. Thank you.

Yes. No, that's helpful, Carmen. I guess how do you think that then translates to profitability for 2026? I mean, do you think you can achieve a double-digit ROE? Can you start getting to like the low teens by the end of the year? Or does that also get delayed a bit and we could see some pressure on profitability?

Okay. So I think we have been very consistent in our guidance in terms of ROE. We were talking about low to mid-teens for the last quarters. It's -- as I mentioned, and all of you know, the environment is not so easy to predict. But we think it's early to change this guidance. So we are confident we will be able to achieve a better profitability than the one we have done this year, which, by the way, is much better than the systems one and other peers. So we are happy with that performance in relative terms. Of course, we have faced a lot of difficulties this year. And I think it -- so the year is a very positive one in this environment. And for next year, we hope to be above, so low to mid-teens, it's too early to say low or mid-teens, but I believe we should be achieving this goal.

Our next question comes from Brian Flores with Citi.

Carmen, I wanted to maybe expand a bit on deposits because I think your market share gains were very relevant. You're above the double digit maybe for the first time in some time. So I think it's a very important point. Just wanted to see your strategy, right? Because I think given the conditions that are very tight, maybe the competition for funding intensified. So I just wanted to ask you what's your strategy here? And how do you prevent maybe a spike in the cost of funding?

Brian, this is Diego Cesarini. I will take this question. Well, it's true. We have been growing on deposits much faster than the system. Last year, we grew 32% in real terms, while the system grew around 12%. So our gains in market share have been huge. Here, we have been working on many fronts. On one side, we have seen a recovery on retail deposits. Retail term deposits, for example, represented a couple of years ago before Milei took cover. And below -- before the 2023 presidential elections represented around 30% of our deposits in pesos. And after 1.5 years, they just represented 10%. Last year, we started to see a recovery in the investors' appetite for bringing that kind of deposits. So we put a lot of focus on trying to make them grow faster. Now they represent around 15%. We have also been very active on companies on SMEs deposits. We were out of that market a couple of years ago because we didn't need that funding. So we are back on that market. We are putting a lot of aggressive targets to our work in our commercial forces. And we have also succeeded a lot in growing very fast on SMEs deposits. And the last -- I guess, that the last leg of this strategy wholesale deposits. Institution, as you know, they still represent a huge amount of Argentinian market. And again, 2 years ago, we didn't need those deposits after we started growing, well, we were going for them again. So we are on every front. And of course, in dollar deposits, we have also been growing market share. We are also active on that market. And we still think that we have room to keep growing there.

Super clear. And then a follow-up on Tito's question. Just to summarize, basically, you're envisioning growth as Carmen was saying, 25% to 30% in real terms, I don't know if you could elaborate a bit on the composition because I know you're a bit more on the commercial side in terms of the mix, right? The deposits, do you think they grow above or in line with loans? ROE, you mentioned already maybe low double digits. And then I have maybe another question on asset quality. Do you think cost of risk could be at some point, maybe at the end of 2026, closer to the end of 2024, which is closer to the 5% rather than the 7%, we are now?

Starting with your latest questions. Yes, we think that by the end of this year, it could be reaching the 2024 levels. Of course, it will start at levels that are similar to the end of last year, as Carmen said before. And regarding the composition of our portfolio, I think that maybe in general terms, it will be similar to the one that we have right now. But of course, at the beginning of the year, probably during the first semester, we will be much more focused on big corporations because for obvious reasons, that the retail market is still not recovering. So probably consumer loans or credit card loans could suffer a little during the first part of the year and probably in the second semester, things will return to normality.

Yes. The point is when the situation in the retail side is safe enough to come back to credit cards and personal loans and all that. But having said that, we will be addressed -- we will be in mortgages, in pledged loans. So in the retail side, we see these products as the main ones in our strategy at the beginning of the year. Then, of course, as the situation gets better, we will be back in all products as we used to be. And in the commercial side, we are not expecting a higher deterioration, and that's why we think we will maintain, as we Diego was mentioning, in the mix we have nowadays.

Super clear. And on deposits, just to clarify, do you expect to grow above or below the loan growth?

Below, so...

Below what?

The loan growth?

No, I guess the below loan growth...

Above the system.

Yes. Above the system, probably. But below loan growth just because, well, of course, equity also grows. There are other liabilities that also grow. So we need to grow less in percentage terms in deposits than in loans. That's just mathematics. But as I said before, we still think that we have room to grow. Even if deposits were behaving not so good this year, we still have liquid. We still have bonds in excess. We have a public sector portfolio in excess of what we need to comply with reserve requirements. So we still could use some liquidity in order to keep growing.

Perfect. So if I -- if we think of, let's say, a 20% real terms in deposits, that makes sense, right?

Yes, between 15% and 20% could make sense in a scenario where we grow in loans between 25% and 30%.

And in both cases, gaining. So the strategy is to gain market share. So it will depend on what the system does.

Next question from Carlos Gomez-Lopez with HSBC.

Carmen, Diego, Belén. First, congratulations on the good result and the gains in market share, which is what you wanted to achieve and the stability of the results. So to ask a few things which are different. First, the dividend for 2025, do you expect it to be able to pay in a single or a discrete number of payments? Or will you still have these 10 different payments that you have had in 2024? And what level of payment are you thinking of doing? Second, on taxes. So when you look at the last 3 years, you've been paying about 34% on average over the last 3 years. Is that a level that you expect for the future? Or should we go back to the statutory rate around 30%? And finally, can you give us an update about when we might move away from inflation accounting? Is that 2028? Or do we have to wait longer?

Carlos, thank you for your words. Then related to your question. So first one was dividends. So we still don't know what -- so how are we going to be able to pay the dividend. So I don't have an answer on that question. So we believe we need to have information in the following -- yes, during March, I would say. So we will know that soon. Related to the amount, as we -- so we ended in -- so this capital ratio of 18.3%, 2025. As I mentioned, we want to grow for the next years. So we prefer to pay a small -- so we will be paying dividend, but it will be something similar to what we did last year. So to maintain a lower payout ratio and grow faster. Then your second question...

It was on the taxes and inflation. And by the way, what was the payout, in the end last year?

Sorry?

The payout, last year?

Last year payout was around 25% of our 2024 net income.

25%.

That was last year dividend.

Yes. Then inflation. A couple of months ago, we were thinking about 2027, so by the end of 2027, to be the end of this adjustment. Now we changed a little bit our projections of inflation. So I think it would be prudent to say that 2028 should be the year to go out of this adjustment, but it will be, yes, in 2027, beginning of 2028, something like that.

Carlos, just to add a piece of information, according to the FX regulation that is in place, we could access in theory to the official FX market to pay dividends this year.

Okay. And then in terms of taxes, you were asking. So I don't see a reason why they should come back to -- so other percentages. But I don't have here the information. So let me take a look on that and come back to you.

Sure.

Yes. So I believe -- so we should be at that levels but if -- so if we see something else, I will come to you.

So at that level, meaning the 30% statutory? Because as I said, this year, almost every quarter, you have had 34% to 41% in my numbers, maybe I'm doing something wrong.

No. I mean 35%. So around 35%, yes.

Around 35%?

Correct. It should be around 35%.

Next question from Pedro Offenhenden with Latin Securities.

I wanted to ask on cost, how should we think about personnel and administrative expenses during this year?

Pedro, thank you for your question. This year, meaning 2026, I believe?

Yes.

So the improvement we've seen during this year, we believe we will be also improving in 2026. So the trend should continue, not only in terms of being quite aggressive in not growing in expenses, but also due to our better net interest margin, fees and commissions and so on. So the efficiency ratio should go downwards.

Okay. Do you have a target on the efficiency ratio for the year?

Around 46%.

Our next question comes from Marcos Serú with Allaria. I believe you're having some technical issues. We're going to go ahead with the next person in the queue, which is Matías Cattaruzzi with Adcap.

I have a question about the -- as we have seen in the first quarter, dollar liquidity in the system is improving. And government is signaling to probably changing regulation in dollar lending to non-dollar producing clients. How do you see [indiscernible] in this field, do you intend to lend in USD to non-dollar producing clients? And which sectors do you think would be best?

Matías, this is Diego. Well, first of all, I would like to say that in the case of BBVA, we are pretty comfortable with the amount of lending we are producing in dollars right now with the current regulation. We are growing. We have a lot of demand in our pipeline. So if you ask me, by the end of this quarter, even if we are growing a lot in deposits and other kind of dollar funding, we are -- we would really be short of liquidity. We are gaining market share in loans. And everything is being done under current regulation. So we are not in the need of a change in this regulation. Having said this, if regulation changes and opens to more sectors, of course, we have to evaluate very carefully the sectors. It's difficult to establish a general policy because we all have in mind what happened in Argentina 25 years ago where dollar lending was open for anyone. That kind of -- and hedge are very difficult to manage in case of devaluation. So this is basically our view of the situation. The regulation changes, we will analyze if there are any sectors specifically or special cases where we can relax a little our policy. But I think that the most important is that we are really lending at full with the current policy. We don't -- right now, we don't need a change in our case, we don't need a change in regulation. Besides, it's -- when you look at the loan-to-deposit ratios in foreign currency, you will see that in our case, it's around -- right now, it's around 55%, probably will be 60% in a couple of months. But then reserve requirements are really high in this currency at around 23%. We also have to keep some banknotes in our branches. We have faced -- of course, it's a public information that we have faced -- banks have faced a very sudden and deep runs on our deposits many years ago. So we still have to be very careful regarding our customers' behaviors in this kind of deposits. So we still have to keep important amounts of liquidity in dollar terms. Of course, Central Bank cannot lend dollars to banks in case of meat. So this is our approach to this subject.

Okay. And a follow-up question. What's -- do you have a guidance in net interest margin for 2026?

We don't have a formal guidance on net interest margin, but we think that -- we like to measure this indicator in real terms, because, of course, if you compare 2024 to 2025, the net interest margin fell, but of course, because inflation fell and interest rates also decreased very sharply. But on the other side of our balance sheet, and our net income, you see that the cost of inflation also decreases a lot. So you have to see this in net terms. In general terms, we have seen that last year, we didn't lose -- we didn't lost margin. It was -- our net margins were similar to the previous year. And for next year, for 2026, we are seeing a similar situation. We are -- probably, our net interest margin will fall a little in real terms. That will be offset by growth in activity. So this is not an issue for now for the bank.

Our next question comes from Marcos Serú with Allaria.

Sorry, I was having trouble with my microphone before. I wanted to ask in first place about personnel expenses. How is -- explain the decrease in this quarter, while the headcount has increased? And then about your guidance. I wanted to know if you could share the assumptions behind that guidance about inflation, GDP growth in 2026 and effects. And the last one is, do you know about how much of the growth in loans and deposits is in pesos and in dollars?

Okay. Thank you, Marcos, for the questions. Related to the first one, personnel expenses. Yes, so there are some provisions we decided to return. And that's why you see this is true, that you see a different evolution between headcount and expenses. So it's a one-off. This is the short answer for that. Then related to the guidance, I think...

Regarding inflation, we are expecting right now, our research department is expecting a 22%, regarding GDP, 3% growth, regarding FX, around 1,700. And regarding the mix in growth in loans, in pesos and dollars, we are still expecting dollar loans to grow a little above peso loans. Dollar loans right now represent around 23% of our book. Probably that will reach 25%, 27%. So dollar growth should be around 40% probably in real terms or a little more.

Okay. Just one question. So do you think that the personnel expenses charged-off this quarter can be adjusted by inflation in order to project the followings or which number could be a normalized number?

I'm not sure if I get your question right, Marcos, sorry.

If you think that the personnel expense charge-off, this quarter in order to project it, will it growth as inflation growths or which growth do you expect for that charge?

So I would say that you -- so first, efficiency ratio is going to be lower than this year. And second, the growth in expenses as a whole should be very linked to inflation. So with this couple of -- okay.

Our next question comes from Brian Flores with Citi.

I just wanted to ask you because everyone, I think, not only you, but other peers have been mentioning about the potential recovery of the consumer. Just wanted to ask you, in your view, what are the catalysts here for us to see a recovery and also for them to start, as you mentioned, recovering not only in the demand of credit, but also maybe on deposits, I think that would be a great color.

So thank you for the question. So the short answer should be, so interest rates need to be stable and lower, that's one issue, which is important. And the other one is the micro, the stability. So macro policies are going in the right direction, and we believe that this is also in the right path, but we still need to see what happens with the companies, with the retail, with the salaries in real terms. So it's more complicated than only interest rates. So we believe something else needs to be happening in the country to go back to consumer loans.

Carmen, anything on the regulatory side that you think could really help on either side, either supply or demand of credit?

A lot of the bad regulations have already been addressed. But of course, everybody is aware that last year, Central Bank monetary policy was very restrictive. Our reserve requirements skyrocketed. So I think that what probably we will need some flexibility on that side from Central Bank in order to keep growing. And we think that, that will come with time. I think that right now, of course, the inflation has gone a little above the expected levels. But once that issue is again under track, I think that Central Bank is going to act and start to be less restricted. I think that's the main issue right now.

Our next question from Ignacio with Invertir en Bolsa.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Okay. Carmen and Diego, well, my question was regarding reserve requirements, but Diego answered that. So it was -- if you are expecting or seeing the Central Bank lowering those that you mentioned that it will depend on the evolution of inflation. So sorry, it was already answered and...

Yes, I can elaborate a little more. Let me tell you that in the case of reserve requirements, what Central Bank did last year, they raised, of course, these levels, but we can comply those requirements in bonds. So it doesn't represent a cost for our NIM. It's not affecting our net income, of course. But of course, we need those funds in order to keep growing in loans if there is enough demand. Besides that, we need a little more -- we are asking for a little more flexibility because last August, we had to comply with those requirements on a daily basis. That was from the operational side, it was very difficult for us. They have relaxed somewhat those daily requirements. But still, there are some minor issues that we think that should be addressed. We are asking, but that doesn't have really an impact on net income. So that's the general view on the subject.

Okay. And Diego, one more question. Do you think that wallets and fintechs that -- well, banks already won the battle of salaries and being deposits in banks. But do you think that they will eventually strike back to that -- to potentially reverse that?

Anything can happen, but I think that the main issue is that the biggest one, Mercado Pago has already asked for a banking license. So we should guess that in any time in the future, they will get that banking license and they will be able to offer the product. So we need to be ready, our products need to be competitive and have a good user experience in order to be in a good position to keep our share. We've been growing on wallet on pay per share. We have around 15% of the total market. And we have been growing consistently through the past year. So I think that we have a good offer for our customers.

The Q&A session is over. And now I would like to pass the word back to BBVA's team for final remarks.

Thank you. Thank you all for attending the conference. And just to highlight that despite the challenge of the environment, we've been going through this year. We believe BBVA Argentina has proven resilience and effective management in the year. So credit growth and non-performing loans levels below the system average and a very solid position in solvency and liquidity are the key issues of our strategy, and we are committed to keep growing in the following quarters and to maintain our efficiency and generate profitability for our shareholders.

Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect, and have a nice day.