BSAC

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and I would like to welcome you to Banco Santander-Chile's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call on August 5, 2026. Please note at this point, all participant lines are in listen-only mode. After the call, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. With this, I would now like to pass the line to Patricia Pérez, the Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am Patricia Pérez, CFO of Banco Santander-Chile, and I'm joined by Cristián Vicuña, Head of Strategy and Investor Relations, and Andrés Sansone, Chief Economist. This quarter reinforces the strength of our franchise, high profitability, disciplined cost management, and a solid capital position. While we continue to execute our strategy to deliver a simpler and enhanced value proposition to customers with a focus on sustainable growth and shareholder returns. First, Andrés will give you an overview of the economic and regulatory environment. Cristián will then walk you through our strategy, our second quarter results, and our updated view for 2026. Finally, we will conclude with a Q&A session. With that, let me turn it over to Andrés Sansone.

Thanks, Patricia. Let me start with the big picture. Since our last webcast, the global backdrop has remained complex. External inflationary pressures remain, with geopolitical tensions driving oil prices and the inflationary scenario for Chile. At the same time, long-term rates have moved higher, and expectations for monetary policy abroad have shifted upward, leaving global financial conditions less supportive. For Chile, this has translated into a weaker peso, around CLP 930 per dollar during the last month, and renewed pressures on short-term inflation. Locally, the June CPI was flat month-on-month, but still above expectation, bringing annual inflation to 4.3%, with the surprise mainly concentrated on food. Some short-term inflation expectations have increased, and now we expect a variation of 4.4% in 2026 in the U.S., although the two-year expectations remain anchored at 3%. On activity, the economy continued to lose momentum during the first half of the year.

The weakness has been concentrated in three areas. First, supply shocks in natural resources sectors, particularly mining and fishing. Second, the impact of higher oil and fuel prices on household disposable income. Third, a slower-than-expected recovery in construction. Beyond these three factors, the labor market has also weakened, with seasonal adjusted unemployment rising to 9.3%. Looking ahead, activity should improve gradually. Mining production faces a more favorable comparison base in the coming months. The mining and energy investment pipeline remains solid, and the recent fall in fuel prices should help restore part of the disposable income lost during the oil shock. Pro-growth reforms, if approved and effectively implemented, can lift the country's potential growth over the medium term. Based on this information, our economic team has revised down its 2026 growth forecast, with the economy now expected to expand close to 1% this year.

The outlook for 2027 remains more constructive, supported by investment and a low comparison base. In this context, we continue to expect the central bank to keep the policy rate at 4.5% for an extended period. Overall, the message is that inflation risks have increased again, while activity, although improving at the margin, will remain weak this year, making the macro scenario more challenging and calling for a more cautious monetary policy stance. Now turning to the regulatory and policy environment on slide five. The main development is the completion of the National Reconstruction Plan bill passage through Congress. Yesterday, the Senate approved the last outstanding provision. The bill is therefore now ready for enactment. The bill includes several pro-market initiatives aimed at reactivating growth.

On the business and investment side, the most relevant measures are the gradual reduction in the corporate tax rate from 27%-23% between 2027 and 2029, the reintegration of the tax system, investment incentives and tax stability, faster permitting process, and reconstruction spend. We believe these measures should support private investment, improve business confidence, and strengthen economic activity over time. Moreover, the bill includes household support measures such as the temporary VAT exception on new homes Housing reconstruction programs, and improved housing affordability and employment support. If these are implemented effectively, these measures should support housing demand, mortgage origination, and consumer activity. Complementing this, the government has just submitted a bill to extend and expand the mortgage interest rate subsidy and the FOGAES estate guarantee for first home purchases. The proposal raises the number of subsidies from 50,000-80,000.

Also lifts the maximum value of eligible new homes from 4,000 UF-6,000 UF, and extends the program until May 2026. Combined with the temporary VAT exemption on new homes, this should improve affordability for middle-income households, help absorb the stock of more than 100,000 unsold units, and therefore has the potential to support mortgage origination and a recovery in the construction sector. In addition, we continue to monitor other regulatory relevant changes, including the repos and securitization law, the proposed model for markets risk-weighted assets, and the advances toward internal models for credit risk. With that, let me hand over to Cristián.

Thank you, Andrés. I will now walk you through our strategy, our second quarter 2026 results, and our outlook for the rest of the year. Let me start with the strategy. At the center of what we do is a clear ambition: to become a digital bank with a physical presence, leveraging our Work Café branches to combine the convenience of scale and the digital banking with advice, service, and proximity for our customers, leveraging the support of the Santander Group and its global platforms. We organize this around three pillars. First, think customer. We aim to offer the best value proposition to all our customer segments, grow active customers, increase transactionality, and deepen loyalty. We aim to serve over 3.5 million active customers, and we continue to see room to improve the customer experience, raise NPS, and capture a greater share of wallet, especially in higher value segments.

Second, think global. We are accelerating our digital transformation through global platforms and an AI-enabled operating model. These allow us to simplify processes, improve the digital experience, deploy capacities faster, and operate with greater agility, productivity, and efficiency in an increasingly dynamic environment. Third, think value. Our goal here is to translate the strong customer franchise and an efficient operating model into recurring high-quality profitability. This means continuing to diversify revenues, leveraging other income streams while maintaining a strong focus on returns and capital discipline. Overall, our strategy is designed to grow customers and loyalty, increase transactionality, improve the quality of revenues, and as a result, deliver sustainable returns and an attractive payout to shareholders. This strategy is supported by a diversified platform with five complementary business lines.

Retail and commercial remains the core of the franchise, where we are simplifying products and processes and continuing to build on the Work Café model. Corporate and investment banking adds strength in advisory, FX, and transactional banking capabilities with a clear focus on sustainable solutions and capital optimization. Wealth management and insurance strengthens our advisory-led model, renews our private banking proposition, and reinforces our position in insurance and mutual funds. Consumer banking supports our leadership in auto financing, including new and electric vehicles, while also expanding our presence in used car financing. Through Getnet, our payment business is helping us reach new client segments with value-added services and simple bundled solutions. Retail remains the backbone of the balance sheet, representing 66% of loans, 48% of deposits, and 69% of the margin. At the same time, we have meaningful contributions from CIB payments wealth into the fee business.

The Santander global platforms are helping us connect this business effectively, improve efficiency, and diversify revenues. That supports stable profitability through the cycle and reinforces our ability to deliver attractive shareholders' returns. Before we move on, I want to pause for a moment on something we are generally proud of, the external recognition our work has earned over the past year. It is a strong reflection of the progress we have made for our customers. Starting on the left with our awards and recognitions. Recently, Euromoney named us Best Bank in Chile, Best Bank for ESG, and Best Bank for SMEs for 2026, three of their most important categories in a single year. This is in addition to the recognitions last year from LatinFinance and The Banker, where we were awarded the Best Bank in Chile for 2025, and Global Finance awarded us Best Bank for SMEs in 2025.

On the right, our ESG ratings and index inclusions tell a complementary story. For the first time this year, we were included in the Dow Jones Best-in-Class World Index. This is an outstanding achievement, being the only Chilean bank to qualify for the World Index. Furthermore, we hold an MSCI ESG rating of AA and a Sustainalytics risk rating of 15.4 of low risk. These are independent, rigorous assessments, but they confirm that the way we grow matters to us. We also wanted to briefly comment on an announcement we made last week. Santander is taking the naming rights of one of Chile's most iconic venues. From September, the 15,000-seat arena at the Parque O'Higgins becomes Santander Arena. This venue is ranked by Pollstar among the top three venues in the world by annual attendance.

More than just brand recognition, this move allows us to connect with clients and potential clients in a highly engaging setting. We can leverage our payment capabilities with simple services and easy digital onboarding, offering concertgoers relevant, accessible solutions on the spot. This is a current example of the different ways we're implementing our strategy to become a digital bank and focusing on our customer needs and value creation. Let me now move to our financial performance on slide 11. The second quarter showed exceptionally strong profitability, supported by the particularly high inflation in the quarter and continued execution of our strategy. Net income attributable to shareholders reached over CLP 382.6 billion in the quarter, increasing 40% quarter-over-quarter and also 40% year-over-year. This translated into a return of average equity of 31.5% in the quarter and 27.2% year to date.

This quarter demonstrates the earning power of the bank when revenue's tailwind combines with strong efficiency and disciplined risk management happens. On slide 12, looking at the balance sheet, we saw better loan growth dynamics in the quarter while customer funds also increased. Total loans reached CLP 41.4 trillion, up 1.2% year to date and 1.3% quarter-over-quarter. Mortgage loans grew 2.0% in the quarter, in part due to the impact of higher inflation, but also due to better new origination trends. Commercial loans increased 1.3%, where we saw an incipient improvement in demand from our clients. Consumer lending overall was relatively stable, with some pressure in credit cards and installment loans, in part due to better liquidity for our clients in the quarter. Auto loans continued to shine, growing 1.8% in the quarter and 4.9% year to date.

On the funding side, total deposits reached CLP 32.4 trillion, increasing 6% year to date and 4.5% quarter-over-quarter. This was mainly driven by time deposits, which grew 11.8% year to date and 7% on the quarter. It is worth mentioning the better growth of demand deposits too in the quarter. Demand for mutual funds remains strong. Total customer funds reached CLP 48.3 trillion, up 7.1% year to date and 4% on the quarter. Liquidity remains strong, comfortably above regulatory requirements. On Slide 13, we can see our net interest income and margins. In the first six months of 2026, combined net income from interest and readjustments reached CLP 1.11 trillion, increasing 7.4% year-over-year and 27% QoQ, driven by the strong inflation in the second quarter when the UF variation was 2.46%, which supported net readjustment income and dropped the quarterly NIM to 4.7%.

Meanwhile, the monetary policy rate remained at 4.5% in the quarter. With this, our year-to-date NIM reached 4.3%, up 16 basis points year-over-year and 89 basis points QoQ Client activity and expansion of our client base remain a central part of our story. We reached 4.8 million total clients and 2.7 million active clients, meaning that 56% of total clients are active. Total customers increased 7% year-over-year, while active clients increased 1.3% year-over-year. Activity indicators remain positive. Checking accounts increased 6% year-over-year. Credit card transactions increased 11%. Mutual funds assets under management increased 8%, and we now have 519,000 business current accounts. Fees plus financial transactions reached CLP 452 billion on the first half, growing 4.9% year-over-year. Within this, total fees were broadly stable year-over-year, while results from financial transactions increased 16%, supported by market-related income.

In the quarter, we saw slower dynamics coming from lower transactionality and customer demand impacted by oil prices and lower results from financial transactions after a strong quarter driven by demand for market-making products and higher income from portfolio sales. On slide 15, efficiency continues to be one of Santander's key differentiators. Our efficiency ratio reached 31.6% in the first half of 2026, positioning us as the most efficient bank in Chile based on the industry information available as of May. Operating expenses decreased 4.3% year-over-year, with total core expenses down 3.5%. This continues to reflect the benefits of our digital model, operating discipline, and the normalization of technology-related costs after the cloud migration expenses that we had at the beginning of last year. Our recurrence ratio reached 64.1%, meaning that fees generated from clients cover more than 60% of our core expenses.

This reflects the benefits of our digital model and ongoing optimization of our branch network, reaching 91 Work Cafés throughout Chile. On slide 16, we show an overview of our cost of risk and asset quality. On the asset quality side, trends remain stable. Cost of risk was 1.38% year to date, broadly in line with our expected range, and the quarterly cost of risk decreased to 1.22% in the second quarter from 1.55% in the first quarter after the one-off provisioning event in the commercial portfolio at the beginning of the year was subsequently reversed in recent months. The bank continues to actively manage different parts of the portfolio. NPLs reached 3.4% of loans, while impaired loans reached 7.5% of loans. These indicators show a moderate increase, but the overall trend remains manageable and consistent with the macro environment that we saw in the past quarter.

Capital remains a strength. Our BIS ratio stood at 16.4% and the CET1 at 11.1% as of June 2026. This places our CET1 ratio around 200 basis points above the regulatory minimum of 9.08% for 2026. Risk-weighted assets remain mainly concentrated in credit risk, which accounts for around 70% of total risk-weighted assets, while market risk represents 18% and operational risk 12%. The risk-weighted asset density stands at 62%. We also see positive regulatory developments. The proposed new model for market risk-weighted assets would incorporate the duration model for interest rate risk and improve netting of the derivative positions used to mitigate interest rate risk. The definitive model is still pending publication, but the direction is positive. To conclude, on slide 19, let me summarize our updated view for 2026.

At the start of the year, our initial targets assume mid-single digit loan growth, NIMs of around 4%, non-interest income growth in the mid to high single digits, and an efficiency ratio in the mid-30s, cost of risk of around 1.3%, and a return on average equity between 22% and 24%. Based on our performance so far this year and the updated macro assumptions, we now expect loan growth to remain in the mid-single digits. NIMs should be slightly higher, around 4.1% for the full year. Non-interest income growth in the mid-single digits, with efficiency improving further into the low 30s%. Our cost of risk should be around 1.35% for the full year. The key change versus the initial view is that higher inflation has supported NIM and profitability, while our efficiency and risk metrics remain solid.

At the same time, we remain cautious on the macro backdrop and continue to prioritize profitable growth, asset quality, and capital discipline. Considering all this, we're expecting the bank to generate return over average equity of above 24% for this year. To sum up, Santander Chile delivered a strong set of results with return over average equity above our long-term target, solid customer activity, resilient asset quality. Furthermore, we saw the incipient signs of better loan demand and external factors such as the regulations that are currently under discussion should be positive for the bank coming periods. With that, I conclude the presentation. Thank you very much for the attention, and we will now be happy to take your questions.

Thank you very much. We now move to the question and answer section. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star two on your phone and wait to be prompted. If you are dialed in via the web, you can also request to ask a voice question. Our first question comes from Ernesto Gabilondo from Bank of America. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hi, good morning, Patricia and Cristián and all your team. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions and congrats on your results. I have a couple of questions from my side. The first question is on the tax reform. If we assume a normalized inflation of 3% over the next years, how should we think about the evolution of your effective tax rate with the new tax reform? Also, I believe this year, 2026, will be untypical because high inflation is making it to be low. Also, if you can comment how you're seeing 2026, and then with the implementation of the tax reform, how it should be evolving in the next three years. My second question is on your sustainable ROE. We saw you are improving your ROE guidance to have an ROE above 24% in this year.

You are keeping a long-term ROE guidance of above 20%. Can you walk us through when should we expect a more long-term ROE at the 20% level? Just to have an idea on how should we be thinking about that in the next years. Thank you.

Thank you, Ernesto, for the questions. Regarding the effective tax rate, there are several things mixed here, right? The current tax rate in Chile is 27%, and the proposed is going to reduce the effective tax rate gradually in a couple of years up to the level of 2023. The effect is not going to be immediate in terms of the effective tax rate that the bank's going to be paying. Gradually, you're going to be seeing a natural push for a normalized effective tax rate, going below to what we currently have. At the same time, in this high inflation scenario, we're seeing a resizing of the equity tax book that it's used to calculate the effective tax rate. We are seeing both phenomenas at the same time. We're currently pushing on to the low teens, the effective tax rate.

I think that the more reasonable scenario is to expect an effective tax rate into the high teens or very low 20s on a normalized scenario environment. I hope that actually gives you an idea of where we should be on normal years after the tax reform is implemented. Regarding the long-term ROE, we have been able to deliver since the second quarter of 2024, a sustained trend of ROEs above 20%. At the same time, we have been able to develop on our strategy and continue improving on efficiency. Our long-term ROE update was fairly recent. It's been a year since we updated our long-term ROE.

It's probably something that we will review in the near term, but for the current periods, we are still thinking that the scenario is that we are going to be delivering the 20+, and we hope to continue on sustaining the current performances.

Perfect. No, thank you very much, Cristián. Just a follow-up in terms of the effective tax rate. You were saying we should expect something between the high teens and below the low 20s. Is that correct?

Right. Yeah.

Okay.

18-20 area is where this should be on a stabilized normal scenario. That's going to take a couple of years, right?

This gradual implementation is around 1.5% per year. Is that correct?

Yeah. That's correct.

Okay, perfect. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ernesto.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Yuri Fernandes from JPMorgan. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hi, everybody, and congrats on the quarter. Hi, Patricia, Cristián. I have a question regarding the ROEs. I think the guidance is clear for this year, above 24, but it's a year with pretty high inflation. My question is on a normalized base, right now you have the lower taxes, it helps a little bit. Do you have any idea what should we work on, I don't know, not a guidance for 2027, but in a few years, what would be the level of returns we should expect for Santander? Is 20, 22 a good number for you? I have a second question just on regulation. I think tax is pretty positive, but sometimes we also hear some flexibilization on capital requirement in Chile. Sometimes I also hear about maybe some more flexibilization on interest rate gap.

Are you seeing more good things to happen in the sector? Can you give us an update on what should be the good news here for banks in Chile in the coming years? Thank you.

Thank you for the questions, Yuri. Tackling the ROE question first, and then I'll ask Andrés and Patricia to contribute on the regulation front. We have been able to deliver on our strategy, right? We have been able to sustain and improve our levels of efficiency. NIMs have remained stable for the last two years, taking inflation phenomena aside. We've been able to grow the customer base and at the same time, delivering on the fee side of the business, right? All of this included, gives you an idea that it's very feasible for us to deliver on a normalized cycle, an ROE of above 20%. That's the area what we are aiming, right? A little of inflation helps. A little of less effective tax rate, of course, also helps.

In normal years, we are aiming to push slightly above the 20% ROE, but considering that there might be years with a slowdown in GDP expansion and inflation, we also have to take into consideration those sorts of periods where we might be in the very high teens to low 20s%, right? That's to give you an idea. We are going to try to update with this figure in the upcoming calls. Now I'll pass the ball to Andrés for regulation.

Okay. Yes. Okay. First of all, the National Reconstruction Plan is clearly the most important positive development currently on the table. Then we have this extension on the FOGAES mortgage guarantee program that could also support mortgage origination and help normalize the housing market. From a capital perspective, we continue to see constructive discussions around the market risk-weighted asset framework. The proposal under discussion will better recognize hedging benefits and include duration-based approach for interest rate risk, which could eventually translate into more efficient use of capital for the industry. We are also monitoring progress on the REPO and securitization framework. Finally, advances toward internal models for credit risk remain an important near-term opportunity. Overall, we see regulatory agenda becoming more growth-oriented. The largest near-term impact is likely coming from the reconstruction bill, while capital efficiency and investment-related measures could become increasingly relevant over the medium term.

Regarding capital regulation, and market risk in particular, based on the CMF estimates, the industry could benefit from this new regulation, roughly 36% reduction in their market risk RWAs, right? Which for Santander Chile would represent around 75 basis points of CET1. While the potential impact is clearly meaningful for us, it's important to note that the adoption is subject to a regulatory approval process that requires the submission of reviewing the supporting documentation that the banks could deliver. The proposal does not define the approval timelines, we are quite concerned. We remain conservative about the implementation date and timing we could benefit from that change.

Regarding internal models, yesterday, the CMF just published a consultation paper that would allow banks to use internal models for both provision and regulatory capital, which is broadly consistent with the direction the regulator has been signaling over recent months. That said, this is a long-term initiative. We would expect any meaningful impact to materialize gradually over a three- to five-year horizon, given the complexity of the approval and implementation process. In our case, our internal models roadmap will remain aligned with the framework already defined for the European regulator. We think we have a strong starting position as we have been operating for several years with approved internal models covering part of our large corporate lending portfolio.

To sum up, Yuri, the regulator, in our view, is tackling the missing part of the implementation of the Basel III framework in Chile. Until December last year, all banks were focused on constructing all the pillars, buffers, and CET1 requirements. Now that the regulator is addressing the second part of the agenda, which is actually addressing the density of the assets, right? We think it's very constructive, and it allows us to stay very optimistic about the developments of the industry in the upcoming years.

Super clear, Cristián and Patricia and Andrés. Thank you. I see, maybe you agree with me, but you have this reconstruction bill driving potentially better economic growth and better loan growth. Maybe I ask for Andrés, what should we pay attention for us to try to guess how the loan growth will accelerate? You also have the regulator, right, helping the banks to unlock capital and maybe grow faster. You have the double tailwinds, right? You have the macro, that I think is the most important one. Even on the sector specific, maybe after years of higher countercyclical buffer and more capital, we are entering a phase that easier capital allocations may drive more growth for Chilean banks, right? Just to follow up here, for Andrés maybe, what should we pay attention for us to see the growth reaccelerating?

Is, I don't know, employment? Is something on investments? What should be the leading indication for us to maybe get more confidence that the loan growth is coming back?

Yes. Our estimates suggest that the effect on the level of activity are significant. In the central scenario, the level of GDP will be around 6% higher by 2035. It's around almost half a point higher than in our baseline scenario for the next 10 years. We will probably think of growth closer to 3% in the upcoming years, and the main channel is through investment. That is also very positive for construction, employment, and on the bank side, for all the commercial lending.

Oh, perfect. Thank you very much.

If I were to complement Yuri. We've seen most of the growth that has been happening this year concentrated on mining and energy sector. Consumption has been lagging behind a little. I think unemployment and also consumption metrics is something that will start improving as the economy is gaining traction.

Thank you very much, Cristián. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Daniel Aguilar from Credicorp Capital. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. The first one, you were already talking about that a little bit, but I want to expand. It is about loan growth. I would like to understand what is the loan growth strategy for 2026 and 2027, considering the current economic scenario and also unemployment figures. What will be those drivers that should explain an acceleration in loan growth, already considering the approval of the Reconstruction Bill? What will be those products or segments in which you expect to gain market share? That will be my first.

I think we lost Daniel.

Sorry. Can you hear me now?

Yeah.

The second question is regarding Getnet. Can you expand on the payment fees generated in the quarter? What are the competitive environment pressures that you mentioned in the report, and that explained the reduction in payment fees during the second quarter? Do you expect this to be a trend in the coming quarters to see the second quarter to be a normalized quarter of fees generated by Getnet? Thank you so much

Sure. Thank you. What we are seeing for 2026 is that the loan growth is going to be a little more muted to what we expected at the beginning of the year. It has been showing up on the year-to-date figures. We are still confident that we are going to get into the mid-single digits, but in the lower part of the guidance, maybe the 4.5% area, not the 5.5% area. We're seeing better dynamics into the third quarter, especially in the commercial and consumer. Also mortgages, especially supported by the recent announcements that the government made yesterday. Into 2027, with a normalized inflation of 3% and a GDP expansion of 3%, we should be on the mid-to-high single digits as an industry. We expect to capture our fair share of that into next year. Where do we expect that to pick up?

I think the middle market corporate part, it's a part that has been lagging behind in terms of dynamics and also an increased confidence from the consumer should also impact positively on the consumer lending and the credit card portfolio. Regarding figures in Getnet, this is something that we discussed during the Chilean summer a lot with the market, when we announced the JV with PagoNxt. We were seeing a configuration of the industry with an increased competition happening, and that has been showing up a lot more. This has been forcing the industry, and we are, of course, a relevant player there, to reduce margins on the fees, especially in the more mass market and retail.

At the same time, we are still confident that the figures will pick up a little in the second half of the year, as we are expecting some large corporates to start picking up in terms of usage of our platforms. All in all, this is something that was expected to happen. If you ask me, it happened even a little sooner to what we were expecting.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Very clear on both questions. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Tito Labarta from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for the call and taking my question. My question is on asset quality and provisioning levels. A slight pickup in NPLs. The provisions did come down from the reversal of this specific corporate case, we saw provisions for consumer mortgage go up. The cost of risk guidance is a little bit higher. How are you thinking about the credit quality from here and the level of provisions going forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Tito. All in all, we think that credit risk is going to remain stable for the rest of the year. We're seeing the dynamics happening between the 1.35% and the 1.4% area. That's the area where we're expecting to be by the year-end. We are currently delivering 1.38% for the first half of the year. That's the area that we think it's feasible to stay. In general terms, what we have been doing is improving the inflows of new lending and at the same time, addressing the part of the legacy portfolio that are not working that well. All in all, we think the NPL metrics should start to decelerate growth in the next quarters, we have seen that happening consistently for the last year. We're still not reaching the pivot moment, we expect to be there soon.

At the same time, the new origination is showing a lot better performance metrics. We're quite confident that this is going to be something that will get addressed in the upcoming periods. All in all, we think it's going to be more of a stable news on this front, with marginal improvements into 2027.

Okay, that's helpful. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Tito.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Neha Agarwala from HSBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hi, thank you for taking my question. Just a more broader level question. If you see the loan penetration in Chile, it has gone down from the 90% ranges to 75% or so. What are the pockets that you see? Can we get back to the previous levels of loan penetration in the country? Which are the pockets where you see that opportunity in the next five years for loan growth to accelerate and for penetration levels to improve? How is Santander placed to benefit from those segments? Thank you.

Hola, Neha. Thank you for the question. Regarding loans, we are positive on most of the portfolio in terms of what we expect to happen in the next two to three years. After the pandemic, we saw that with the withdrawal of the Chilean pension fund, NANI, there was a relevant chunk of that money that was paid into prepayment, especially in the consumer lending portfolio. There is a relevant room to pick up there in terms of credit card, and also in installment loans. That is a place where with some improvement in unemployment and also better dynamics in terms of consumer confidence, we think that there is a room for the industry and for us, of course, linked to that, to pick up. The other part that has been quite muted in the last five years in terms of growth, has been the mortgage portfolio.

Because of the rate scenario and the increase in terms of the construction costs that have been showing up after the pandemic. The current announcement of the government of supporting an additional package of another. Actually, the total program will be 80,000 mortgages, but there is a little above 40,000 that have been executed in the last year, right? Actually, what the government is currently doing is more than doubling the amount of mortgage in terms of UF, because it has increased the total size of the UF unit to up to 6,000 from 4,000. It is also allowing the banks to go for another extra 40,000 units. That is the same size in terms of units of what has been executed so far.

I think that is a very positive news in terms of helping the mortgage industry to get rid of the excess of inventory that is present. The initial estimations were for around 100,000 units. 40,000 units have already been executed by the industry. Actually, Santander has been a very relevant participant here, capturing about 17% of that total chunk of support. We expect to do our fair share in the upcoming years in this area, too. The other part that I think is very relevant is that, in terms of investments, in the last three to four years, the Chilean corporate sector has been very mild in terms of investing and growing in Chilean opportunities. As Andrés was mentioning before, we see that the talk of investment projects and capital deployed in the single next four years is quite sizable, and that is also an area.

The SMEs, the middle market, and large corporate area is a place where we see growth happening and also cascading down into SMEs and consumer demand. That is something that we are also quite optimistic. To sum up, we expect to be delivering on the whole portfolio.

Perfect. If I can just ask another question. In the past, you've always talked about maybe going down market in this more mass market consumer segment with your digital initiatives to bring down the costs. What is the progress in that? Is there any discussion about the rate caps being eased, which could make it easier for you to go? Have you figured out a way to be more efficient, to offer more attractive rates to the mass market segment? Is that not something that you're looking at right now? Thank you so much.

In terms of what's the current formal discussion on interest rate caps, there's no institution discussing this. We have heard some paper articles in the news, and there has been some vocal support of this discussion, there's no really a formal institution proposing this yet. It's too soon to tell. Of course, if the economics of the mass market lending changes, that change the return over risk-weighted assets of this discussion, and it will force not only us but the whole industry to review the penetration on the segment. This segment was actually banked out in terms of lending in the final part of 2014 when the reduction of caps happened. The industry reacted. Let me remind you something. They were the first one to react to this new environment, closing the consumer lending units.

We were the first, all the industry followed us, closing down the consumer lending units. Now, if rates are on a different scenario, of course, that will make us review the economics of that business. So far, nothing formal has been happening on this discussion yet.

Super. Thank you so much for the detailed answers, and congratulations on the results.

Thanks.

Thank you so much. Just a reminder, we are going to show a survey at your screen. Thank you for answering it. Our next question comes from Ludovic Casrouge from Autonomy Capital. Your line is open. Please go ahead. Seems like Ludovic disconnected.

Yeah.

Let's give away a monitor too. I'm not seeing any more questions, perhaps I can hand it back to the Banco Santander-Chile team for the closing remarks.

Thank you all very much for taking the time to participate in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Thank you very much, everybody.

Thank you very much. This concludes the call for today. We are now closing all the lines. Thank you and have a nice day.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and I would like to welcome you to Banco Santander-Chile's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call on the 6th of May, 2026. Please note at this point, all participants' lines are on listen-only mode. After the call, there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. With this, I would now like to pass the line to Ms. Patricia Pérez, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I am Patricia Pérez, CFO of Banco Santander-Chile. I'm joined today by Cristian Vicuña, Head of Strategy and Investor Relations, and Andrés Sansone, Chief Economist. We'll begin with Andrés, who will provide an overview of the economic and political environment. Cristian will then walk you through our strategy, priorities, and review our first quarter results in more detail. We will conclude with a Q&A session. With that, I will now turn the call over Andrés.

Thanks, Patricia Pérez. Let me start with the big picture. Since our last webcast, the global backdrop has become more challenging and more uncertain. The main change has been the geopolitical shock in the Middle East and its effects on energy markets. Our baseline scenario assumes that the conflict gradually deescalates but leaves lasting damage, which means oil prices do not return to the levels prevailing before the conflict. At the same time, risks remain clearly linked to more adverse scenario, especially if supply disruptions persist for longer or if infrastructure damage proves more permanent. This matter for Chile through several channels. First, higher oil prices raise imported inflation and worsen terms of trade outside copper. Second, the external environment become less supportive for monetary easing globally, as energy prices have lift inflation expectations and reduce the room for central banks to cut rates.

Third, even though financial markets have shown resilience, especially in equities, long-term rates remain elevated and global uncertainty is still high. For Chile, this means that even if copper remains relatively supportive, the net external backdrop is no longer clearly benign. Turning to domestic activity, the most recent relevant information is the March monthly economic activity indicator. Based on the preliminary IMACEC readings, we estimate that the economy contracted 0.3% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026 or -0.2% quarter-on-quarter, making this the first quarterly setback since early 2023. Non-mining sector will have grown only 0.1% year-on-year and being flat sequentially. Altogether, from our perspective, the growth outlook for 2026 became more challenging and more dependent on the evolution of the external scenario.

In our reference scenario, we assume that WTI oil remains around $100 per barrel during the second quarter of this year, and then gradually declines ending the year around $80-$85 percent dollars per barrel without returning to pre-conflict levels. Under this assumption, Chile's economy will still grow 2% in 2026, but of course, risk are tilt to the downside. The main impact is on prices rather than activity. In our base case, inflation will end in 2026 between 4% and 4.5%. Given that the inflation shock will be viewed as temporary and activity will slowly, only moderately, the central bank will keep the policy rate unchanged at 4.5% through 2026.

In this same baseline scenario, we expect the exchange rate to close the year around CLP 890 per dollar. Going to the next slide, we can see the current regulatory and policy environment. The main development so far has been the announcement of the National Reconstruction and Economic Development Plan, which is centered on measures aimed at improving competitiveness, supporting private investment, and reducing environmental permits bottlenecks. Its core components include a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 37% to 23%, full reintegration of the tax system, tax stability incentive for strategic sectors such as mining, technology, and energy, and target measures to support formal employment, construction, and housing activity.

In our view, the project is positive in direction, particularly in its core components aimed at improving competitiveness, lowering the corporate tax burden and streamlining permits, all of which should be supportive of investment and medium-term growth. In that sense, the plan helps offset part of the weak cyclical starting point that we are seeing in early 2026, it is consistent with a more favorable medium-term supply-side story for Chile. While the direction of this initiative is positive for growth. Their credibility will also depend on the existence of a clear fiscal roadmap, while higher growth should eventually generate additional revenues. The project still requires a clear fiscal roadmap, especially during the transition period. We see a policy mix that is more supportive of growth, where a fiscal anchor remains an important issue to monitor. With that, let me hand over to Cristian.

Thank you, Andres. I will now walk you through our strategy, our first quarter 2026 results, and our outlook going forward. Let me start with our strategy. At the center of our strategy is a clear ambition: to become a digital bank with a physical presence, leveraging our Work Cafés branches to combine the convenience and scale of a digital banking with advice, service, and proximity to our customers. We organize this around three pillars. First, think customer. Our objective here is to offer the best value proposition for every client segment, grow active customers, increase transactionality, and deepen loyalty. We aim to serve over 3.5 million active customers, and we continue to see room to improve the customer experience, raise Net Promoter Scores, and capture greater share of wallet, especially in higher value segments. Second, think global.

We are accelerating our digital transformation through global platforms and artificial intelligence-enabled operating models. This allows us to simplify processes, improve the digital experience, deploy capabilities faster, and operate with greater agility, productivity, and efficiency. Third, think value. Our goal here is to translate the customer franchise and an efficient operating model into more stable and improving profitability. This means continuing to diversify revenues toward fees, recurring income streams, and other higher quality businesses while maintaining a strong focus on returns and capital discipline. Overall, our strategy is designed to grow customers and loyalty, increase transactionality, improve the quality of revenues, and as a result, deliver sustainable returns and an attractive payout to shareholders. This strategy is supported by a diversified platforms with five complementary business lines.

Retail and commercial remains the core of the franchise, where we are simplifying products and processes and continuing to build on the Work Café model. Corporate and investment banking adds strengths in advisory, FX, and transactional banking with a clear focus on our sustainable solutions and capital optimization. Wealth management and insurance strengthens our advisory-led model, renews our private banking proposition, and reinforces our position in insurance and mutual funds. Consumer banking supports our leadership in auto financing, including new and electric vehicles, while also expanding our presence in used car financing. Through Getnet, our payment business is helping us reach new client segments with value-added services and simple bundled solutions. Retail remains the backbone of the balance sheet, representing 66% of loans, 48% of deposits, and 69% of margin. At the same time, we have meaningful contributions from CIB payments wealth into the fee business.

The Santander global platforms are helping us connect this business effectively, improve efficiency, and diversify revenues. That supports stable profitability throughout the cycle and reinforces our ability to deliver attractive shareholders' returns. Let me now move to our financial performance for the quarter. In slide 10, in terms of balance sheet, we saw stable loan evolution with some divergence across segments. Consumer lending showed resilience, particularly in auto loans and credit cards, while mortgage and consumer loans remained softer. On the funding side, total deposit increased, supported by growth in demand deposits and a recovery in time deposits. Importantly, liquidity remains strong and well above regulatory requirements.

On slide 11, net interest income show high single-digit growth year-on-year, reflecting improved margins and funding costs, which decreased to 3.2% in the first quarter, in line with the reduction in the average monetary policy rate from 5% to 4.5%. Our net interest margins stand at 3.8% year-to-date, below last period's due to lower inflation in the quarter, 0.3% compared to the first quarter of 2025. One of the key highlights this quarter is the continued strength in fee income and client activity. Total fees increased 4.5% year-on-year, while fee plus financial transactions grew over 9%, driven by strong performance in asset management and market-related income.

At the same time, we continue to expand our client base, reaching 4.8 million total customers, with 2.4 million active clients. The number of current accounts increased 7% year-over-year, supporting 4% growth in active clients and 10% growth in total clients. This translated into a 12% increase in credit card transactions and an 11% increase in mutual client volumes. Client satisfaction remains high across our products. This is a reflection on how our strategy is successfully monetizing digital growth through higher transactionality and engagement. On slide 13, efficiency remains a key differentiator for Santander Chile. We achieved an efficiency ratio of 32.5%, positioning us as one of the most efficient banks in the system.

Operating expenses decreased 6.2% year-over-year due to the fading out of cloud migration costs that happened in early 2025 and generated higher technology and data processing expenses. Additionally, our recurrence ratio reached nearly 69%, meaning that a large portion of our costs is covered by recurring fee income. This reflects the benefits of our digital model and ongoing optimization of our branch network, reaching 94 Work Cafés throughout Chile. On slide 14, we show an overview of our cost of risk and asset quality. The cost of risk reached 1.55%, mainly driven by a one-off provisioning event in the commercial portfolio. Importantly, underlying trends remain stable, with NPLs and impaired loan ratios showing only moderate increases.

The bank has been actively managing different parts of the portfolio, increasing loan restructuration that is reflected in the increase of the impaired loan ratio, while our non-performing loans with 90 days overdue or more has stabilized. We maintain our guidance for cost of risk for the full year. On slide 15, we report a BIS ratio of 16.4%, well above regulatory requirements, with a strong CET1 of 10.9% fully loaded, well above our minimum of 9.08%. In addition, our risk-weighted assets composition is approximately 70% from credit risk, 19% from market risk, and 11% from operational risk. It is worth noting that our market risk risk-weighted assets is relatively high compared to the industry average, which impacts the overall mix.

However, we expect this to gradually decrease with the implementation of upcoming regulatory changes from the CMF. Our risk-weighted asset density stands at around 63%, reflecting a relatively lower level compared to the average Chilean banks. In line with our policy at Santander shareholders' meeting held at April 28, we approved a 60% dividend payout, equivalent to a 4.5% dividend yield, reflecting the strength of our earnings and our continued commitment to delivering attractive shareholder returns. During the meeting, shareholders also elected the boards of directors, approving the proposed list of candidates which ensures the continued strength of our corporate governance and supports the bank's strategic focus for the coming period. To conclude the results section, profitability remains strong with a return over average equity of 23% in the quarter.

Net income increased sequentially, highlighting the resilience of our business model and our ability to consistently generate earnings while continuing to invest in growth and digital transformation. Finally, on slide 18, we show our guidance for 2026, as well as the main areas where we now see pressure relatively to those original assumptions. When we set our initial targets, we were looking at a UF variation of around 2.9% for the year, with a GDP growth of 2.4%, and with this mid to middle single-digit loan growth NIMs of around 4%, non-interest income growth in the mid to high single digits, and an efficiency ratio in the mid 30s, cost of risks of around 1.3%, and an ROE between 22% and 24%.

Since then, the environment has become a lot more volatile, as we recently discussed with Andres, particularly given the current global backdrop. In that context, we think it is more appropriate to discuss the direction of the pressures on our initial guidance rather than provide a formal numerical update with so many moving parts today. What we are seeing is that the higher inflation creates a strong upward pressure on interest income and NIMs. It will also support efficiency in the short term as revenues tends to adjust faster while costs remains relatively stable. On the other hand, a more demanding macro environment might potentially generate some pressure on the portfolio's growth or risks, particularly as we move further into the year and think about the medium-term impact.

While there are clear relevant supportive factors for revenues and profitability, there are also some offsetting risks, and that's why we prefer to remain cautious about giving a more specific update at this stage. To sum up, the key message is that the current environment will be supportive for the top-line trends and returns and well above our initial targets. Given the level of uncertainty, we think it's prudent to frame this directionally rather than revise guidance with precise numbers today. Finally, I would also like to highlight that beyond our financial performance this quarter, we have just been informed that we are the first Chilean bank to be included in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, ranking among the 25 most sustainable banks globally. With that, I will conclude my presentation.

Thank you so much for your attention, and we will now be happy to take your questions.

Thank you very much for the presentation. We're now moving to the Q&A part of the call. If you dialed in by the telephone, please press star two on your keypad. That's star two on your keypad and wait for your name to be called. Thank you very much. Our first question comes from Mr. Tito Labarta from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for the call and taking my questions. Two questions if I may. I guess first on the guidance, as you mentioned, right, there's some positive short-term impacts from the higher inflation, but there could be some negative consequences down the road. Just how do you think about the timing of that? Like, when could, you know, just higher inflation, higher rates potentially put some pressure on credit quality and also on loan growth, as you kind of reiterated the mid-single-digits. Any concerns about how that loan growth could evolve, particularly if inflation remains elevated and any asset quality risks arise? Second question, somewhat related to that. We saw some of the retailers posting, you know, very strong loan growth in Chile, like almost high-teens.

Just kind of curious how you're seeing the competitive environment, particularly with some of these retailers that have banking operations? Thank you.

Thank you, Tito Labarta. Well, regarding timing, we're going to see most of the impact of the increased inflation news this second quarter in our NIMs. There is a potential lower NIM third quarter because of the concentration of inflation news on the second quarter on some lower inflations in the third. That's a very, very liquid and volatile moving part as of now. We expect loan growth to remain in the mid-single digits, we are also seeing some lower expectation of GDP expansion, that might translate into lower dynamics more skewed toward the final part of the year.

Consequentially, if this inflation translates into some pressure in the household economy, their ability to perform, that could trigger some impacts more skewed to a final part of the year or the first half of 2027. This is all very volatile and liquid. Regarding your question on growth, actually, in our portfolio, we have seen good demand from the current portfolio and also from the auto lending portfolio. Actually, the auto lending portfolio has been growing double digits year over year. That's a sign of how that part of the market is performing quite well. I think that in our case, it's more concentrated, the more needed performance is concentrated on the mortgage and the corporate portfolio.

We are seeing some early signs in the mortgage growth in the month of March. We're a little bit more optimistic on that part of the portfolio. I think that the things that you're seeing on retailer might also be translating on our retail part of the portfolio soon.

Okay, great. Thanks. That's very helpful. It doesn't just increase the competitive environment at all? You're not seeing any competition on spreads or anything from the retailers trying to compete?

Spreads in the middle market portfolio and the corporate portfolio are quite tight as local market conditions. We see a lot of competition on that part of the market.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Tito.

Okay, thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Ernesto Gabilondo from Bank of America. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Hi, good morning, Patricia and Christian and all your team, thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. My first question will be on the tax reform. Could you provide us what is the latest update on the tax reform, and when do you expect its implementation? My second question is on NIMs. As you mentioned, NIMs should be benefiting from high inflation levels, especially in the second half. Just wanted to understand, for example, in terms of the interest rate, not for this year, but maybe for next year, that some economists are expecting it could be higher. How should we understand the sensitivity to rates to your balance sheet? I remember in the past, you tend to benefit when you have lower rates.

Once we have the possibility to have higher rates, I would like to understand if you will be hedging or if you will keep your same sensitivity. Thank you.

Thank you, Ernesto. Let me take the opportunity to pass this first question to Andres as we have him here regarding the tax reform.

On the tax side, the main proposal is a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 27% to 23%, between 26 and 29. Together with full reintegration of the tax system over time and tax stability mechanisms for strategic sectors such as mining, energy, and technology. Of course, these measures are clearly aimed at improving competitiveness, so attractive investment and strengthening the supply side of the economy. In terms of implementation, we will highlight two points. First, the direction, of course, is pro-growth, but the main open issue is the fiscal transition. We expect that the Chamber of Deputies should vote this proposal during May, before the first speech of the president on June 1st. During July, August, we should see a discussion in the Senate.

We should see this tax reform or broader reform being approved by September or October if there is no any change in the road.

Perfect. Thank you, Andrés. Regarding our perspectives on sensitivities, we currently, Ernesto, we have two types of sensitivities in our balance sheet, right? We have a sensitivity to inflation that impacts our net interest margin through the readjustment line. That's what's going to be more impacted in the second quarter because of the higher inflation figures. Our sensitivity has remained stable on our sensitivity to inflation on about 14-15 basis points of NIMs for 100 basis points of UF variation, right? That has remained stable. We are also a little bit more neutral on the rate scenario, which I think is positive on to your second question.

Our current sensitivity is on the 5 basis points per 100 basis points of average monetary policy rate variation on a year. That 5 basis points for every 100 basis points of monetary policy rate, it's quite neutral. Actually our balance sheet was positioned that way since early last year as we saw a little room for further rate cuts to from where the levels were at the time. It has been consistent with our macro vision this year.

Yeah. Regarding the macro perspective, as Andres already mentioned, we are expecting a monetary policy rate for this year that remain stable. For 2027, depending on the inflation perspective and how sticky is the inflation that we are having right now, the market is expecting two hikes for next year of 25 basis points each. In that scenario, we will be talking about 2.5 basis point in NIM according to the sensitivity Cristian already mentioned.

Super, super helpful. Thank you very much, Patricia Pérez and Cristian Vicuña.

Thank you, Ernesto.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Mr. Yuri Fernandes from JPMorgan. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Hey. Hi, everybody. Can you hear me?

Yes, please go ahead.

Yes.

Good morning, Patricia, Cristian, Andres, and everybody connected. I have one on risk on the corporate case. If you can comment a little bit, provide more color, like, is this over? Is this fully provisioned? How big was this? Just to understand, you know, if we should see eventually reversals, like if you can recover some of those values. Just trying to understand. I get that the cost of risk this quarter was impacted by this corporate case, but if you can provide a little bit of more color, we appreciate. A second question regarding capital. The CMF put out for consultation the internal risk models. I think this has been a discussion for years in Chile.

There is an estimate from the regulator, about $10 billion to be released eventually. I don't know if you have your own estimate. I know the rules are not done yet. I also know that the risk density in Chile is very high. If you can comment a little bit on what you expect on this potential tailwind for capital, we also appreciate. Finally, on just on the ROE guidance, I know you kept the guidance unchanged and inflation should be, you know, a tailwind for margins. My question is, why keeping the guidance unchanged given, you know, inflation is expected to be a good tailwind for the near term? Thank you.

Okay. let me, let me take your last question first, because I think the message, the message, it's very relevant. And then we'll deep dive on the other two. We're, we're not sustaining guidance. What we don't know is what are the final effects of all these moving parts in our total results, right? The situation in Iran is still not out of the equation and, our scenario is moving, and, you are very familiar with this, of course. Every single day, if not a week. What we see is that we're going to be above the upper bound of our ROE target for this year, meaning that the 22% ROE is completely out of the equation.

We should be 25% ROE and above, right? What we don't know what are the final effects of all these moving parts this very early in this year. We are probably going to be delivering a more clear view in our next call in the final days of July or early August. That's regarding guidance. Regarding capital, do you wanna comment there, Patty?

I mean, the CMF is proposing several measures, I would say, in order to reduce the density of Chilean banks, which is still high, even though we are fully implemented, we have fully implemented Basel III framework. One of the levers is market risk. We already have a proposal from the CMF, and we will have a benefit from that rule when it applies. The other lever is internal models. Right now we do have a framework of internal models, but still very conservative regard or related where what we have in developed markets, right?

They will propose a new framework where will be more convenient for banks to present the proposal to CMF. It's gonna take long. From our experience in Europe could take around two to three years to be implemented. In our view, it's in the right direction and it's the second part it's gonna take longer.

Thank you. To complement here, what has been happening here in Chile with the implementation of the Basel III framework is that we started with all the buffers and pillars, and that's fully implemented. Now our minimum CET1 requirements is 9.2 away, fully loaded with all the pillars and cushions included. There have been little to no discussion on the density of assets of the framework. This is the second part of the story that we were waiting, and I think we have discussed this with several of you in the last year or so. The density of risk-weighted assets in markets is quite high, and especially when you compare it to the European framework. There is also some room in the credit density of credit-weighted assets.

The president of the CMF has been announcing several implementations of teams and some revisions of the regulation in order to advance into improving the density of the assets. Our stance here is that we believe that probably the most potential scenario is that the Chilean general system will work with more rooms between the actual CET1 levels and the minimum requirements. It's natural to expect that we will be, as a system, performing closer to other markets that have lower density. It's too soon to tell whether that will also translate into capital releases as we don't know many of the little details of the upcoming changes.

We know for sure that there is one that has been recently approved about an improvement in the density of market risk, that it's moving onto more developed frameworks and in the way that the market risk is calculated. That will create some potential impacts on the system and on us particularly as we have a relevant stake in risk-weighted asset density market risk. That's on capital. Our perspective is that the CMF is moving naturally on the consequential next step of the implementation of the framework, which is reviewing the density of assets, right? On the credit risk, to your question, we are not seeing particular pressures on any of the portfolios.

The impact that we suffer in the first quarter in the corporate portfolio, it's actually more of a process of recovery, taking longer. We expect that to be reversed towards the final part of the second quarter or the first part of the third quarter. That's why we are not moving our guidance in terms of the expectations on the cost of risk for the year. We are still expecting to be on the neighborhood of the 1.3%.

No, super clear, Cristian. Actually, the NPL for mortgage was down, right? The message on capital is clear. It will take some time. Once this happen, you should unlock capital. Maybe you can grow faster, maybe you can return capital to shareholders, but eventually this can be a tailwind for us here. Super clear. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Yuri.

Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Neha Agarwala from HSBC Global Research. Please go ahead, ma'am. Your line is open.

Hi, Patricia Pérez, Cristian Vicuña, thank you for taking my question. Just a quick one on asset quality. With the inflation running on the higher side, as you mentioned, we could see some pressure on asset quality. Which pockets of the loan book are you being a bit more cautious on, or the growth that you had budgeted in the beginning of the year will actually be weaker because of this changed outlook that we are seeing now? If you could give us some sense in terms of the cadence of how cost of risk could evolve in the coming quarters, that would be very helpful.

Thank you, Neha. Regarding asset quality, let me take the first part of your question. What are the most potential portfolios that could be impacted by higher inflation? Naturally, the mortgage portfolio readjusts on UF valuation, right? That's the part that puts some pressure on families, and especially in the lower part of the portfolio is where we could see some impacts moving on to the final part of the year or early next year. That's still a little too soon to tell. We haven't seen those impacts yet.

In terms of the commercial portfolio, we think that a part of the portfolio that we are very cautious on is particularly the agriculture portfolio, especially exporters, as those guys depends a lot on climate conditions and we are expecting relevant movements in El Niño this year. We still haven't seen any natural phenomena going on, but this has been a broadly discussed topic regarding how strong those phenomenons are moving. As such, we're taking a very cautious stand on that part of the portfolio. We are seeing very positive trends on the mining industry and the mining servicing industry and also in energy.

Those are, you know, our perspective, like the more cautious and more optimistic parts of our portfolio corporates. Going also how this will translate into how the cost of risks should move. We should see a normal second quarter in terms of cost of risks. There is this reverse of the impact that we saw on the first quarter that might come on the second or the third quarter. For the final part of the year, we're still seeing the 1.3%, 1.35% area, but subject to how this inflation translates into the portfolio, right?

Super clear. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Neha.

Thank you very much. Reminder star two for any additional questions. Our next question comes from Mr. Daniel Mora from Credicorp Capital. Please go ahead, sir. Your line is open.

Hi. Good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes, please go ahead, Daniel.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. I have just one question regarding loan growth. Can you provide the loan growth expectations by segment? I would like to understand what will be the drivers for growth considering the low growth in the first quarter. Also if it is a concern to you, the loss of market share during the last year. Do you expect to regain market share in any particular segment? Thank you so much.

Thank you, Daniel. Regarding loan growth, what we are expecting as a general part of the portfolio is mid-single digits, around 5.5. That's the general expectation. We believe that there's a good performance on the consumer part of the portfolio, particularly auto loans and credit cards. That should translate into installment loan later on the year. We're a bit more optimistic in that area. We are seeing some early good signs in the mortgage book, so we should restart some growth. Mid-single digits for that portfolio, it's safe to assume. Our growth has been muted in the middle market and corporate portfolio.

We're not seeing that growing double digits in our case, but going to market rate growth in that part of the portfolio is expected from our side. Regarding market share, actually, we have been able to defend our market share in the consumer part of the portfolio, pretty much. I think that the part that has been more impacted has been the commercial part, especially the upper part of the commercial part of the portfolio, not the semi part, and mortgage. That's where most of our market share has been decreasing. I think that we remain with the willingness to be relevant in the market. We'll capture all the growth opportunities that we'll see.

We have the capabilities for growth. We have the capital. We'll be monitoring on the market and looking at opportunities to implement that growth in our portfolios looking forward.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Very clear.

Okay.

Okay. Thank you. It looks like we have no further questions at this point. I'll be passing the line back to the management team for the concluding remarks.

With that, Thank you all very much for taking the time to participate in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Thank you very much. This concludes today's conference call. We'll now be closing all the lines. Thank you and goodbye.