Is that the way you see it as well? And as you said, the new administration hasn’t even taken off. They’re going to do that December 10. It seems like a year since Milei won the election, but it has only been a week. And also, if at this point, you think that the restructuring of the Leliqs could include any haircut to the principle, I would assume going forward that there’s going to be very little, if any new issuance from Leliqs. But I wanted to also get your thoughts in terms of how you think this administration is going to treat that stock of outstanding Leliqs. Thanks very much, Jorge.
Jorge Francisco Scarinci: Nicolas, how are you? Thanks for your question. Honestly, what we’ve heard for the moment in terms of what the new administration might be doing are only unofficial comments. All of them are unofficial, and we have heard a bunch of different measures. In terms of Banco Macro, I can tell you that, as I mentioned before, we decided to reduce this exposure to the Central Bank. So we are going to reach December with no exposure to Leliqs. I mean, 0% of Leliq’s exposure to the Central Bank started in December. So this is a process that we started almost two months ago. And according to what we’ve seen in the last auctions, there are other private banks that are following the same path that we initiated two months ago.
So at some point, I would say that the new administration is going to have a much smaller amount of Leliqs to work on. In my personal view, most of that is going to be in hands of public-owned banks. But honestly, I don’t know what they are going to offer or what they are going to do with the Leliqs stock that is going to be much, much smaller after December 10th, considering what we have seen in the latest auctions. But honestly, Nicolas, it is not easy for me to tell you what they are going to do, honestly, because all the assignments have been very unofficial and according to the press, still don’t know if it is coupled is going to be the economy meter or if it’s going to go to the Central Bank. So, again, lot of speculations there. So it could not be fair for me to comment on those kind of measures.
Nicolas Riva: Understood, Jorge. If I can one follow up. So you said by the end of this year, by the end of December, we plan to have zero Leliqs in our own balance sheet. Would you feel comfortable moving all of that exposure just from a Central Bank liability to just owning a federal government bond? Or would you prefer to reallocate those Leliqs into a mix of national government bonds, but also some loans to the private sector?
Jorge Francisco Scarinci: No. Yes, I commented that Nicolas. I mean, we started — this was a process that lasted for two months. It was a gradual process of decreasing the amount of Leliqs. And on the other hand, reducing the amount of some institutional depositors plus extending new loans to private companies AAA in the short-term, plus at some point, increasing exposure to sovereign bonds in pesos. So it’s a combination of all that.
Nicolas Riva: Okay. Thanks very much, Jorge.
Jorge Francisco Scarinci: You’re welcome.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question is from Carlos Gomez with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Carlos Gomez: Thank you so much. So, two questions. One is, when one looks at your equity, it has barely changed year-on-year. Is that [Technical Difficulty] and should we expect an investment in the fourth quarter or just [Technical Difficulty]? The second question is regarding the acquisition of Itau Argentina. Could you give us some indication about how this going to affect your [Technical Difficulty]
Operator: Mr. Gomez, this is the conference operator. Unfortunately, your line seems to be breaking up. Could you try repeating your first question?
Carlos Gomez: Hello?
Operator: Go ahead, Mr. Gomez.
Carlos Gomez: Yes. And apologies for the quality of the line. My question was regarding the changes in shareholders’ equity, which have been almost zero year-on-year, and I wanted to know exactly why that is, if it is the valuation of the bond? Second, if you could give us an indication about the impact of the acquisition of Banco Itau Argentina on your capital ratio? Thank you.
Jorge Francisco Scarinci: Hi, Carlos, how are you? In terms of the equity evolution, I mean this is a consequence of the cash dividend that we’ve been paying reducing the amount of course, of the equity plus the increase on the results in real terms. That basically in the first nine months of the year are kind of compensating for the cash dividend payment basically. So this is why the equity is not changing that much, compared to last year. In terms of Itau, we are — I mean, it’s not going to have a major impact in our capital base. The excess capital is going to continue to be similar than the one that we published in the third quarter. Basically, remember that for the payment, we issued local debt, one year duration for the payment of Itau. So basically, the capital ratio is not going to be altered at all.
Carlos Gomez: Thank you so much.
Jorge Francisco Scarinci: Welcome, Carlos.
Operator: The next question is a follow-up from Nicolas Riva with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Nicolas Riva: Thanks very, Jorge for taking my follow-up question. One question about your dollar position outside of the country. One of the things that the CEO of Itau mentioned in your earnings call was that an advantage for the acquiring bank and for them to sell really was the acquiring bank, Banco Macro could pay with dollars outside of the country. From what I remember, when you issued the 2026 bonds for $400 million in 2016 most of those $400 million were kept offshore. If you can remind us what’s your dollar position outside of the country? I know that you just mentioned that you did issue a local bond to pay for the $50 million. But if you can remind us your dollar position outside of the country, that would be very helpful.
