The performance of spreads in the full year reflects a strategy of greater selectivity, which began in 2022, and which is in keeping with the risk profile of new loan originations. Lastly, regarding NII, I would like to highlight the positive year-on-year evolution of the net interest income. In the fourth quarter, as you can see, we posted growth of 12.3%. Now I am going to comment on some data on the evolution of our loan book. We increased our expended portfolio, growing 9% over the year, as mentioned. We grew in all lines of business, with significant expansion in retail for individuals, vehicles and SMEs. During Q4, we achieved a strong performance in cards for individuals. This result was sustained by seasonality and the gradual resumption of card sales.
The resumption and improvement, which has proved to be more assertive and with satisfactory quality levels in loan origination. This performance was accompanied by continued, consistent results in payroll, deductible loans, mortgages and farm loans. Actually, Mario has commented, and I’ll stress that, we should also highlight a strong growth in every business, up 10% in Q4, and up 42% in the full year. In auto loans, we posted growth of 5.5%, quarter-on-quarter, marking the best performance of the year. This improvement more than offset the impact of the sale of the PSA portfolio in the previous quarter, and it reflects the strength of our strategic partnerships and the positive momentum of the market. In SMEs, we continue to boost the growth of our portfolio after a relatively stable first half year, which is in line, totally aligned with our stated strategy of increasing the share of this business in the total portfolio.
The 5.2% increase in the portfolio in Q4 is something to be highlighted here. On the next slide, I share details on our funding. As we have highlighted throughout the year, we have achieved a solid performance in funding, which shows our commitment to the expansion strategy and the search for a more balanced mix between wholesale and retail. Our funding, as mentioned, grew by 15% in the full year and 2.6% in the quarter, with a highlight going to time deposits and exempt securities. Our loans to deposits ratio stands at 92%, the best level in our history. Here, we present the performance of our fees, which each quarter reflects the evolution of our business in a very clear and consistent way, with positive performance in practically all business lines.
In Q4, we recorded growth of 7% on the back of a 6.5% growth in the previous quarter. Even with the positive seasonal effects that happen in cards and in insurance, business in general showed very positive dynamics, which reinforces our strategy in fees, aiming for greater transactionality or more transactions with our clients. We now move to talk about the quality of our assets. This quarter, we have the effect of increasing provisions for the specific case and reinforcement of provisions for the wholesale cases. If we disregard these effects and the lower volume of recoveries, after two quarters of record performance, we have a stable growth ALL in relation to the previous quarter, with no signs of deterioration. We maintain the downward trend in the cost of credit, which closed the year at 4%.
We also continue to see a downward trend in the renegotiated portfolio in relation to the total portfolio, reaching 6.3%, as you can see here. This 120 basis points reduction over the year reflects the better quality of recent vintages, especially in retail. On the other hand, NPL formation posted a slight increase due to higher delinquency in the renegotiated loan portfolio. But this is something that was expected as we move forward in the process of purging this portfolio. On the next slide, the next slide provides a more detailed overview of our delinquency indicators. We recorded a sequential drop in short-term indicators for both individuals and legal entities. I would like to highlight the 110 basis points improvement in the 15 to 90 past due loans for individuals.
The long-term indicator 90 plus, there was a slight variation of eight basis points due to the renegotiated portfolio, as I’ve already mentioned. In fact, the 90-day default rate in the SME segment on the left also reflects the same impact. In short, we continue to have quality indicators under control with the possibility of some volatility throughout the year due to the renegotiated portfolio. Moving on to slide 19, please. Here we present the evolution of our general expenses, which rose 9% in the quarter and 8% in the full year. Personal expenses were affected by the collective bargaining agreement, which had an impact on the fourth quarter as a whole. In addition, in the full year, we also had the 8% carryover related to the 2020 labor agreement.
Administrative expenses increased in the quarter, largely driven by seasonality. The main factors behind this growth were strategic investments in marketing campaigns to take advantage of the end-of-year period and data processing due to the increase in volume in more business. The seasonal effect also affected our efficiency ratio, resulting in a deterioration of 80 basis points. To continue the new breakdown implemented last quarter, we present the performance of our expenses, segregating product expenses and business expansion expenses from recurring expenses. We can see here that our annual growth was mainly concentrated on expenses focused on business growth, which we consider fundamental to supporting our strategy of delivering the best experience to our clients.
And to conclude the results section, we present our income statement. As a result of the dynamics discussed throughout this presentation, we recorded net income of R$2.2 billion. Compared to Q4 2022, total revenues grew by 11% and net income grew by 30%. Managerial profitability, excluding the specific case, reached 12.3%. Our core capital reached 11.5%, a level that we consider adequate to continue with our long-term growth strategy. We ended 2023 with a more positive trend, despite fluctuations in specific provisions and seasonal expenses typical of any given last quarter. Credit performance was favorable and was accompanied by an increase in revenue generation. We expect this trend to intensify along 2024. With that, I’ll end my part and I’ll give the floor to Mario for his final thoughts.
Mario Leão: Thank you, Gustavo. I’ll take just one more minute of your time to close and we’ll have the Q&A. Big message is here in this conclusion page, page 22. In terms of context, four main messages. Revenues are expanding and we have a very positive expectation for 2024, both in terms of clients and markets. So, we are optimistic, we are excited with the revenues line. The business portfolio continues to be diversified. That’s the second big message. We’ll continue to be very focused on liabilities and on expanding the fees business, which was always a very positive for Santander. We want to grow it even more. And also diversification is related to credit, which is the third point. We’ll continue to pursue portfolio growth to gain market quotas in several products and segments and do it smartly so that we can grow the portfolio and with profitability.
And the fourth context message is our obsessive quest for client principality. This is the strategy of Santander for 2024. In the coming years, everything we do will have to be linked to the client’s agenda, as it is, and we’ll strengthen this even more. The drivers for this. I mentioned this already, but I want to stress, we are repositioning ourselves in retail, both in mass retail that we’ll talk more about during the year. We have a lot of deliveries for Q1 and mainly Q2, 2024. We’ll end the year in a totally different position compared to where we started. We’re very excited about that. In Select, high-income, company segment, now mid-income segment, and some SMEs. Well, these are segments that we’re specializing in even more. We are making our service to these segments even more regionalized, more tailored.
And in cards, we’re taking another important stride forward with an obvious focus on principality and the ability to serve clients. We’re very excited with this resumption in cards. We’re doing this in a smart, precise and technical way with an in-depth personalization, understanding each client in each cluster. We have a consumer finance growing again in Q4. It was already showing some strength. We sold PSA, yes, but Q3 was good, and Q4 was quite strong. We are very excited with what consumer finance will bring us in 2024 and beyond. We also have consumer finance that is not related to vehicles. And the companies segment again, it’s growing again in retail since the middle of last year. We’re doing this in a very calculated and balanced way.
We’re very excited with that. And in terms of corporates, it’s about profitability and discipline, but we have an important franchise that was established decades ago. So in a nutshell, now officially closing 2023, we are, when we end 2023, we start 2024, very excited with the business dynamic. There are some points that Gustavo mentioned in terms of ALL and wholesale, no concerns with retail, which is very important. For the last two years, we worked to have comfort and I’m sharing with you that we are very excited with the portfolio and the new vintages. In terms of expenses, we have one-off situations, but the franchise makes us very excited to start 2024 with full steam and with the top line growth that we have been showing in a consolidated way.
