Credicorp Ltd. (NYSE:BAP) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Page 7 of 10

Obviously, if there is a major dramatic scenario, which we don’t see today, there is some room to cut expenses. I don’t think — having said that, I don’t think that the expenses we can cut will offset all the negative impact we may have in a dramatic scenario. But again, I highlighted the word dramatic scenario. Yes, I’ll ask Reynaldo to answer the second question.

Reynaldo Llosa: In terms of our level of provisions, if we have information by the last quarter, I mean, that we have an incoming that is a higher impact of the moderate level that that’s what we have already considered in our projections. Of course, we would start increasing our level of provisions. Having said that, comparing to what we had in 2017, we have a totally different situations. Companies are more prepared in the wholesale segment is more exposed to the El Nino phenomenon. And we have learned a lot during the last crisis, the COVID situations and the social unrest and the political situation we had to provide assistance and help to those clients in the retail banking that are exposed to these kinds of events. So in terms of the level of deteriorations in those portfolios, we expect to have a relatively a lesser impact than what we had in 2017 where the situation was totally different.

So that’s, in general, our strategy, but we will have more information in the following months.

Gianfranco Ferrari: And maybe to complement, Jon, I would say that as a country, we are better prepared than what we were in 2017. And on top of that, and this is a pointer to my closing remarks, we’re almost all of the subsidiaries at Credicorp we’re closely working with our clients, both at the corporate level and at the retail level in educating them and helping them to be much better prepared if and no major effect will come.

Yuri Fernandes: Thank you, Gianfranco. And I don’t want to sound super bearish here and just checking the box, what would be like if this happens, what would be your message and thank you for being candid and I mentioned that we don’t want to cut expenses, but if there is a need, you may do so. So thank you for the clarification.

Gianfranco Ferrari: Great.

Operator: Next question will come from Sergey Dubin with Harding Loevner. You may now go ahead.

Sergey Dubin: Good morning. Three questions, actually. So the first one, there was some news about some ongoing or resurfacing political unrest again in [indiscernible] July. Has that died down? Is it continuing? And kind of how do you see the trend there? Maybe that’s the first question.

Gianfranco Ferrari: Sure. I’ll take that one head Sergey. Good to hear from you. I don’t want to downplay the social noise that was in July. And as we mentioned in the Investor Day, what we see is like we have a fragile stability today in — a professional political cabin. But the social noise we had in July, it was very little. There’s nothing going on basically nothing going on today. And obviously, nothing to compare to what we saw last year, by year-end and in January and February of this year. So today, we’re, again, going through a fragile stability, and we hope that, that stability improves as we move forward.

Page 7 of 10