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

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Sergey Dubin: Okay. Great. And then my second question is regarding cost of risk. So I’m a little confused about this me. It looks like from the presentation, you — it’s going to be a summer 2024 event, if I understood this correctly, but you also talked about how your cost of risk for 2023 is already incorporating that. So can you help me with the timing of — are you expecting anything in 2023? Or is that entirely 24 event? That’s first part of this question. And then the second part is, you mentioned that you expect cost of risk rent to diverge in the second half with [indiscernible] of going down and perhaps BCP going up. Can you help explain why that is? Is that related to the steps that you’re taking in terms of [indiscernible] appetite, but any color around that would be helpful.

Reynaldo Llosa: Yes. In terms of 2023 closing June numbers, we included everything that we expect for this year, incorporating some outlook of the level of growth that is impacted for 2024. That, in general, it includes all the events that are under our control and that we foresee for the remaining of the year. And in terms of Mibanco and BTP, as Cesar mentioned, Mibanco has started with some specific measures before BTP. So the remaining provisions left for both institutions vary. I mean, the need for Mibanco provisions for the rest of the year are relatively lower than we will see in BTP. That’s what Cesar specifically mentioned.

Sergey Dubin: Okay. And these steps that you’re talking about, that relates to what. I mean are you carving you like curtailing risk or curtailing loans to more risky segment? Could you explain what is that Mibanco already did and BCP hasn’t done yet?

Reynaldo Llosa: You are totally right. I mean, the things we have done in both banks have limited the growth of the portfolios. As you’ve seen, it hasn’t been a very good year in terms of loan growth in terms of the first six months of the year, and that’s a reflection of our stringent — more stringent credit policies in both banks. So that’s what we’ve seen and that’s what we expect to have a better outlook in terms of the new loans, but we still have in our portfolio some loans that were impacted by the macro trends and there are specific events that happened in Peru in the first quarter.

Sergey Dubin: Okay. And the third question is regarding NIM trajectory. So I believe you mentioned in the beginning of the call that a bunch of Latin American central banks already cut interest rates and you expect Peruvian Central Bank to cut their rates in Q4 of this year. So could you remind you what is — again, what is the sensitivity of.

Reynaldo Llosa: I don’t know.

Sergey Dubin: Let’s say, 25 basis of rate cuts. And then how would you expect NIM to sort of shape up in you see success of rate cuts in 2024?

Cesar Rios: Yes. First, as Ajay mentioned previously, the sensitivity of our [indiscernible] is 100 basis point reduction in portfolio is around 25 basis points the first following year. That’s the sensitivity. Our guidance is to remain in the same level that we previously mentioned, but a combination of factors. We are going to grow the retail portfolio less than was previously expected. But at the same time, the wholesale portfolio has already reduced in some degree. So the combination of these factors lead us to maintain our guidance in terms of NIM. The expected results of a decrease in reference rate is a gradual compression of the NIM that is going to be offset for the relative faster growth of the retail segments and Mibanco as already mentioned previously. At this point, we are not providing guidance for 2024.

Sergey Dubin: Okay. Well, just to just make sure I quarterly, 100 basis point cut in interest rate leads to 25 basis point NIM compression was a 12-month lag or next year, essentially, right? Is that correct?

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