Michela Casassa : Hi Ernesto, thank you for the question. I tried to be clear on this effect during the script, maybe I was not able to, but we have not had a double-digit cost-based growth at IFS during 2022, okay? In the reported figures, there is an important effect that is that we are including the cost of the payment of Izipay during 2022, but not in the base of 2021 because of the entrance in April. So the comparison that you see there of the reported figures, we show double-digit, it’s not comparable. Okay. So what we have tried to do in the slide that we show in the presentation, the Slide number 10 is normalize the bases. So what you see there at IFS level is that expenses are growing. The fourth quarter is growing only 3% year-over-year.
And with this new base, the efficiency ratio of the fourth quarter is 34.8%. And we’re also showing that the bank, which at the end, is the main contributor, the full year cost of the bank have only grown 8%. And I’m providing the breakdown there. That 8% is coming from a 20% growth in everything related to digital transformation, payments, et cetera, and all the other numbers are single-digit growth. Okay. And this is the reason why we expect the operating leverage for Interbank to continue to be positive next year with revenues that will continue to grow double-digit because of rates and everything that we are seeing and expenses growing only single-digit at Interbank. Now, having said so, the reason why we are not, at this point, ready to show you or to give you a guidance with the efficiency ratio of IFS as we have always done, last year, the guidance was between 35% and 37%, is that as we are finalizing the implementation of IFRS 17, there are some €“ I mean, the definitions in where exactly revenues, negative revenues and cost go within the P&L.
So, once we will solve that out, we will be able to provide that figure, but I think the important message here is operating leverage will continue to be positive for the bank and for IFS. And maybe if I can just add on the philosophical discussion about monetization on everything that we are doing. Sometimes, Ernesto I mean, what we’re trying to do here is also try to link it to the P&L lines because at the end of the day, this is going to have an impact on ROE, either it has an impact of revenues or risk-adjusted revenues or costs. So, basically, I would say that a strong part of the impact of everything we’re doing in digital and analytics is coming from an impact on the top line, which comes from not only more clients, but more cross-sell and more revenues per client, both on loans and deposits.
And I can just give you one small example. We have been very active with the digital opening of SMEs accounts. Those accounts have increased substantially in the last 2, 3 years. And the balances that we used to have there, as I think we showed you on the Investor Day, I mean, we went from almost nothing to PLN1,500 million deposits. So that is flow. So that is, if you want, a concrete impact of the opening of digital accounts for SMEs. But also, we are expecting improvement in the risk-adjusted figures because everything we’re doing with digital and analytics should also have an impact in better understanding the risk profile of clients. And the last thing I would say is that on the efficiency front, the marginal cost of everything we are doing are for sure, higher.
