Good morning, and welcome to Grupo Supervielle's first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm Ana Bartesaghi, Treasurer and IRO.

Today's conference call is being recorded. For the Q&A session, please ensure your full name appears on Zoom.

You can ask questions by voice or through the Q&A chat box. Speaking today are Patricio Supervielle, our Chairman and CEO; Gustavo Paco Manriquez, CEO of Banco Supervielle; and Mariano Biglia, our CFO.

Diego Pizzulli, CEO of InvertirOnline, will also be available during the Q&A session. Before we begin, please note this call may include forward-looking statements.

Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for further details. Patricio, please go ahead.

Thank you, Ana. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today.

The first quarter marked an early, but important step in our earnings recovery, with underlying profitability returning to positive territory, excluding extraordinary severance charges. We maintained a disciplined approach to growth.

Loans declined sequentially, reflecting seasonally lower demand in local currency lending and our continued focus on selective origination. US dollar loans grew 13% in original currency terms, although peso appreciation masks growth when reported in local currency.

We also further optimized our funding mix by reducing higher-cost wholesale deposits and strengthening deposit quality. Asset quality showed early signs of stabilization.

While the NPL ratio stood at 5.6% at quarter-end, delinquency trends improved slightly through March, following the February peak. In parallel, cost of risk improved by 400 basis points to 6% from 10% in the fourth quarter, supporting our view that credit costs peaked at the end of last year.

During the quarter, we implemented a voluntary retirement plan to further align our operating model with evolving customer behavior, as activity continues to migrate towards digital and virtual channels. With 15% of employees taking the voluntary retirement plan to date, and 9% at quarter-end, we are well positioned for a structurally leaner cost base going forward.

Paco will discuss this initiative and its profitability impact in greater detail. The related severance charges contribute to a net loss in the quarter.

Excluding this effect, the business generated net income of ARS 6.7 billion, with an adjusted return on average equity of 2.5%. Net interest margin remained solid at 17.7%, benefiting from lower funding costs, while our CET1 ratio stood at 15.4%, reflecting a strong capital position to support future growth.

At the business level, we continued executing our ecosystem strategy and cross-selling initiatives, particularly through InvertirOnline, where assets under custody reached approximately $2.7 billion, up from $2.2 billion a year ago. Cuenta Hit IOL, launched by the bank to drive client acquisition within our ecosystem, reached a peak of approximately 13,000 new accounts in March.

We also continued advancing innovation at InvertirOnline, with the launch of a differentiated AI-enabled investment experience powered by Claude, allowing customers to interact with their portfolios, access market insights, and manage investment decisions through natural language. Overall, the quarter showed clear progress, with underlying profitability turning positive in March, and other operating trends continuing to improve into April.

Importantly, these results reflect disciplined execution by an experienced leadership team, with active asset and liability management, improving efficiency, and protecting the franchise while maintaining a clear focus on profitability. Stepping back for a moment, let me frame the external drivers behind the quarter's performance and our outlook for the rest of the year.

The year began with inflation running above expectation, high rate volatility, and tight monetary conditions weighing on activity and profitability across the system. Conditions improved as the quarter progressed, with interest rates declining by March.

The policy framework also continues to evolve constructively: fiscal discipline, reserve accumulation, higher exports, the IMF staff-level agreement, and progress on structural reforms, including the recent labor and [glacier?] laws, are improving visibility and supporting exchange rate stability.

Looking ahead, policy execution will remain critical. Sustaining the fiscal anchor, continuing to normalize monetary policy, and easing FX restrictions in an orderly manner will be important to preserving confidence and reducing volatility.

For the banking system, a more predictable macro environment should gradually improve financial intermediation. Lower inflation and more stable rates should support credit demand, while improved visibility allows us to deploy capital selectively and continue prioritizing profitable growth and disciplined risk management.

In this context, Supervielle enters the next phase from a stronger position, with improving credit trends, a better funding mix, and a structurally more efficient operating platform. With that, I will turn the call over to Paco, who will discuss the key drivers.

Thank you, Patricio, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide five, I will walk through the main operating drivers of the quarter and the actions we are taking to improve the bank's earnings profile.

Starting with the balance sheet, we continue to manage the business with a prudent approach, prioritizing asset quality and profitability over volume. Soft demand in local currency lending led us to remain disciplined, while we continue to optimize our funding mix, as Mariano will discuss shortly.

We also further reinforced our senior leadership team with the appointment of Juan Manuel Truppia as Chief Treasury and Global Market Officer this month, capitalizing on evolving market opportunities. Our strategy is beginning to deliver the expected results.

Asset quality improved as the quarter progressed, with delinquency levels showing signs of stabilization through March. This was supported by collection and refinancing initiatives implemented across the branch network since last December.

In parallel, cost of risk declined significantly from fourth quarter highs, reinforcing our view that we have moved past the peak of the credit cycle. We also made important progress on structural efficiency.

During the quarter, we implemented a headcount rightsizing plan to align our operational model with changing customer behavior, as clients continue migrating towards digital and virtual channels. These efficiencies are the result of work we have been doing for some time to redesign the service model around simple, more agile customer experiences.

We scaled digital and virtual service channels, centralized key processes, and improved operational discipline across the network. This allowed us to execute the plan without compromising service quality.

Together with our ongoing technology-driven transformation, these initiatives position the bank for a more efficient, scalable, and cost base. Annual savings are expected to be approximately ARS 33 billion in personal expenses, supporting a more efficient earnings profile going forward.

Taken together, the quarter showed clear progress. Underlying monthly earnings turned positive in March, asset quality trends improved, and momentum continued into April.

With that, I will hand the call over to Mariano, who will take you through the financial results, including how these initiatives are impacting results for the quarter, and our guidance for the year.

Thank you, Paco, and good day to everyone. Let's turn to slide six.

We reported an attributable net loss of ARS 17 billion in the quarter, improving from the ARS 21 billion loss in the prior quarter. As evidence of improving trends, adjusted net income was ARS 6.7 billion after excluding the one-time ARS 23.8 billion in severance charges, net of income tax, related to the headcount optimization plan.

The main improvement came from credit costs, with loan loss provisions declining around 45% sequentially, reflecting the initiatives discussed. The second driver was lower underlying costs.

Excluding severance charges, expenses declined 13% sequentially, reflecting lower seasonal administrative and personnel costs. Client net financial income also improved sequentially, supported by lower funding costs.

Market-related income normalized after a strong fourth quarter, while fee income remained subdued, reflecting lagged repricing and softer activity levels at IOL and asset management. In sum, the quarter showed a clear improvement in underlying trends, with margins stabilizing in March and credit quality beginning to normalize.

Turning to slide seven, the quarter reflects an important step in the recovery of structural earnings. On this slide, you can see the walk from reported to structural net income.

Excluding the extraordinary severance charges, underlying net income was ARS 6.7 billion. This voluntary retirement initiative reduced the bank ecosystem workforce by 9% or 278 employees in the quarter.

On a pro forma basis, salary-related expenses would have been approximately ARS 4.6 billion lower before taxes, reflecting these reductions. As a result, structural net income reached ARS 9.7 billion, highlighting the earnings capacity of the business on a normalized basis.

Since the end of March, we have implemented an additional 192 headcount reductions, bringing total headcount down by around 15% across the bank ecosystem. This positions us for a structurally lower and more efficient cost base going forward.

Turning to slide eight, total loans declined 5.6% sequentially, reflecting first quarter seasonality, subdued credit demand in local currency, and our continued focus on disciplined, risk-adjusted origination. Retail balances declined sequentially, consistent with our cautious underwriting approach amid still-elevated delinquency levels, while corporate balances remained relatively resilient, supported by US dollar loans, which expanded 13% in original currency, although peso appreciation decreased balances translated from dollar to pesos.

As credit conditions continue to stabilize, our objective remains to gradually resume growth while maintaining a balanced and profitable portfolio mix. Moving on to asset quality on slide nine, the NPL ratio stood at 5.6% at quarter-end, up from 5.0% in December, reflecting the lagged impact of prior credit stress.

Importantly, the NPL ratio peaked in February and then improved in March, with early signs of stabilization across key portfolios. Net cost of risk declined significantly to 6.0% in the quarter from 10.4% in the fourth quarter, reflecting the moderation in new inflows and the impact of our collection and refinancing initiatives.

These actions, implemented since December and focused on both individual and SME clients, helped contain migration into more advanced delinquency buckets. While we remain cautious, current trends reinforce our view that credit costs peaked in the fourth quarter of 2025, with asset quality now moving into a more stable phase.

Turning to slide 10, we continued to improve the quality of our funding base. Total deposits declined 4.7% sequentially, as we deliberately reduced higher-cost wholesale peso funding.

Year on year, retail and commercial deposits increased 22% in real terms, supported by stronger primary relationships and a remunerated account value proposition. Checking account balances declined low single digits, while time deposits and savings accounts grew 26% and 47%, respectively.

As a result, our mix improved, with lower reliance on wholesale funding and a higher contribution from retail and commercial deposits. Turning to slide 11, net financial income reached ARS 255 billion, declining 5% sequentially.

Client net financial income improved, supported by lower funding costs and a lower and more stable rate environment in March, while market-related net financial income normalized after a strong fourth quarter. Net interest margin stood at 17.7%, compared to 18.8% in 4Q '25, reflecting rate volatility during most of the period.

Importantly, margins improved toward March as volatility eased. Turning to our outlook, we are updating our 2026 expectations to reflect a more normalized operating environment and the trends we observed during the first quarter.

We now expect real loan growth between 20% and 25%, compared to our prior guidance of 25% to 30%. Growth is expected to remain skewed toward corporate lending in the near term, while retail credit should gradually recover alongside improvements in economic activity, employment, and disposable income.

Deposits are now expected to expand between 10% and 15%, below our prior guidance of 20% to 25%, reflecting continuity of restringing monetary policy. On asset quality, we now expect the NPL ratio to range between 5.0% and 5.5% during 2026.

Importantly, cost of risk improved meaningfully in the first quarter, and we now expect full-year net cost of risk between 5.3% and 5.8%, compared to our prior guidance of 5.5% to 6.0%. We also now expect NIM to range between 15% and 18%, above our prior guidance of 14% to 16%.

This reflects a higher expected inflation path, which should keep nominal rates and asset yields above our previous assumptions. At the same time, reserve requirements remain elevated, and the temporary shift toward corporate lending may continue to weigh on margins.

Turning to the next slide, we now expect net fee income growth broadly in line with inflation, compared to our prior guidance of 5% real growth. This reflects continued growth in banking fees offset by softer asset management fees and brokerage activity normalizing against a strong 2025 comparison base.

Adjusted operating expenses are expected to decline between 2% and 4%, driven by lower expenses at the banking ecosystem in real terms. This reflects the impact of a larger-than-originally-expected headcount rightsizing and continued cost discipline, partially offset by investments supporting accelerated growth at IOL.

We now expect reported ROE for the year of between 2% and 6%, compared to our prior range of 4% to 9%. The lower range reflects the impact of the headcount optimization plan implemented during the first quarter, while the upper end continues to reflect upside from macro normalization, easing monetary conditions, and stronger credit growth.

Excluding extraordinary severance charges related to the efficiency program, adjusted ROE is expected to range between 6% to 10%. Note this range does not yet reflect the benefit of approximately ARS 33 billion in annualized salary savings, which should support the underlying cost structure over time.

Lastly, we continue to expect CET1 to end the year between 11% and 13%, unchanged from our prior guidance, supporting disciplined growth while maintaining a strong capital position. This concludes our prepared remarks.

We are now opening the floor for Q&A.

Thank you, Mariano. At this time, we will be conducting the question-and-answer session.

As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to be connected to a Zoom platform. To ask a question, please press the raise your hand button and press it again to withdraw.

You can also send your questions in written form via the Q&A box. The first question comes from Ernesto Gabilondo from Bank of America.

Hello, good morning, Ernesto. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Ana. Good morning.

Good morning, Patricio, Paco, and Mariano, Diego. Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions.

My first question will be on your reserve coverage ratio. When looking to this ratio, it's around 100%, which I think it's a little bit low given that 30% of the loan book is integrated by consumer loans and especially when compared to other Latin American banks in the region.

Just wondering how should we expect the evolution of your reserve coverage ratio? Then I will make my next question.

We feel that we have an appropriate coverage ratio at this moment, and I think this view is also among our peers. This reflects particularly our cautious view on retail origination for the time being, focus on corporate origination with export-led industries, and we feel comfortable.

Of course, if things change, we will apply another policy. Diego, you want to add on that?

Yes. Hi, Ernesto.

Thank you for your question. I will add to what Patricio mentioned, also that, although as we saw during the presentation that we have 37% of retail loans of our total portfolio, 10% of that is mortgages, it's not consumer finance.

On mortgages, we have a much lower statistics of probability of default or even default. That also explains part why our expected loss models require less provisions on that part of the portfolio.

Then the other 63%, almost 2/3 of the portfolio, is commercial, where we also normally require less provisions. Nonetheless, we are about 100%, and that's also about the industry average.

Thank you. For example, in terms of cost of risk, it already peaked in the fourth quarter, and I believe the NPL ratio peaked in this first quarter.

If you improve the NPL ratio throughout the year, probably that should allow the reserve coverage ratio also to go up. Am I right with that assumption?

Yes, because of the loan growth, when we grow in real terms, the NPL ratio would tend to dilute, and the coverage ratio should increase. It will also depend on the mix of the portfolio.

If we grow more on the retail side, that will also require higher provisions. If we continue to have more weight on the commercial side, we will be closer and not much above 100%.

Perfect. Then my second question is on regulation.

Deposit requirements have been lowered, but continue to be high when compared to other countries. How do you see the government willing to reduce even more the requirement?

Also, is there any other deregulation we should have in mind?

I think it's a good, very good question. Of course, this government, in addition to the fiscal anchor, they also are restrictive in their monetary policy, and to make sure that the anti-inflation program succeeds.

It's still pending the easing of peso-denominated reserve requirements, which I think they still are the highest in the last 20 years. I expect that, particularly this is my opinion, when the government secures the refinancing of the bonds in the international market through the guarantees that they are negotiating with the multilaterals, I think that they will start to be softer in terms of peso reserve requirements.

This is my opinion, I am optimistic on that. In addition to that, there's also on the agenda something extremely important, which is the lifting of the foreign exchange controls.

Particularly for corporations, that is a constraint today on investment and capital allocations for corporations. Finally, another important agenda that I think is very important is unlocking the Social Security Sustainability Fund, particularly as a long-term funding vehicle for supporting mortgage securitization.

That would be a big help for construction, for the value of properties, and it's an agenda that is important. In summary, what we need is less restrictive monetary policy, deeper capital market, and a fully functional foreign exchange framework.

Thank you very much, Patricio. Very helpful.

Just a last question from my side related to the RIGI projects. Is there any update you can provide us, and how is Supervielle expecting to participate in financing SMEs or suppliers related to these projects?

I think the RIGI project is going very well, and I understand that the full pipeline today is $100 billion. Only one part of that has been already approved, but the impact for us, for Banco Supervielle, is very important, because what we do, we do concentrate on financing the value chain of dynamic industries, such as energy and mining.

Definitely, this will help all the value chain, and we will be there.

Excellent. All, thank you very much.

Thank you, Ernesto, for your question. Our next question comes from Diego Marquez with J.P.

Marquez. Hello, good morning, Diego.

Please go ahead.

Good morning, Patricio, Paco, Mariano, Ana. Thanks for the space for questions.

Just a quick question regarding the rightsizing initiative and headcount reduction that we saw this quarter, just to get a sense of what impact we can expect in the coming quarters, and if we can expect a normalization and to what extent. Then, if I can, a second question just following up on what Ernesto was saying on NPLs.

You mentioned a slight improvement in March compared to February, just if you could give us a bit of more color on what you're seeing, maybe through April, and what's driving the stabilization, if we could expect first Q to be the peak for this? Thank you.

Regarding your first question, basically this voluntary retirement program was designed to run mainly from March through May, and the estimated annual savings so far are to be approximately $33 billion—billion pesos. The impact of all the technology and the change of customer behavior basically is allowing the review of the infrastructure in order to basically make sure that we strengthen the operating platform, we improve scalability, and we align the cost base with the way that the clients interact with the bank today.

This is an agenda that you have to expect that we will be looking on a continuing basis. We do not expect another program of similar magnitude during 2026.

Also, Diego,

we call rightsizing because we don't see any impact in our NPLs or quality service or whatever. That's why we call rightsizing, because we don't see any impact in the organization.

Yes, and also let me add regarding the impact for the incoming quarters. As we said during the presentation, we expect ARS 33 billion savings annualized when this program is fully executed.

We did the most part in the first quarter, but we are executing also in April and part in May. This ARS 33 billion annualized savings cost, which is about ARS 8 billion per quarter, will be fully captured in the third and fourth quarter of this year.

No, and

also with this rightsizing, we are preparing the bank for the next part, for the future, no? For the competition, for the new value proposition, the more digital for the customers.

We are preparing the bank for the future.

The ARS 33 billion is what we have already achieved in terms of annual savings by now, by today. Okay?

So...

Exactly. Regarding the second question, what we expect for NPLs now is that they will be quite stable in the range of 5.5%, 5.7%, and decreasing by the end of the year, where we have a guidance of 5.0% to 5.5% NPL ratio.

What we did to achieve this improvement we saw between February and March, and now we're seeing a bit more stabilized, is first when we saw the peak in interest rates that impact so negatively on delinquency across the industry, we were much more restringing on credit origination, particularly in unsecured loans on the retail side. That helped us stop delinquency, and that's why we are seeing first an important reduction in the cost of risk.

Then the NPL has a lag, so that's why it increased quarter over quarter, but we think it reached a peak or close to a peak. Also very important was a collections initiative that we launched in between December and February, where we put effort across all our channels, including our commercial network, to contain delinquency and to improve collections.

That gave very good results that translated in this decrease of NPL month over month in March.

I think, Diego, that the NPL figures shows that we are implemented several initiatives in order to control the risk, and yes, the NPLs also. I think we did different initiatives against the market.

Yes. That includes, and not only, of course, all the efforts to contact clients and making an effort to collect all what is due, but also Paco has been implementing structural changes in the way we collect to make sure that basically the quality of collection remains over for the future.

This is very important. Better procedures, better way of working, this is very important.

Of course, this requires technology behind, but this is in agenda, an important agenda.

All very clear. Thank you.

Thank you, Diego, for your question. Our next question comes from Arnon Shirazi with Citi.

Hello, good morning, Arnon.

Hello, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity.

My question is aligned with Diego's questions. It's related to NPLs and collections.

We saw stabilization recently, but to what extent is this improvement dependent on the collection initiatives rather than genuine recovery in borrowing repayment capacity? Thank you.

I think it's both effects from having more restrictive origination policies, as I said, mainly on the unsecured retail portfolio, but also the collection efforts. Collection efforts were not only introduced to collect past-due loans, but also to prevent loans that were performing, but according to measures of indicators that we have, we saw customers at the risk of being past due and generating new delinquency and so these efforts were intended to prevent going those loans into delinquency or early delinquency turning into NPLs later.

I think it's both effects.

Sí.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Arnon. We have a question from Pedro Offenhenden with Latin Securities.

Hello, good morning, Pedro.

Hi, everyone. Good morning.

Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask for some color on InvertirOnline this quarter.

What were the drivers of the decline in revenue and net income, with customers growing and assets under custody only modestly down?

Thank you, Pedro, for your question. I think this quarter reflects a trend we've been experiencing in the business for the last year.

A year ago, a meaningful part of our brokerage activity was FX-driven, and this, of course, brought activity, transaction volume, and revenue. After the lifting of the restrictions in the FX market in April, part of this, or a significant part of this, disappeared.

What is important is that despite this shift or change, we managed to keep growing our accounts. We now have 2.3 million accounts opened in InvertirOnline.

As you mentioned, activity and transactions are roughly the same that we had when the restrictions were in place. Also, the AUC grew 25% year over year in dollar terms, and in the same period, we grew our asset management business from $120 million in AUM to $350 million AUM.

What we saw was a shift in the nature of the activity from our customers from one very intensive in FX transactions to a more stable investment operations. For us, what we did last year and been doing last time and we're going to do ahead is monetize these customers, this broad base of customers, in a more recurring and resilient way and not dependent on market distortions.

We are adding more investment products for our customers, especially for retail customers. We are also improving our advisory relationships, and we are focusing on development of our high-value customers activities or segments.

Something that we accomplished in the last year was this growth in the AUC I mentioned before. If you look which segments explain the growth, the high-value customer, affluent customers, and the ones that are advised, grew twice as fast than the AUC of retail customers.

Retail were growing, too. We were executing well on that front.

Also, the share of the revenues that was explained by this affluent customer was close to 10%, 11% last year, and now it's 20%, and it's growing. I believe that if we look at experience in other countries, in our markets, when the macroeconomic environment normalize and the FX rate is more stable, the interest rates are low and stable, and also the inflation is under control, the capital market expands.

I think we have a good strategy to capitalize on that, and we believe and we are optimistic that in Argentina, this will happen. The capital markets is still in its infancy, and we are, I think, well positioned to capitalize on the development that it will have in the future as we have in other countries as an example.

Thank you, Diego. Super clear.

Just if I may, a quick follow-up on the bank. There was a bit of movement on deposits this quarter.

Could you give us some color on the increase in public sector deposits and savings account, and how should we expect the deposit mix going forward?

In terms of funding, as the government is pursuing a constrained monetary policy. I think, basically now, they are also aware that volatility in rates is harmful.

The dollar deposits are continue to grow at this point, although maybe at a slower rate that in the first quarter, but we are already at record levels in the past 20 years. I think that the strategy we started last April of remunerating accounts selectively for certain classes of individuals and corporations is having a very good effect, and we already see the results, but this will grow over time, because basically what it helps us is to attract funding for individuals and affluent individuals and corporations and also build primary relationships.

Looking forward, peso constraints, particularly, will continue with this government policy to exist. I don't know if you're aware, but the peso-to-loan deposit in the system is very high at this point.

In order to have the industry grow in terms of funding loans, we need to see the growth in peso deposits. I think this is related I think to the success of the stabilization program, to the government securing the external financing for their debts, and therefore allowing for more monetization of pesos in the country, which will fund deposits and fund loans.

Perfect, Patricio. Thank you.

Thank you, Pedro, for both questions. We have a question from Camila Acevedo with UBS.

Hello, good morning, Camila. Thank you also for your question.

Hi, everyone. Good morning.

I would like to follow up on previous questions on the headcount rightsizing plan. Excluding these extraordinary changes, and also given your medium-term goal of accelerating ROE, reaching high single digits or low double-digit ROE by year-end, what specific levers other than the plan will drive the acceleration in the coming quarters?

I also have another question, if I may, related to the expansion of your presence in key industrial hubs in the country focused on oil and gas and mining, right? What is the pipeline for corporate lending in these sectors, and how do you expect the agreement with the US to impact your corporate deal flow?

Thanks.

I think basically the first question relates to the process to grow in terms of return on equity. Do you want to explain that?

Exactly. Thank you, Camila, for your question.

The main drivers of the ROE improvement for incoming quarters and the following year, I would mention first, of course, the efficiency achieved with headcount reduction that we explained well in detail. Second, improvement in asset quality, which we also talked about, and stabilization of loan loss provisions will also lead us to foster loan growth, also on the retail side, which now we are very restringent.

In order to achieve higher ROE, we want to resume growth on both the commercial and the retail side of the loan book. Right now, we are growing on the commercial side, both in pesos and dollars, but we want to grow also when we think that the moment is appropriate on the retail side.

That is the third point. The fourth is growth in fees.

We want to grow in the banking net service fee income, but also in InvertirOnline, which Diego explained well in detail before, and on asset management. Those are the key line items, I would say.

Also,

we are changing our mix in term of funds. That's the main focus for Juan Manuel Truppia, the recently appointment as Chief of Treasury.

Also, we implemented a new initiative in terms of new value proposition, new products basically for the lending side. We are communicating in the next weeks an strategic alliance with a big car factory sales in order to sell cars with a huge alliance with us, and also the personal loan size, no?

We are selling the new cohort, the new sales since February are showing good results in terms of delinquency. In the next weeks, we will increasing the personal loan sales in order to capture more spread and obviously more revenues.

Adding your comments, Mariano.

Regarding your second question, see, we have a clear focus, and we always said it that we want to concentrate the financing of the value chains of dynamic industries, and that includes precisely oil and gas and mining. We have in the past 2 years opened selective branches in particular points where we want to deliver service.

Most importantly, we have on the credit side, we have specialized people that are looking, and we have a team which is dedicated to the oil industry.

Also we have presence in Añelo.

Exactly this, exactly. We have presence in Añelo, we have presence also on minings areas in San Juan.

Basically, we have the infrastructure, we have the team, we have the drive, we have the funding. The funding is particularly dollar funding, because this is related all these companies, they're looking for dollar funding.

This is precisely what we do, we are very optimistic. This will not change with any change of government.

This is something, a secular growth that is in Argentina, that is a fantastic opportunity for the banking industry. Also,

you can mention the ON that we launched on Tuesday, the ON dollar MEP.

We are tapping, of course, particular opportunities to attract low-cost funding. For instance, last week, we sold in the market a bond, a 1-year bond with a very low cost, at...

3.25%.

3.5%,

$20 million.

Basically, we are looking, tapping into all this funding pool base in order to make sure that we have what is necessary to deliver to our clients. Hope I have answered your question.

Yes, yes. Perfect.

It's perfect. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Camila.

Gracias.

I think we can go to some of the written questions in the Q&A. I think in terms of NPL and NIMs, I think we already answered those.

Regarding maybe the announced 9% headcount reduction, or 15%, how much annual savings you expect this to generate? I think it's already answered, ARS 33 billion.

This question, maybe: and do you plan to reinvest any of these savings into technology or other strategic initiatives?

No. No, those will be savings that will impact the bottom line.

Exactly. We have some others.

Not go back to the previous one, Federico Rey-García from AdCap, I think: Should we expect additional non-recurring structuring charges throughout the year, and how will this impact your full-year return on equity?

I think this is already included in what Mariano already said. Return on equity guidance stands at a wide range.

What the key assumptions maybe around us? I think there is another question asking more or less the same, Mariano.

Yes, regarding the ROE guidance, it has a wide range mainly due to macroeconomic, monetary policy from the Central Bank that we can see throughout the second part of the year. If we have an easing of the monetary policy, that will allow deposits to grow faster, and that will fuel loan growth, as Patricio also explained.

That's the main driver. That will also help if market rates going down or at a stable range, and also help delinquency to be contained and NPLs to grow.

That's the upside we see. The downside would be that this restringing monetary policy keeps throughout all the year.

That's the lower and the higher part of the ROE range. It's important to highlight that we give an adjusted ROE without the impact of the retirement plan costs and the reported ROE guidance that includes it.

The range is for both expectations for both the same, but it's important also to highlight that in the reported ROE, we include the cost of the retirement plan, both what has already been incurred as of March 31st and what we expect to incur in the second quarter.

We have another question from Ricardo Cavanagh with Itaú. Hello, good morning, Ricardo.

Hi. Hello, good morning, all, and well, thanks for this quite interesting conference call.

What I'm seeing in the market is that corporates are issuing debt at very low spreads compared to the sovereign. Of course, on a lower sovereign spread would come in hand with much better conditions for banks.

My question is, would you imagine under any scenario the prospects of sovereign risk premium compressing over, let's say, the next 6 to 12 months?

I think definitely, for instance, yesterday there was a very successful debt emission by the City of Buenos Aires, and I think it was six times six times oversubscribed, and with rates in the region of 7% for, I think the tenor was 10 years.

10 years.

10 years. I think this is a very good sign.

It was a very good timing because after Fitch announcement. In my opinion, it will impact on the sovereign risk.

I cannot say exactly how much, but I think it will impact, because definitely this is not a private company, this is a state within Argentina, the Capital Federal, that is getting funds at 7%. I think definitely, this will impact on the sovereign risk.

In addition, if the government succeeds in refinancing all what is due on bonds on 2026 and 2027 with guarantees from multilaterals, this will also give more tranquility and help compress the sovereigns. This is my opinion.

Well...

I'm sorry, Ricardo. No, go ahead.

No, and well, thanks for that answer. Patricio, I have a question for you regarding if these times that we are living in Argentina reminds you of any additional time, particularly in the past, where the banking sector faced certain issues and also certain opportunities, no?

That is my question, given your long track record in the industry.

No, thank you. I think, of course, we can refer back to the convertibility, because the convertibility was also a stabilization program, very successful in the first 5, 6 years.

That stabilization program was tremendously transformational of Argentina, also of the financial industry. We saw at that time an increase, I think of loans-to-GDP up to 25%.

It grew a lot. You see the type of potential that a financial industry has when you have a successful stabilization program.

I do not buy into the fact that we will have very international inflation rates in the next 12 months. I think stabilizations, if you see Israel, Uruguay, Chile, they take a few years, maybe up to 10 years, but the trend is there, and definitely we'll have an impact on the growth of the financial industry.

Just only look at one figure: for instance, mortgages to GDP is 1% of GDP here, and in Chile, it's 15 times that. We have a lot of agendas on the financial industry to capitalize with a stabilization program.

We need to see, of course, that this goes on with the next government, and also that the entire political spectrum also buys into the fiscal anchor, that this is very important, and I expect that eventually they will do, because this is going to be a winning theme for elections.

Okay? Thank you all very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think there's a question I would like to answer there, which is regarding the acceleration...

I was going to ask that. It's a retail investor: How can you accelerate your transformation to a fintech-like business model, like Revolut or Nu?

Okay. You're talking of two great financial companies, best in class, and I think the way forward for us is, first of all, to make sure that we have an agenda of literally I would say radically diminishing the cost to serve of individual clients.

This is an agenda that Paco is pursuing and will continue to pursue over the next few years. I'm talking of unit economics.

We want to make sure that every individual that works with the bank has very low cost to serve, compatible with the revenue we get from this active customers. That's my first part of the question.

Of course, with that, you need to continue working on technology. On the second part is also it's very important that in our case, we are working with clusters, not like a universal bank agenda, that is we're working with clusters, and the clusters are for us, at this stage, making sure that we have good value propositions for salary accounts, good value propositions for senior citizens, and good value propositions for investor-type of or affluent clients.

Those affluent clients, we are capturing them through a cross-sell, let's say, strategy with InvertirOnline, that is a very successful fintech, by the way, the largest in the country, and it's growing. The focus today is grow on high-value clients, as Diego explained just before, which includes affluent individuals, corporations, and IFAs.

On the second part is, we want to make sure that Banco Supervielle is very strong on enterprises, because this is not the focus of Revolut or Nu, or even Mercado Pago. We want to focus on the value chain of dynamic industries.

This is going to be a way to defend and grow for the financial industry, and particularly for us.

I think we reached the end of today's Q&A session and conference call. Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you, we appreciate all your questions and your interest in our company. We look forward to meeting more of you over the coming months and providing financial and business updates next quarter.

Maybe there were some questions on the Q&A box that we can go through after the call. Thank you all of you for joining.