Good morning, everyone. This is Tomas.

Welcome to Grupo Financiero Banorte's Second Quarter Earnings Call. 26.

Our CEO, Marcos Ramirez, will begin today's call by presenting the main results of the quarter and the first half of the year. Highlighting the positive trends observed across our portfolio and profitability indicators and evolution of the main macro indicators.

Then Rafael Arana, our COO, will go over the financial highlights of the group, providing details on the margin evolution and the impact of inflation in the annuities business. Which was offset by lower technical reserves resulting neutral for net income.

Rafael will also comment on the evolution of cost of funds, provisions and capital ratios. Including the recent issuance of our AT1 and dividend payment.

Please note that today's presentation may include forward looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to differ materially. On page 2 of our conference call deck, you will find full disclaimer regarding forward looking statements.

Thank you. Marcos, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today.

The second quarter delivered strong results, reflecting the structural strength of our core business and the resilience of domestic demand. Performance was broadly positive across our businesses, supported by solid margins, continued loan growth, and disciplined expense management.

Before moving on, let me briefly explain a seasonal dynamic within the annuities business. As you know, June recorded very low inflation, which tends to reduce the contribution for inflation-linked securities to margin performance.

Importantly, this effect was neutral to net income as it was offset by lower technical reserves associated with these instruments. Overall, the quarter reflects the quality of our execution and the adaptability of our business model.

Accordingly, we are reaffirming our full-year guidance and remain confident in a more dynamic second half. That said, global conditions remain volatile.

Although tensions in the Middle East have eased in recent weeks, some concerns persist regarding the inflationary effects of the conflict. In Mexico, 2026 began on a softer note, but more recent high-frequency data points to a gradual recovery.

As I mentioned earlier, domestic demand remains supportive, and we begin to see a pickup in activity, particularly as we move into the summer months, with the World Cup providing a short-term boost to consumption and tourism. In addition, exports remain resilient, and we anticipate a modest recovery in investment and a greater implementation of infrastructure programs.

This should be supported by the increasing execution of Plan México, particularly across sectors such as energy, transportation, water, and telecommunications, as well as by measures designated to facilitate project development and encourage public-private investment. With this in mind, we maintain our GDP growth expectation for 2026 at around 1.4%.

On the trade front, discussions around the USMCA review officially began on July 1st. Our base case continues to assume a constructive dialogue between all parties, and that the annual review process will serve as a framework to further deepen economic integration across the region.

This view is supported by the structural advantages that Mexico offers, including its manufacturing scale, competitive labor force, and strategic position with North America supply chain. Regarding monetary policy, as we highlighted in previous calls, we believe Mexico has reached the end of the easing cycle, with the reference rate at 6.5%, a level we expect to hold through 2026, 2027.

Inflation has evolved in a favorable direction, and while it may close the year slightly above target, recent indicators suggest that price dynamics remain broadly under control. Finally, on the exchange rate, we maintain our forecast of around 18.10 pesos per dollar by year-end.

Shifting gears to the results on slide number three. Our second quarter results reflect positive underlying business momentum.

Net interest income for both the group and the bank expanded year-over-year, driven mainly by lower funding costs and healthy growth in lending volumes. As I mentioned earlier, Group NII was impacted by a seasonal dynamic within the annuities business during the quarter.

Excluding the seasonal dynamic, margin trends remain positive and continue to reflect the strength of our operating fundamentals. On asset quality, cost of risk declined 29 basis points sequentially, and it's on track with our guidance for the year.

On capital, we successfully complemented our AT1 issuance for $1.35 billion during the quarter. The transaction attracted significant investor interest, reflecting confidence in our business model and financial profile.

The issuance provides additional flexibility in managing our capital structure and aligns with our objective of maintaining AT1 instruments within the 30%-40% range of regulatory capital. Rafa will provide additional color later in the presentation.

Moving to slide number four, net income for the quarter reached MXN 15.6 billion, up 1% sequentially. Results were supported by healthy business trends across our main segments, continued funding optimization, lower provisions, and favorable market-related income.

These results were achieved despite the benefit from a business sale recorded during last quarter. For the first half of 2026, net income reached MXN 31 billion, 4% higher than the same period last year, already incorporating the non-deductibility of the IPAB.

Nevertheless, consistent execution of our strategy and the sound evolution of the business supported positive results. Profitability metrics remain solid, with ROE for the quarter reaching 25.7%, up 209 basis points year-over-year, supported by continued earnings generation and the effect of the dividend payment in May.

ROA stood at 2.3%, broadly stable compared to last year. Analyzing results by subsidiary on slide number five, the bank delivered another strong quarter.

Reported net income of MXN 12.4 billion, up 6% sequentially. Results displayed strong core banking operations boosted by a declining cost of funds, a more dynamic lending activity, larger net fees, and a stronger market-related revenue, despite a higher base, given the additional income recorded in the first quarter for the aforementioned business sale.

For the first half of the year, the bank generated MXN 24 billion in net income, 6% above the first half of 2025. Altogether, these results yielded an ROE of 32.4%, 223 points higher than the previous quarter.

With accumulated figures, ROA stood at 31.3%. The insurance company net income declined 43% in the quarter and 4% compared to second quarter of 2025.

The sequential valuation mainly reflects the normalization of premium origination following the seasonal peak of the first quarter. For the first half of the year, results reflected regulatory changes associated with the non-deductibility of VAT.

Even so, commercial dynamics remain favorable, with premium volumes continuing to grow across the business. The annuities business grew 13% on accumulated basis and was supported by higher business volumes and lower claims across the portfolio.

Pension funds reported a strong quarter, with net income rising 65% sequentially and 23% on an accumulated basis. Results were boosted by a larger base of assets under management, driving higher fee income alongside higher valuation.

Lastly, the brokerage sector accumulated decline mainly reflected lower market valuation in the securities portfolio. Turning to slide number six, loan portfolio expanded 8% year-over-year.

Growth was supported by a dynamic activity across the portfolio, particularly in consumer lending, while commercial and corporate loans contributed 8% and 2% respectively. Corporate balances continued to be affected by prepayments and exchange rate movements in our dollar-denominated book, which accounts already for 13% of the total portfolio.

Excluding these FX effects, total loan growth reached close to 9% year-over-year. Despite uncertainty around annual revision of the USMCA, we anticipate a strong pipeline in corporate and commercial loans related to real estate, financial services, and tourism sectors.

Government lending increased 7% compared to last year. Although quarterly performance continued to reflect the impact of short-term maturities and prepayments mainly from the states and municipalities.

Our view on this segment remains unchanged, we continue to see opportunities linked to Plan México as we gain visibility throughout the year. Turning to slide number seven, consumer lending remains the main driver of portfolio expansion, increasing 10% year-over-year.

This reflects sustained customer demand or streamlined operating model and the continued rollout of our hyper-personalization strategy, supported by expanding digital capabilities. Auto loans once again posted outstanding annual growth of 26%, benefiting from stronger commercial partnerships and our continued efforts to broaden distribution channels across the country.

The credit card portfolio was up 12% year-on-year, supported by effective commercial campaigns, greater customer engagement during seasonal spending periods, and a broader value propositions across the product offering, resulting in a solid base of originations. Payroll loans grew 14% year-over-year, reflecting the effectiveness of our commercial strategy and digital offerings, as well as the consistent execution of our sales force.

Finally, mortgages increased 5% year-over-year. During the quarter, we remained focused on refining our origination processes and strengthening the customer journey, we remain constructive for this portfolio as the year goes by.

Moving to slide number eight, asset quality remains within expected levels, with the NPL ratio standing at 1.5% for the quarter. As we have discussed before, this figure continues to reflect the isolated case commercial portfolio, as well as the impact of changes to our mortgage write-off policy.

Even with the continued expansion of the consumer lending asset quality trends remain within our expected ranges, cost of risk continues to move in line with our guidance for the year. It is worth noting that a recent regulatory adjustment affecting certain government-guaranteed loans provided a modest benefit to provisioning during the quarter.

However, the impact in our results was not material. Net fees on slide number nine expanded 17% year-over-year and 16% during the first half of 2026.

This performance was mainly driven by higher transaction volumes, mainly in consumer products, larger loan structuring fees, mutual fund operations, as well as our focus on profitability and in affiliated digital businesses. On the ESG front, on slide number 10, I would like to highlight that throughout the year, we continue working on multiple fronts to improve our disclosures regarding risk, insurance activities, and sustainable products.

Thanks to this, FTSE improved its ESG rating for Banorte and ratified our performance in its FTSE4Good Index Series. Moreover, Banorte was recognized among the world's most sustainable companies in 2026 by Time and by Statista.

These events are lifeblood evidence of our constant commitment towards strengthening our progress in sustainability. Now, before passing the word to Rafa, I would like to touch on three topics that many investors have asked about in recent weeks, as well as two recognitions granted to Banorte's customer-centric operating models and digital capabilities.

First, I will briefly address our approach to AML sanctions and the compliance policies that support our institutions. Even before the FTO designations announced last year, Banorte maintained a robust framework supported by a strong governance, board oversight, and controls aligned with international standards.

We continue to build on that foundation by further improving our monitoring and compliance capabilities and investing more in technology, in data, in analytics, and in AI-based tools to support these efforts with important investments deployed over the last three years. I want to stress that we maintain an ongoing dialogue with both Mexican and U.S.

authorities, ensuring we are aligned with evolving regulatory expectations. At UniTeller, we have taken a similar approach to constantly improve our capabilities and address the changing dynamics of the money services industry.

We take this responsibility very seriously and remain confident in the strength of our controls, governance, and compliance programs supported by leading U.S.-Mexican external advisors. Turning to our digital proposition for young clientele, Bineo continues to gain traction gradually and in line with our expectations.

Our approach is centered on financial inclusion, responsible lending, and financial education. While some competitors have pursued faster portfolio growth, we remain focused on helping customers build healthy credit habits and strengthen their financial profiles and achieve sustainable financial progress over time, rather than prioritizing rapid origination that could eventually lead to signs of deterioration.

Our strategy is built for long run, growing hand in hand with our customers, supporting their increasing financial sophistication, and creating sustainable value through enduring relationships. Staying on the topic of technology, I would like to follow up on AI progress we discussed during our first quarter call.

As I mentioned before, our objective is to build an AI-agnostic platform that allows us to scale these tools across the origination. We continue to advance our hyper-personalization strategy, which now gains a new dimension to the implementation of artificial intelligence, enabling a more granular understanding of our clients and creating new opportunities to enhance loan origination and customer satisfaction.

This approach is already reflected in our customer lifetime value and credit risk assessment models, enabling us to deliver more personalized pricing, and strengthen our commercial efforts, and further advance our vision of one agent per client. By year-end, we expect around 10,000 employees across the bank to incorporate AI into their daily workflows, supporting greater productivity, faster execution, and improved service levels.

Early applications are already simplifying internal processes and reducing repetitive tasks, allowing our teams to dedicate more time to customers and business development. Looking ahead, we expect AI to play an increasingly important role in software development, application design, and analytical work across business and risk functions.

We are pleased with the progress achieved so far. We will continue to update the market as these efforts span throughout the organization.

Last but not least, I would like to highlight some of the most relevant recognitions we have received during the year. Banorte has named Best Corporate Governance and Best Consumer Bank in Mexico by Global Finance, and also Best Bank by Global Finance.

These awards reinforce what we see across the business every day, a strong institution, a customer-focused strategy, and differentiated capabilities that continue to position us well for the future. With this, I conclude my remarks.

Rafa, please go ahead.

Thank you, Marcos. Morning to all.

I move basically to the highlights of the financial numbers that Marcos has already explained, but going into more detail, I think relevant numbers come from the NII, especially on the loans to deposit part, that is growing around 13%, basically run by the funding cost that is trending lower at a faster pace. The spread on the margin side continued to evolve.

NII loans to deposit continue to be a very positive story for Banorte, we'll continue to do so in the coming months. There's some issues as always on the second quarter, and sometimes it flows to the third quarter, especially on the annuity side, that as you know, inflation-related instruments have been affected by the lower inflation part that is basically fully compensated on a net income basis by the technical reserves.

It affects the overall numbers on the NII. That's what I'm highlighting, the NII, that is more clean of any external issues.

The loans to the deposit, that is, as I mentioned before, growing at a 13% pace. Overall, when you look at the total revenue, it's growing 10% when you add everything that is related to the group, not just for the bank.

In the following slide, we will go deep into the bank performance to try to explain the highlights of that evolution for the year. I move to the next one, please.

We go deep into the bank, what you could see is the NII of the bank is growing at 15% year-on-year, as I mentioned, basically for what we have been doing on the funding side and also on the evolution on the consumer book that continues to grow at a very reasonable pace. The net interest margin for the bank is reaching 6.9% above what we gave as our guidance for the year.

The high end of the guidance was around 6.8, now we are sitting at 6.9. Fees continue to be a very good story.

The bank net fees are growing at a 22% growth. Notwithstanding the fact that, as you know, since the high growth that we have especially on the car loans and some parts on the mortgage side, that you have to pay in advance some of the fees related to the selling process.

Even including that, you continue to see a very positive growth on the net fees. This is basically related to the activity that we have had in every single of the channels of the bank.

That is, it's giving us a very reasonable growth on the fees, going from the mutual funds, going to also on the corporate investment banking that continues to basically provide companies to issuance paper into the market because they are not really appealing more for the long run. They are basically going to the market for the issuance of bonds, and we are very present in that part.

Overall, very good growth in the bank net fees. In the next one, this is what really is giving us that stability on the net interest margin that is basically related to the management of the balance sheet on the sensitivity side.

As you see, we are much more liability sensitive now. The full sensitivity of the overall balance sheet, dollar and peso book is 981, 281 for the peso book on that part, and that will continue to go steady into the low end.

Sensitivity continues to be where we want it to be. You know that the fixed rate part of the book continues to strengthen because of the growth that we have on the car loans and also on the mortgage book.

That is basically sustaining this part along with a very good evolution on the funding side. On an NII basis, it's basically nothing.

It's 0.2% on the sensitivity on the NII. I think we are very at ease how the balance sheet is being positioned, but notwithstanding the fact that we are always vigilant about any issues that we could see on the evolution of the interest rates.

If I move to the next one. If I go now to the profitability metrics for the bank, the return on equity of the bank is growing at 22.1 basis points year-on-year, reaching 32.4% in the second quarter.

It is basically 200 basis points on a year-on-year basis on this part. The net income is growing at a 5%, and the ROE of the bank is growing at 2.63 basis points on a year-on-year basis.

All the profitability metrics, and if you go down to the return on tangible is reaching 36.2% on the tangible basis when you basically strip down the effect of the pension company on that part. If we move to the next one, please.

This is what really shows how we have been managing the evolution of the funding cost, the reference against the active rate and the funding rate, and also how the balance sheet positioning has allowed us to keep a very sustainable net interest margin for the loan portfolio. As you can see, it keeps on growing to 8.9%.

That is giving us additional spread on the loan book. Even though the rates continue to go down, we continue to be very beneficial because of the funding cost and the combination that we have on the fixed and variable rates on the book.

Also, I would like to stress the fact that we continue to grow, not because we are pricing our loans on the market at a higher price. On the contrary, based upon our risk philosophy, that we go for the clients that we like the risk.

Sometimes we are very comfortable offering the best price in the market for the clients that we like the risk. That is allowing us to have the clients that we like, the clients that we want, and also being able to grow the close relationship that we have with them in a very important way.

On the next one, please. Here is the funding cost.

The funding cost continues to go down in this part. We have the cost of funds reduction on a year-on-year basis has been more than 300 basis points.

it's not just our having in Mexico, but also a very efficient managing of the relationship with the clients, offering the right offers to them in a very, I would say, appealing way for the clients based upon the asset mix and the funding mix. When we do the hyper-personalization offer, we take into account the asset side and the funding side in order to give the best price to the client.

Sometimes it goes to the funding side, sometimes goes to the asset side on this part. Another good story is the non-interest bearing, it continues to grow at 11% for year-to-year above the loan growth.

Time deposits continue to be also a very good story, around 9%. When you see the time deposit and non-interest bearing deposits continue to give us a very sustainable flow of funds to keep on pricing our offering to the market at the best conditions for the clients.

What we have been reducing is the high interest rates that we have in some positions that we have on the funding side, that we have been able to get rid of those in the past year now. That trend will continue to be a pretty good story.

If you compare this trend to public information, Banorte is the one that has been able to reduce, in comparison with the other players in the market, the most in the funding cost. That doesn't mean that we have the lowest funding cost, but that the trend is the highest trend on the lower part of the funding cost.

If we go to the next one, please. Quality on the portfolio, there has been some questions about the evolution of the cost of risk and on the NPLs and the write-off rate, and I think that this really shows the story.

The cost of risk is down 29 basis points on a quarter-to-quarter basis. No matter that we still have the specific loan that went sour on the third quarter of last year, that continues to be heavy on the cost of risk.

Notwithstanding that, we are already trending to a much better goal. That is basically what we gave the guidance at the beginning of the year.

We continue to work on that loan, and we hope to have better news on the coming months. it's important to say that since most of the provisions are already in place, we will continue to be on the protective way to build up a very small amount of provisions in the, I think in the month of September.

We basically, based upon the valuation of the asset, we take a very precautionary way and adjust the value of the asset, since it has been not working, that asset, that reduces the value that we have in the market and we immediately adjust that in the provision itself. We are on guidance, and we think we will continue to be on guidance for the year.

Credit provisions went down for the quarter on this part. Write-off rates continue to be steady, as we have always been.

I would say that if you strip that specific loan, the NPLs and the cost of risk will go exactly as we expected at the beginning of the year. The 1.9, we will be down to the 1.8, and the NPLs will also be very close to the 1.1, the one we guide the beginning of the year.

That is playing heavy on this number, but it's just one isolated case on that part. If we move into the next one, the expense growth is still.

And here you have to do an adjustment, taking into consideration because of the renewal on TDF that happened at the end of the year that basically moved away from the income statement and then went back again into the numbers of the bank at the beginning of the year. If you strip that, the expense growth, instead of being the 10% year-on-year, will be 8.6% year-on-year, excluding Bineo and TDF, that we hope to finalize that process in the remaining of the year.

Cost-to-income ratio is at 36.2%. We know we need to trend back again to the number that we like, that is from 34%-35%, and I think we will be trending to that number by the end of the year.

I would say the cost-to-income is not where we want it to be, but it's right on track where we want to put the position of the bank at the end of the year and fully into the next year. The next one, please.

Capital, and this is related to what Marcos mentioned about the issuance that we did on the AT1. Marcos already said, that was a very reasonable position into the market.

The appetite was there, close to five times the book. Basically what we have achieved on this part is what we wanted always to be around 30%-40% in the overall capital numbers to have the AT1s.

This is important to really bring into the table the why do we issue the AT1s and what's the purpose of those? I'm going to stay only on the business side.

Banorte was not present at all on the dollar book. Now we are 15.1 percentage points of market share on that.

We are the second in the market, and we achieved that only in 5 years in that part. It's very beneficial for us, allow us to keep on position ourselves with clients that we didn't have in the past, that we were needed on the dollar book.

That has been a very good story on that will continue to do so. Basically, total cap is around 21.5%, core Tier 1, 12.5%.

As you know, we always commit from 12.5%-13.5%. Above that, we basically move into an extraordinary dividend on that part.

That number of 12.5% will continue to grow through the year. You will see in July a release on capital that we advise at the beginning of the year, where we modify the models in the credit card on the other part.

We will release that from the mortgage book, around 65 basis points that will come into the core Tier 1. In addition to the evolution of the net income that is providing the strength on the capital numbers.

No issues on the capital numbers, well above all the requirements that we have on this part. If I go to the next one, please.

We continue to stay with the guidance. When you go to the loan growth, Right now we are barely reaching the 8% overall for the loan growth, but if you adjust that by the FX side, the loan growth is really 8.8 for the year on this part.

Net interest margin is above guidance, is reaching 6.9 for the bank. One basically moving, I think that the number will be hovering around 6.8 to 6.9.

Expenses, we still want to end the year at a single digit, not double digit, single digit by the end of the year. Cost of risk will be in the range that we guide the market.

The return on equity for the bank, as you know, is already above that, We would like to stay maybe for the high end of the guidance, around the 29 to 30. The return on equity for the group will be basically from the 23 to 24.

ROA is online more on the 2.4 than in the 2.2. Basically, I would say in a very challenging environment, Banorte continues to deliver based upon the relationship that we have with our clients, the evolution and the technology that we have that we could provide the solutions to the client on a one-to-one basis, also looking forward to what we are already seeing, the potential evolution of the Artificial intelligence day-to-day in the life of our employees that could really bring up another step on the efficiency side.

On the analytical side, we are already testing many initiatives concerning basically hyper-personalization, as Marcos mentioned, financial inclusion. What we would like to really allow the clients to be fully in control of the finance numbers that they have on a very permanent basis, by reaching that, we could deploy an agent per client by the end of the year.

We would like to be testing that part on a specific part of the customer base to see how the customers relate to that and how the customers really what they like, what they don't like on that part. Basically with this, I conclude my remarks.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. We will now move to our Q&A session.

As always, we kindly ask you to present only your most relevant question. We will be happy to take any other questions anytime after the call.

Questions will be ordered on a first-come, first-served basis. Please raise your hand on the platform, and we will unmute you when your turn comes.

Dan and myself will be calling the name of the person that is next in the line. If there are any technical difficulties, please let us know by using the chat.

Thank you. We are now ready to start.

We will take our first question from Brian Flores from TD. Brian, please go ahead.

Hi, team. Good morning.

Tomás, congratulations, and also a lot of success in the new journey. Wanted to ask you on asset quality, particularly on credit cards, right?

We saw that on the monthly deltas in terms of H3, the segment was the largest contributor. Just wanted to understand if you are seeing a deterioration in this segment, how is your appetite changing as you see this obviously underlying trends in asset quality, and if this, in any sense, changes what you are expecting in terms of cost of risk.

Thank you.

Thank you, Brian. Gerardo Salazar will answer.

Thank you. Thank you, Marcos.

This is Gerardo Salazar, Chief Risk and Credit Officer. Most of the increase in the credit card delinquency rate is attributable to the rapid portfolio growth in recent years.

New accounts, which naturally have higher delinquency rates, now represent a larger share of the portfolio than they did in previous years. As a result, while the individual vintages remain stable, the portfolio's past due on ratio is higher because of the changing portfolio mix.

That is it. I can give you the safeguards that we have put in place at the credit card business.

Protecting asset quality while continuing to grow the portfolio remains one of our highest priorities. We are now relying on several safeguards.

I will mention just two or three of them. We have more than 10 safeguards regarding the managing of risk at the credit card portfolio.

One of that is disciplined underwriting. The other one is portfolio segmentation.

Another one is analytics and artificial intelligence, and also early warning systems. Obviously, collections optimization are paramount, as well as fraud prevention.

While we're not relaxing underwriting standards to support growth, the current normalization remains within our pricing, provisioning, and risk appetite assumptions. We continually recalibrate our models as new portfolio performance data become available.

In short, what we have set in place as safeguards within our strategy are five fronts. The first one is selective origination.

The second one, data-driven portfolio management. Third one, proactive risk monitoring.

The fourth one, effective collections. The fifth one is strong governance.

That is rigorous portfolio oversight, stress testing, and adherence to our risk appetite. We believe the recent increase in delinquencies reflects portfolio normalization, not deterioration following strong growth rather than structural deterioration in grade quality.

Our underwriting standards remain unchanged, our risk management framework is proactive, and we are confident that portfolio performance will continue to evolve within the assumptions embedded in our guidance.

Thank you, Gerardo.

If I just add one thing on this part. I think you will continue to see these numbers on the credit card for the third quarter, and that will evolve on a positive way for the fourth quarter.

As Gerardo mentioned, I think you have to also to take into consideration that the inclusion of the portfolio of TDF also increase on a marginal basis, the NPLs base, not that the portfolio is bad, but because of the risk of the portfolio. Remember that in the first quarter, Gerardo also advised that we adjust the models for the credit card to adjust to the new information that we were getting to the market.

We are confident about the policy, the payment flows, and also the number of people that pays in full. We have taken into consideration also a very specific seasonal effect that comes from the World Cup that people used the lines a little bit more than usual.

Okay.

Thank you, Rafael. Thank you, Arana.

Thank you.

Thank you. We will continue with Renato Meloni.

Renato, please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Congrats, Tomás, on your new role.

I wish you much success there. Thanks for taking my question.

I have a question on the NIM trajectory for the rest of the year. I'm wondering if you still expect to see your cost of funds coming down, and if you could add to that, if you see loan growth picking up, do you think you can maintain your same level of funding costs or that might increase a little bit, if your asset growth is outpacing your capacity to grow deposits?

Thank you.

Thank you, Renato. Rafael, please go ahead.

I think, on the NIM, I think you will continue to see a drop in the funding cost. I think the dynamics that we have in the non-interest bearing that 11%.

Remember that basically the first part of the year up to July is the low season for the gathering of funds, and we're already getting the 11% and going down on the funding cost. Another very relevant part is that, part of the funding base that we had, we have been getting rid of the high cost of some of the funding side related to specific companies or institutions that we don't need that funding anymore because of the pace of growth of the non-interest bearing side.

I think you will continue to see a very positive expansion on the Net Interest Margin and also on the spread on the loan book based upon the funding cost and the already very good activity that we have gathering the non-interest bearing and the low funding cost that we currently have. I think that will continue to be.

Even if the loan book picks up, as you can see on the LDR basis, we are basically below now to the 100%, and we have a continuous flow of funds that will come into the second part of the year that will allow to balance any extraordinary growth that I hope it happens because we could fund that at a very good cost. I think we don't have any pressure now to raise more funding based upon the trend that we currently have in the, what we call the demand deposit base.

Done, guys. Thank you.

Thank you, Renato.

We'll go with Marcelo Mizrahi from Bradesco. Please, Marcelo.

Hi, guys. Congratulations, Tomás.

My question is regarding the perspective of growth of the portfolio, especially the corporate portfolio. The commercial portfolio, not just in terms a possibility to have a better second half, but also comparing to the competition.

We saw on the last numbers that the system seems to growing more than Banorte. My question is regarding how is the competition right now, and if the competition is affecting the possibility to grow or to accelerate the growth or on the corporate side, how do you guys are seeing that, and why you are still very comfortable regarding the guidance of growth of the portfolio?

Thank you.

Marcelo, yes, we are comfortable with the guidance that we gave. We are not increasing the guidance.

Yes, some competitors, they are, I don't know, when they try to go faster, I don't know how to say it. Please, Gerardo, go ahead.

Yes. What I will say, Marcelo, is that the confidence that we have in achieving our loan growth guidance has to do with what we are already seeing in the business.

Commercial lending has clearly re-accelerated. Consumer demand remains healthy across payroll, credit cards, auto, and mortgages, and funding costs continue to improve.

Our commercial pipeline remains very robust, which is very important. Corporate customers, as well as those companies that are above SMEs, or between corporate and SMEs, have a very robust pipeline.

I want to tell you that there is also a seasonality effect. If you take into consideration the last six months of 2025, there was not even one month from July to December in which you could see a decrease in average loan balances.

Our loan book kept on growing. Importantly, this growth is not being achieved by relaxing underwriting standards.

It reflects stronger customer and corporate demand, improved with client analytics and continued market share gains, which I should emphasize. There are several loan segments in which we have achieved a bigger market share.

Based on the momentum we have today, we remain comfortable with our annual loan growth guidance in that regard. Yes, you are right.

Some competitors have pursued faster portfolio growth, but we really remain focused on helping customers build healthy credit habits and to achieve sustainable growth with them. Our strategy is to build for the long run, and we will keep there, and we are very happy with the things that we are doing, and let's see what happens in the future.

Marcelo, also in the public numbers, there are some peers that report some loans as commercial, some as government. We are happy to connect after the call with you and show you the details.

Yes. The numbers are dancing around, and we need to focus on where is the box of every number.

Great. Thank you.

No pressures on spreads as well looking forward?

No.

Thank you.

Thank you, Marcelo. Thank you.

We will continue with Ernesto Gabilondo from Bank of America. Ernesto, please go ahead.

Thank you. Hi, good morning, Marcos, Rafa, and Tomás, and good morning to all your team.

Thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. Tomás, congrats on your new position.

Well deserved, and I wish you a successful role.

Thank you.

My question will be a follow-up on loan growth. Given the softer macroeconomic backdrop and the annual revisions to the USMCA agreement, how do you see the business sentiment again toward corporate loans?

You already anticipated the very pipeline. What will be other initiatives to accelerate loan growth?

You mentioned you have been taking market share, accelerating SME, any more color on that will be very helpful. Also related, any concerns with competition such as Banamex or, Fintech, to be more specific?

I don't know if you can provide your expectations by segment. Also related to this, how do you see the development of the Plan México and the potential reactivation of public-private associations?

Is there room for total loans, including governments, to reach double-digit growth in the second half? Thank you.

Thank you, Ernesto. Let me start with the competitors.

Yes, they are there, and welcome. Maybe we have the appreciation of their strategy.

I don't know. Our strategy is long-term.

We will grow, and we will be there, and let's see what happens. Having said that, we are growing the car loans 15%-20%, the credit cards 14%-18%.

Consumer is going to be 10%-14%. Houses, 6%-7%, and that's why we are confident we're growing.

Commercial 8%-11%, corporate 7%-9%. Maybe the government, we still don't know, but from around 5%.

That's the idea of growing. It's going to grow from 8%-11%.

We will keep on that number. It's our guide, and we are confident we will achieve it.

Regarding the other data, Alejandro Padilla is going to help us.

Thank you, Marcos. Thank you, Ernesto.

This is Alejandro Padilla, Chief Economist. I'm going to address three parts of your request.

First one related to GDP. Our 1.4% of GDP growth for this year, I think that it's important to walk you through some details about the Mexican economy.

Obviously, following a weak first quarter of 2026, during which the economy contracted 0.6% quarter-over-quarter, high-frequency indicators suggest that for the second quarter, we should see an encouraging recovery. For example, April's IGAI, which is Mexico's monthly proxy of GDP, increased 1.2%, that was a very positive number.

Tomorrow, we have the data for May. I think it's going to be slightly negative, maybe month-on-month, it's going to be 0.4 negative.

That will imply that a positive annual rate of 0.6. June, I think, is going to be positive again with a plus 0.5% on a monthly basis.

If you put those numbers together, I think that the second quarter will depict a very strong 1.3% quarter-over-quarter. That's basically 2% on an annual basis.

When we look at what's happening by breakdown of the aggregate demand, consumption has been relatively well. We might see some positive effects coming from what happened with the World Cup.

Exports are performing really well. Just to put an example, the data between January to May of Mexican exports depict a growth of almost 23%.

I think that despite we are in this review process with the U.S. and Canada, and we are facing some tariffs, Mexican exports have been really strong, very resilient, gaining a lot of momentum, especially in industries related with AI.

I think the third one is that despite that when we sit down with the U.S. and Canada on July the 1st, and the U.S.

decided not to extend for 16 more years the agreement, we still have the USMCA for the next 10 years. I think that these annual revisions will take place in the next couple of years, but this will be a transition process until reaching an agreement to extend this USMCA.

Why we are thinking that at one moment the U.S. will decide to be in tandem with Canada and Mexico to extend the USMCA for 16 more years?

Because it makes a lot of sense for them. I think regional integration will be highly important for the U.S.

to be more competitive vis-a-vis China. That's why we think that good things can go in the right way, especially in the exporting sector.

Regarding Plan México, what you ask, well, I think that it's important to take into account that, overall, I think that the Mexican government has been more open about how to execute this program. We have been observing some positive news regarding energy.

For example, there were 37 projects approved by the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, CFE. Out of those 37 projects, 31 were involving private developers.

Maybe it has been slow, but we are observing a shift in that regard. I think in the second quarter, we might see some momentum in terms of investment in Mexico, especially in infrastructure.

As you can recall from what I mentioned in previous calls, Plan México and the infrastructure plan is focusing mainly on energy. 50% of the plans are focusing on energy.

The rest is telecommunications, is anything that has to do with roads, trains. When you see the 2026 budget of the government, MXN 722 billion are going to be deployed into this type of investments.

I'm positive that throughout the second half of the year, we might see some momentum regarding investments. That's basically comments from those questions.

No, perfect. Thank you very much, Marcos and Alejandro.

Very helpful.

Thank you, Ernesto. Now we'll go with Tito Labarta from Goldman Sachs.

Please, Tito, go ahead.

Hi. Good morning.

Thanks for the call and taking my questions, and also congratulations, Tomás, on the new role. My question on capital, you mentioned you should have about a 65 basis points benefit in July.

You're already at 12.5%. Better get you above 13%, and then you should continue to be generating capital given the profitability and expected loan growth.

Just thinking about potential additional dividends later in the year, further buybacks, how are you thinking about capital evolution and ability to continue to return capital above the 50% payout that you did? Thank you.

Thank you, Tito. Our CFO will answer that.

Tomás.

Thank you, Marcos. Tito, as always, as you mentioned, capital generation continues to be very strong and above the 13%-13.5%, depending also on the loan growth and the use of capital, we would consider either buybacks or extraordinary dividends.

I think the answer is yes, with the capital projection that we have and the guidance, there should be space for an extraordinary dividend or a buyback. The size of that will depend on the loan growth and the capital generation as I mentioned before.

Okay, great. No, thanks for that, Tomás.

Maybe if I can, just one quick follow-up. I know there's been a couple of questions on competition.

Particularly on the funding side, you've been able to reduce your funding costs despite more pressure from fintechs, even though they've been reducing some of their remuneration recently. Also thinking about incumbent banks that have been sort of under-invested in over the years, maybe becoming more aggressive.

How are you seeing just the competitive dynamics from both incumbents and fintechs and your position relative to them? Thank you.

Rafa, please go ahead.

I think the numbers speak by themselves. I think when you grow 11%-12%, the non-interest bearing on a continuous flow, every time from a higher base, that gives you the message that the market is receiving that you are not just going for the high funding benefit that some of these companies offer, but for the full relationship.

I think when you have a full value proposition in place, and the way we manage now the pricing for the client, sometimes you play hard on the funding side, and sometimes you play on the asset side, depending on the risk of the client and the lifetime value of the client. That gives you a very flexible way that the clients are always surprised in a very positive way of how they relate to the bank.

When you look at the numbers of these incumbents and you see the size of the funding side, that is basically sometimes in some cases, 4 times the asset side, that can give you an idea of how imbalance and the cost of liquidity is for these companies. Another important thing is that That is related to what Marcos mentioned about the evolution of our new offer for the young clients.

What we are looking at the market is that many of these clients, young clients, unfortunately, they end up having four or five credit cards that really create a huge burden on their personal finance. Because if you also look at the rates that those clients are being charged for using those cards, it is basically impossible for them to pay for that.

Our view on the market is that clients are moving to a much more permanent relationship to someone that can give you a full value proposition on a payroll, on a credit card, sometimes on a guaranteed credit card that allows you to reduce substantially the rate that you pay for the other incumbents. I think we have many tools that allow us to link not just the funding side, but also the asset side that can allow the clients to grow in a good way, not in an accelerated way that they end up in the credit bureau, unfortunately, That is not what we are looking for financial inclusion.

I think that is something that is important. Also there has been a big advertising that basically these incumbents are coming with huge analytics.

Believe me, I would say, speaking for Banorte, and also I know all our main competitors, believe me, we have, I will not say the same, but maybe a much better technology to offer to the clients based upon what we have evolved and what we tested with Bineo and what we tested with Rappi. I think we are in a very good position to know exactly how to guide the clients into this new venture when they become financially included into the financial system.

I think we have the tools, and we are very comfortable fighting this for the clients in a way that we could really evolve them into a much more safe way to keep growing into the financial inclusion journey.

Okay, great. Thank you, Rafa.

Thank you, Tico.

Thank you, Tico. Now we'll go to Ricardo Buchfiel from BTG.

Please, Ricardo, go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity of making questions.

Can you provide more color on the outlook for the insurance and annuities business for the second half of the year and 2027? We have been seeing more increased competition in the auto insurance segment, I was wondering if you are seeing a similar trend across the insurance industry as a whole.

Given some impacts that you mentioned for the year in the insurance segment, I wanted to see your view on a recovery. Thank you.

Thank you, Ricardo. Rafa, please.

Yeah. The insurance business, I think, is in a very good position.

As you know, the return on equity for the company is above 50%. The most important thing is that, not because this is tied sales, because it's not for sales in any way, but the pace that we are growing on credit cards, the pace that we are growing in car loans, the pace that we're growing on the mortgage side, on the SME side, and also on the commercial and the corporate side, continues to give us a very solid platform to keep increasing the sales on the insurance company.

What we have been a little slow in developing is in the new product development that are more really targeted to the young people that will come into on the end of the third quarter. That will also give us an additional push into the insurance business.

If you look at the premium growth in the insurance business, you really see that the evolution of the business is pretty solid on this part. What you have also take into consideration is that in order to have a very specific arm's length negotiation with the insurance company, the fees that are coming into the bank are reaching now 32% on that part.

That's top. That's what the market is doing, and we didn't have to have any beneficial either to the bank or to the insurance company.

I would say that you have to look at the dynamics of the insurance company, and basically, the evolution on the premiums continues to be very positive on this part. We have a lot of appetite for the insurance business.

I think we have been a little slow in developing and deploying the new products into the market, they will come in, as I mentioned, into the third quarter. I don't see, honestly, any weaknesses on that based upon the full service that we provide the clients and the pace of growth that we have on the products that could be offered, and insurance related to the sale.

No, I honestly don't see any weakness at all. Our technical reserves and everything is online, we don't see any specific thing that we don't like about the insurance company.

Super clear.

Thank you, Ricardo.

Thank you. We continue with Carlos Gomez-Lopez from HSBC.

Carlos, please go ahead.

Hello. Good morning.

I would like to also join in congratulating Tomás. Good luck in your new role.

You will be reporting to Rafael, which is not a demanding boss at all, it will be an easy job to do. Question for you.

On the fees, we have seen an increase in the fees, but it is mostly because the interchange fees have been declining. Can you clarify the process by which this has happened, and what we should expect for fees overall going forward?

I know it is only one question, but if you can explain a little bit more, the 65 basis points in capital savings that you are going to get from mortgage models and when that would apply. Thank you.

Thank you, Carlos. Back to you, Rafael.

Yeah. I would say that when you look at what happened, especially for the gas stations and things on the issuing side and on the acquiring side, I think we have a larger acquiring side than an issuing side.

That explains you part of the benefit on that part. The rest is basically the activity that we have on the bank.

I think the credit card fees, the mutual fund fees, the fees that are coming from the corporate banking, the cash management piece. I think the activity of the bank keeps growing at a pace of 28%-32% per year.

Every single transaction comes potentially with a fee where we could charge the fee on that part. I would say that electronic banking, everything is moving in the right direction on that part that allow us to have a 22% growth on the net fees for the bank.

I would love to give you a specific part, but I think it's the overall pace of growth of the bank and the activity that the bank is having on every single of its channels, ATMs, mobile, cash management, mutual bond, every single part is growing at a very good pace, opening of new accounts, relationship driven fees. I cannot point any specific issue that is really that's because we are growing 22%, it's the overall pace of growth of the bank.

Thank you, Rafael.

I think you also had a question of the mortgage recalibration that is related to Basel. I know if Gerardo wants to hit on this, but it's basically the recognition of the benefit of the internal models that gets phased out in different years.

No?

That's correct. As Tomás is telling you, there is, Carlos, a 62 basis points net of impact on capital.

That's a one-time effect because of internal modeling, and that's a propriety from Banorte.

At least the close to 82 basis points

That we took last quarter

that we took last quarter on credit cards and the commercial side I think it's

It's very dynamic

Yeah

all the time. Just remember, we have more than 120 internal models trying to originate and also to optimize provisions and capital use.

They move the needle.

They move the needle a bit, sometimes in favor of us and sometimes against us.

All of them.

Yeah.

Okay. Now, sorry, the 65 basis points for, or 62 for mortgages, that would come to your numbers this year or next year?

I wanted to have an idea of the timing.

This year in July.

This year in July. It will be in the third quarter.

62 basis points.

62 basis points. Ceteris paribus, as of today, you should have 13.2% CET1.

Exactly right.

Yeah.

Okay. All right.

Plus the generation of income that we have for this month.

All right. Thank you very much.

Sorry for the fees. I was in particular referring to the fees paid, and you can see a reduction in the fees paid for interchange.

I wonder if there was one general agreement or something, one particular reason for that to go down. That there's not one that goes up, that there's a fee, an expense that declines.

Yeah. The fact is that we were having a relationship with a very large, I would say transactional wise clients, but we were not making any money with them.

We part ways with them on that part. That's why you see that there's been a reduction on that.

Now we are much more in control of how the flows are being priced and not having a difficult way to negotiate the price with companies that have a huge size on the transaction side. Basically, you just see the transaction flow, you don't get any benefit on that.

Okay. It's the elimination of a correspondent, the partner, to whom you don't pay fees anymore.

Right. A specific two partners.

Two partners. Okay.

Very clear. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Carlos.

We'll continue. Pablo Ordóñez from GBM.

Pablo, please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, Marcos, Rafa and Tomás. Congratulations on your results and your appointment, Tomás.

I have a more structural question on how are you reading the fundamentals of your consumer client base. How is the balance sheet and the leverage of your consumer clients after all these years of loan growth?

Have you seen any signs of household balance sheet deterioration from the structural supply of credit cards from fintechs? In terms of formal jobs, seems to be gradually improving, but they are mostly concentrated in the central part of Mexico.

Overall, I would love to hear your readings on the fundamentals of your consumer segment. Thank you.

Thank you, Pablo. I think Gerardo Salazar can give us some color on that.

I will start from the above. If I give you a view what we see in the consumer loan book, just trying to first play with three variables.

We measure asset quality with three indicators, these three indicators are NPLs, cost of risk, and coverage ratios. They all work together, I will tell you that we remain very confident that there is no systemic impact on the behavior of our consumers because the labor market keeps going on strong.

Also, consumer sales are stable and all the economic indicators that try to explain the fundamentals are working very well together. If I give you a systemic view, I will tell you that NPLs are backward-looking.

I will just remind you of that. Coverage is current.

That answers another question, how prepared are we today? Cost of risk is forward-looking, what losses do we expect?

If I put these three ingredients together, I could summarize the following. We think our consumer credit quality can be viewed by these complementary lenses.

The first one, the NPL ratio is a backward-looking indicator that reflects loans that have already become non-performing. Second, cost of risk is forward-looking, as it reflects the expected losses recognized during the period based on IFRS 9 models, portfolio composition, and also macroeconomic assumptions.

The third lens that we try to use looking at our consumer loan portfolio is the coverage ratio, which measures the relationship between reserves and existing NPLs. It naturally depends on movements in both reserves and the stock of non-performing loans.

For that reason, this metric should always be interpreted together rather than individually. This quarter, the modest increase in NPLs reflects expected normalization, and I underline that, normalization in certain consumer portfolios following strong growth, while cost of risk remain within our guidance.

That indicates that expected losses continue to evolve broadly in line with our assumptions. Rather than discussing cost of risk, NPL and coverage separately, you can just come to a conclusion, a very brief conclusion, in which we view these metrics as complementary rather than independent, and NPLs tells us where the portfolio has been.

Cost of risk reflects the losses we expect going forward, and the coverage ratio measures the reserves we hold against existing problem loans. That's why we don't necessarily move in the same direction and why we always evaluate them together.

We keep a very positive outlook on consumer loans, and they have been evolving in line with our risk appetite with very handsome percentages of growth.

Thank you. Thank you, Pablo.

Thank you for the color, Gerardo. That's very helpful.

Thank you. Now we'll go with Tej Kiran from White Oak.

Please go ahead.

Hi. Thank you for the opportunity.

I wanted to ask, the slide where you show the NIM of loan portfolio has been stable even as rates have been going down. Does this include or exclude the impact of any hedges you might be doing?

Tej Kiran, could you repeat the last part because there was some noise on the line, please?

Okay. Sorry.

Yeah. When you show that your NIM of the loan portfolio has remained stable even as rates have been going down, does that include or exclude the impact of hedges, derivative hedges that you might be doing?

Yes.

The natural hedges are included. When you take the yield that you charge on the asset side, then the one that you pay on the passive, and you include just the natural hedges, that is the mortgages and so on.

The rest, that is the market, let's say market-related hedges, is in the other margin that we report.

Everything is on the all-in. All this goes to the blend, and that's the result of all the inputs that we receive there.

That's why we manage everything, and we see the whole picture, and we can move from there, no? Yes, the hedges are included there.

Yeah. I will remind you, Tej Kiran, that we perform active balance sheet management as every bank.

What we consider our structural pillars are for in order to protect NIM. The first one is dynamic interest rate risk hedging all the time, the thing you just mentioned.

Also, if I give you a complimentary view of that, I will add a second front, which is focused on stable low-cost liabilities, which are very evident. The third front is active outcome management, and the fourth one is organic growth of fixed-rate loans.

Those four pillars have been not just maintaining NIM, but as Rafael was telling you at the beginning of this call, has increased the NIM, although the reference rates in the market have, as you know, going down. Yeah.

I would say that it's pure NIM and pure management of the balance sheet and the natural hedges and the we use for that. I would say that it's a very clean evolution of the margin, honestly, on this part, is low funding cost, fixed rate, as Gerardo mentioned, good trend on the consumer book on the fixed part, and the most important thing, a continuous trending down on the funding cost by increasing the size of the non-interest-bearing deposits and demand deposits.

I would say it's pure banking, honestly.

Perfect. That's very helpful.

Thank you. On the part that has helped you expand the NIM versus reference rate spread, would you say it's 50/50 funding cost, lower funding cost, and better trends on the natural hedges on balance sheet, like your mortgages and the fixed-rate loans?

Would you say funding cost has a bigger role to play?

I would say that it's not exactly 50/50, I would say that at this point in time, funding cost is playing a most important role. On another part of the evolution of the margin, the fixed-rate part was playing a very good part of that part.

It moves, if the funding cost continues to go down as we expect that to go down, you will continue to see a pretty good evolution of the margin, even though maybe the mix on the fixed-rate part of the book and the variable rate part of the book stays basically the same, that is basically reaching the 60/40.

Great. Thank you very much.

My final question on this topic is, while we are maintaining this NIM, is it coming at constant risk profile of our loan book, or is the risk profile of loan book increasing marginally to deliver the higher NIMs?

I would say that this has been on the making for the last five years, to building up the fixed-rate part of the book, that was clear. Also, to getting rid of high funding costs that was present when the loan growth was growing at a very fast pace.

I would say that the third part of that, and the most important one, is a continuous trend on the funding cost. If I can give you a number that I already said, we have lowered the funding cost for Banorte 111 basis points for the year.

I think we are tops compared to the market on that part. That's not because we are not paying the client what he deserves.

I think what we are giving is an overall value proposition that sometimes, I referred to that before, you are beneficial on the funding, and sometimes you're beneficial on the assets. That's based upon the profile of the client.

There are many variables on this, but this has been on the making for the last five years. It's not a result that just happened last year.

A lot of natural hedges, a lot of very good growth on the part of the book that we wanted. Let me just give you something.

When we were building this, there was a part on this building up that cost us MXN 2 billion to position the fixed-rate part of the portfolio at a point in time. That was recovered in less than six, seven months.

When we start moving into that direction. Instead of paying very high cost hedges, we were for the natural hedges and for the relationship for the client that allow us to be seen in the market as the best offer on the mortgage side, specifically, if we like the risk.

Perfect. Thank you very much, and all the best.

Thank you.

Thank you. Now we'll continue with Andrés Soto from Santander.

Good morning to all, and thank you for the presentation. My question is regarding provision-

We are losing you, Andrés.

I'm back. Sorry about that.

No.

My question is regarding provisioning. On the isolated commercial exposure you mentioned, could you please clarify, is this the Pemex supplier that you have referred in the past?

I would like to understand if those September provisions should be seen as the final adjustment to this exposure, and if this will, in the end, bring the cost of risk at the top end of your guidance for the full year, even as you may expect some improvement in the fourth quarter.

Thank you, Andrés. As you know, because of the confidentiality, we cannot give you more, but this is not the Pemex supplier, it is another client.

Rafa, please go ahead.

I think, Andrés, what you're seeing is that we already mostly fully provide for this, the additional provision that you see coming on this part, and also in September, as I mentioned before, is the adjustment of the value of the asset on that part. That will continue to build up some provisions, very small compared to the whole size of the provision cycle.

If you ask me, if we get rid of this, that we hope that we can get rid and normalize this into the usual numbers that Banorte runs the cost of risk, that is from 1.8%-2%. Right now, we are around 2.1%, if you see the trend from the first quarter to the second quarter, there was already a reduction in the cost of risk.

That will continue to do so based upon what Gerardo was mentioning, a very good origination processes, a very good collection processes on this part, the adjustment of the models on the most risk part of the portfolio. What happened in January is already delivering good results.

I would say that that's a specific asset, we will continue to adjust the value of the asset as we see fit, in order to not have any surprise if we think in the worst case possible.

Thank you, Rafa. You mentioned year to date, cost of risk at 2.1%.

For the second quarter specifically was 2%. We can assume that this 2% is what is sort of your normal cost of risk, but going again up in the third quarter and coming down in the fourth one.

Most likely, it will be in between 2%, 2.1%, the cost of risk for the full year. Is that the right approach to look at this?

1.8%-2%.

Even 2%, not even the 2.1%. Perfect.

Thank you. Thank you very much, and congratulations to Tomás on his appointment.

Thank you, Andrés. Now we will go with Jorge Perez from Itaú.

Jorge, please go ahead.

Hi, Marcos. Hi, Rafa.

Thank you very much for taking my question. First, congratulations to Tomás on his new position.

My question is mainly about the loan growth in the corporate portfolio, specifically in the business portfolio. We saw some acceleration in the second quarter, but it is also seen that the bank has been losing market share.

If we zoom in by the segment, there appears to be significant weakness in the commerce specifically. I think, which is an important segment for the bank.

I want to understand what is driving that. Are you seeing more competition in the segment, pricing, risk appetite, or you are looking for growth in other segment of the economy?

That is all. Thank you.

Thank you, Jorge. We have an explanation for that.

Tomás, please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you.

Jorge, the issues, when you look at the CMBB numbers, normally we look at the consolidated, when you look at segments, as you mentioned, commerce specifically, you do not look at the consolidated. You have there the impact that we had, the loan to Tarjetas del Futuro, that was the JV with Rappi, was around MXN 10 billion.

From December to January, when we integrated the company, you remove that. I think that is the main effect that you can see there.

I do not know if this is clear or you want me to give you more details.

No, that is very clear. The debt that Tarjetas del Futuro or RappiBank has-

The convertible and additional line for the funding of the company, the two were registered in that view that you are seeing, that is the non-consolidated view. You used to have that in the commerce book specifically.

When we integrated the company, that line basically disappeared, and that is why you see the reduction. You do not see these numbers on the consolidated.

That is the normal view that you have, but I think you did a very good job looking at the detail and the specifics of the segment, and there you do not see the numbers with the same view of consolidation.

Oh, okay, perfect. Very clear.

Thank you very much, Tomás.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jorge.

We'll continue with Edson Murguia from SummaCap. Edson, please go ahead.

Hi, congrats on your new role, Tomás. My question is a quick one regarding on AI investment.

You mentioned in the remarks, Marcos and Rafa, about 10,000 people by the end of 2026 using different type of AI tools in the bank. How much of investment is Banorte doing it to achieve that?

Thank you, Edson. Rafa, go ahead.

Edson, sorry that I cannot give you a specific number because that will put me in bad shape with my provider. Sorry.

What I can give you is that when we talk about the 10,000 people, basically it's related to the day-to-day job that they do. Obviously, at the same time, we are doing on the coding side, on the agent side, and on all that.

I think the numbers that you see on the expense line on the IT side are already embedded in these parts. That has to be compensated by productivity and also, especially on the coding side, we see a huge opportunity on the coding side.

I would say that will be a balanced thing. Remember that AI is expensive tools because you have to build up infrastructure on the cooling side, on the energy side, and also is not cheap.

The tokens and everything is not cheap on that part. I think we are doing in the right way, and I think we can provide that by the first quarter of next year, in comparison to the first quarter of when you see the full deployment of the budget, we will be specifically on the AI investment.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Edson.

Now we'll take our last question with Anand Bavani from White Oak. Please, Anand, go ahead.

Thank you for the opportunity. My question is on cost of funds.

In the presentation on slide 17, we show it's 45% of the reference rate. Given the competition from digital banks, fintechs, where do you think this will settle over the next couple of years?

Thank you, Anand. Rafa, to you.

I think what you will see is that banks like BBVA ourselves, we continue to lower the funding cost because of all the different venues that we have to gather funding, cash management, funding mutual funds and banks on that part that are related to flow. Also, the acquiring business provides a huge inflow of funds on the cheap side.

I think you will continue to see that from the large banks, the funding cost trending down on that part. I think the fintechs needs to evolve to a much more sustainable business on the funding side, not just by offering high yields on pure funding, but they need to go and move into related business like SMEs and things like that.

That will also create another additional cost that needs to be covered, then they have to balance all the profitability of the relationship. I would say that we will continue to play the funding game on the low end, on the low-cost end, I think we have all the tools to do so by the huge offering that we have on the market.

SMEs, for instance, is a huge source of cheap funding for us because of the relationship that we have, payrolls, new accounts in that way. Acquiring business, merchant business.

I think we don't see really any weaknesses that we cannot cover by the offer that we have. Obviously, we evolve that offer in a continuous way, we adjust, we evolve, we transform on that part.

We are never sitting idle on this. That's why we tested the market with Bineo and TDF for almost three years to understand exactly the dynamics of that market.

I think we understand that pretty well. That doesn't mean that we doesn't need to evolve.

We continuously evolve in that process. I think the move to a much more digital offering, especially on the SME, is going to be mandatory.

Got it. Thank you.

Thank you, Anand. With this, we conclude our call.

Thank you everyone for joining.