Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Santander's first-half 2026 results presentation. Today's presentation will follow the usual structure.

First, Héctor will talk about our results with a special focus on the performance of our global businesses. José will then cover the financial results in more detail.

Finally, Héctor will close with the outlook before we open the line for Q and A. Before we start, I would like to highlight that this is the first quarter in which TSB is included in our results after the acquisition closed on April 30th.

Our underlying metrics exclude the impact of Poland and TSB integration-related restructuring costs to provide a clearer view of the underlying trends. With that, Héctor, over to you.

Thanks, Raúl, good morning to everyone. Q2 was another record quarter for Santander, demonstrating again the strength of our strategy and the resilience of our business model.

Our quarterly profit hit a new record of EUR 3.8 billion, making H1 2026 the best half ever, driven by strong revenue growth across global businesses and our growing franchise of 182 million customers, up by more than 12 million year-on-year, including the 4 million TSB customers we welcomed to the group in May. We achieved this while executing ONE Transformation, making excellent progress towards a simpler and more integrated model.

This is translating into tangible results, with efficiency improving by three percentage points and underlying RoTE increasing to 15.6%. Our balance sheet remains very solid, with robust credit quality and a strong CET1 ratio of 14%, which includes the impact of TSB.

In this context of high capital levels, underlying RoTE, adjusted for excess capital, is close to 17%. All of this continues to translate into strong shareholder value creation, with TNAV plus dividend per share growing 19%.

Before I move on, let me make a brief comment on TSB. As Raúl mentioned, TSB closed on April 30th, only contributing with two months of results, so the impact on year-on-year trend is limited.

José will provide more detail where relevant later in the presentation. Our P&L remains very solid, with underlying profit growing 14% year-on-year.

We delivered strong top-line growth, with revenue up 6% in constant Euro, supported by NII increasing 6% on the back of margin resilience and profitable volumes growth, as well as record fees up 7%, rising across all businesses and countries. This reflects the structural trends driven by deeper customer relationships and stronger connectivity across the group.

Revenue grew while we reduced cost once again, showcasing the possibility and the positive effects of our transformation. LLPs were affected by Argentina, reflecting sector-wide trends in the country.

Excluding Argentina, provisions were broadly stable year-on-year. Finally, in H1, we recorded EUR 245 million gross impact related to motor finance in Openbank Europe, most of it booked in Q1.

All in all, as we have shown over time, our results are sustainable and less volatile than peers, even in challenging environments. What we are seeing again this quarter clearly reflects the strategy we presented at Investors Day.

Our unique business model combines global and in-market scale with customer focus and diversification across Europe and the Americas. The model keeps delivering consistent results: higher revenue, lower cost, improved profitability, and stronger shareholder value creation.

Let me talk about our customers. Three structural trends continue to strengthen the quality of our results.

First, we are attracting more customers. Second, customers are doing more with us.

Active customers are growing faster, and fees per active customer increased by 3%, reflecting higher engagement and broader use of our products and services. Third, we continue to improve our efficiency across the group.

Together, these three trends make our profitability improvements increasingly sustainable over time. As you can see, we continue to deliver on our transformation, driving operational leverage through structural improvements that are under our control.

Simplification and automation have delivered more than one percentage point of efficiencies. Our network businesses are generating strong positive jaws, and our global technology platforms continue to improve productivity while we start to capture benefits from AI.

Our five global businesses continue to deliver strong and balanced growth, driven by customer activity, diversification, and scale. Retail and Openbank illustrate the power of our model.

Revenue grew 4% and costs fell by 3%, driving higher profitability through operational leverage. At the same time, CIB, Wealth, and Payments demonstrate the power of our global capabilities and connectivity, driving strong revenue growth and improving efficiency.

Together, these businesses, combined with our focus on disciplined capital allocation, are driving high returns and solid progress towards our targets. Let's now look at each of them.

In retail, we continue to transform our model, combining cutting-edge technology with the expertise and proximity for our teams to deliver the best customer experience. Our customer interaction platform is live in five markets and is now ready to roll out in Spain.

It helps us to personalize customer interactions at scale, improving conversion and strengthening customer primacy. In commercial, our new model is delivering excellent results in Spain, with revenue up 17% and cost down 3% year-on-year.

We are better aligning our service model with customer needs, improving their experience while reducing our cost base. Using advanced analytics, we identify high-growth companies and connect them with more valuable solutions, deepening relationships and capturing a greater share of their financial needs.

Following this success, we are now rolling out the model across Brazil, Mexico, U.K., Chile, and Portugal. As a result, retail fees grew 6%, cost per active customer declined 6%, and productivity keeps improving.

Overall, retail's underlying profit grew 12% year-on-year, driven by strong operational leverage, while asset quality remained robust with cost of risk improving, excluding Argentina. As you probably know, Webster also reported another strong quarter yesterday, demonstrating again the quality of the franchise with a 17% return on tangible equity, excluding transaction costs and continued volume growth.

Overall, these results were in line with market expectations. Looking ahead, we expect profitable growth to continue as we scale our model, deepen customer relationships, and capture additional efficiencies from TSB and Webster.

This quarter, we closed the acquisition of TSB, a highly strategic transaction, and we have taken the first steps in the integration process, which is progressing according to our plan. It adds scale in a core market, it strengthens our funding mix through a high-quality deposit base, and enhances our risk profile through a low-risk mortgage portfolio.

The combination accelerates the execution of our strategy, enabling us to simplify the business, capture significant efficiencies, and improve the profitability of Santander U.K. This will help us deliver an RoTE of around 16% in Santander U.K.

by 2028, supported by at least EUR 400 million of synergies. With Openbank, we are building a more integrated, scalable, and efficient business supported by our global digital platform.

We are broadening our customer proposition to become our customers' primary digital bank. In mobility finance, we're expanding beyond traditional auto lending with new solutions, while we continue to scale our embedded finance business through Openbank Pay, which already serves more than 2.6 million customers.

At the same time, our focus on funding optimization keeps supporting profitability through significant cost savings, especially in the U.S. This is already translating into a strong underlying performance, with solid revenue increase, lower cost, and credit quality under control, driving 15% growth in Profit Before Tax, excluding motor finance.

As anticipated, profit is affected by the end of electric vehicle tax incentives in the U.S. The tax rate is now expected to remain stable.

Looking ahead, we expect profitability to improve as we continue to scale the business, optimize funding, and deliver further efficiencies. In CIB, we continue to build a world-class business for our corporate and institutional clients, leveraging the strength of our global network.

We are now moving from building capabilities to scaling our franchise, translating them into stronger client relationships. What differentiates us is the connectivity to our franchise, bringing together Santander capabilities to serve our clients in a much more integrated way.

A good example is a client aerospace sector, where commercial banking, CIB, and private banking have worked together throughout the company's growth journey, from day-to-day banking to financing, advising on the latest capital raise and connecting it with private investors. At the same time, we continue to transform our operating model through global platforms and AI, delivering high productivity and better customer service.

For example, our automated pricer in global markets allow us to serve more clients and improve funding decisions. Even in a more challenging environment, strong client activity continues to drive profitable growth as we focus on efficiency and capital discipline.

As a result, profit rose 17% year-on-year, while maintaining one of the best efficiency ratios in the sector and originating new business at a RoTE of around 23%. In Wealth, we continue to deliver solid growth while executing our strategy, leveraging our global scale and capabilities.

In private banking, we're strengthening our advisory proposition for ultra-high-net-worth and family office clients. We're leveraging our international franchise to connect clients with the best of Santander globally.

As a result, customer assets and liabilities grew 15%, and client cross-border referrals increased by more than 20% year-on-year. In insurance and asset management, we're increasingly operating as one integrated platform to deliver a more differentiated value proposition.

Insurance is one of the biggest growth opportunities across the group. We continue to strengthen our position in Spain and Portugal while extending our model to other markets such as Brazil, Mexico, and Chile.

We have integrated life and pensions in Brazil and Portugal. In health, we continue to roll out the innovative solutions such as OneCare in Portugal and Saúde Comparada in Brazil.

This is already supporting double-digit premium growth across our current insurance businesses. Together, these initiatives are making our business more scalable, more resilient, and increasingly fee-based.

As a result, profit rose 19%, driven by strong commercial momentum across all our business lines. Finally, payments, our high-growth platform business.

We continue to combine scale with innovation, strengthening our position across the global payments value chain. In Getnet, we launched the first agentic payments use case in Latin America, positioning us at the forefront of the next generation of digital commerce.

Our Getnet platforms processed around 15 billion transactions in the last 12 months alone and support multiple payments methods across markets, driving much better efficiency. In Ebury, the recent private placements reinforces its long-term growth potential.

This is translating into a strong performance on the financial side, with revenue up 17%, EBITDA margin improving to 33%, and profit increasing four-fold year-on-year, resulting on our Rule of 40 score above 50%. Overall, the business keeps building strong momentum with clear upside as we continue to scale.

Our strong operational and financial performance continues to drive capital generation, higher profitability, and double-digit value creation. Our CET1 ratio rose to 14%, on track to achieve our year-end target comfortably above our 12-13 operating range.

Underlying RoTE improved to 15.6% and is close to 17% at normalized CET1 levels, with further upside from M&A and ONE Transformation. Underlying earnings per share grew 20%, and TNAV plus cash dividend per share increased 19%, reflecting a strong profit generation and the impact of buybacks.

We have received the approval from the ECB for a new buyback program for up to EUR 1.8 billion against 2026 results. Once the corresponding corporate approvals have been obtained, total share buybacks, including the program currently underway, will reach around EUR 9 billion, close to our commitment of distributing at least EUR 10 billion for 2025 and 2026.

With that, I will now hand it over to José, who will take you through the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Héctor, and good morning, everyone. I will now take you through the group's P&L and capital performance in more detail.

Before I begin, let me make two brief points. First, as Héctor and Raúl mentioned, the group's P&L includes two months of TSB's results following its consolidation in May.

I will only refer to its impact where material. Second, as usual, we present growth rates in both current and constant Euro.

This period, the difference was not relevant. Turning to performance.

As Héctor mentioned, we are yet again delivering record results in the first half, with solid commercial activity and structural cost efficiency generating strong operational leverage. Revenue grew 6% on the back of a solid business activity, while cost declined even after incorporating TSB.

Loan loss provisions were impacted by portfolio deterioration in Argentina, reflecting sector trends in the country. Excluding Argentina, provisions were broadly stable year-on-year.

The other results line includes motor finance provisions in Openbank Europe of around EUR 245 million, largely booked in the first quarter. As a result, profit grew 14% year-on-year in constant Euro, keeping us firmly on track to deliver our guidance of more than EUR 14.1 billion of profit in 2026, excluding M&A.

Total revenue increased 6% year-on-year in line with the target we set for 2026. This growth was underpinned by deeper client relationships, higher levels of engagement, and a total of 12 million new customers over the last 12 months.

All global businesses contributed to revenue growth, which was mainly supported by another record period in CIB, up 16%, backed by growing client flows across business lines with a notable acceleration in global banking fees. In retail, on the back of a stronger customer engagement reflected in solid NII and fees, and in Openbank, which performed well, supported by higher net interest income and fees.

Payments and wealth did well in fee-generating activities, customer inflows in wealth, and strong volumes overall. Fee growth continued to outpace NII, in line with our guidance, reinforcing the quality and diversification of our revenue base.

The group's net interest income increased 6% year-on-year. The vast majority of our net interest income comes from retail and Openbank.

At this time, CIB also contributed significantly to the overall growth, supported by capital-efficient, high-return activities, mainly in global markets. Additionally, NII was resilient in retail across most countries, driven by volumes and active balance sheet management.

Openbank delivered solid NII growth, supported by higher volumes and margins, both in Europe and South America. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, net interest income was up 3%, excluding TSB, for similar reasons, particularly in retail in Spain and Chile.

By country, Spain delivered a particularly strong quarter, with NII up 8% versus the first quarter, driven by solid commercial momentum, improving margins, and active balance sheet management. Brazil NII grew 2% both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year, even as interest rates are normalizing more slowly than initially expected.

All in all, this reflects a stronger and more resilient NII profile than anticipated in Investor Day guidance, as the benefits from higher for longer rate environment in most markets more than offset the more moderate contribution from Brazil. Net fee income increased 7% year-on-year, supported by customer growth, increased activity, and a better mix towards higher value-added products, driven by our network, businesses, and ONE Transformation.

This is visible across the group. Retail rose 6%, with solid performances widespread across our footprint, backed by customer growth.

Openbank's fees increased 6%, especially in Europe and Brazil, supported by new business volumes and higher insurance activity. In CIB, the sharp pickup in fees was driven by strong global banking activity across markets, especially in CIB U.S., where fees grew 40%, up from already high levels last year, reflecting the success of our U.S.

build-out initiatives. In Wealth, fees rose double digits, supported by client inflows mainly in private banking, and we saw 8% growth in payments, driven by high activity levels across all business lines, with total payment volumes increasing 10%.

ONE Transformation remains a key driver of our profitability improvement, leveraging our global platforms and connectivity to deliver operational leverage. This is reflected in our efficiency ratio, which improved year-on-year to 42.8%, supported by strong underlying business dynamics, with revenue increasing and cost declining 1% year-on-year, down 5% in real terms.

In Retail and Openbank, which are leading our transformation and represent 75% of our cost base, cost declined by 3%, even after incorporating TSB, and as we continue to roll out our global platforms. Revenue grew 4%, resulting in very positive operating jobs.

In our network businesses, CIB Wealth and Payments, costs grew below total revenue on fee income, reflecting targeted investments in capabilities to drive capital-light growth, maintaining high recurrency levels. This excellent performance resulted in an 11% rise in net operating income, up from already very high levels last year.

Looking ahead, we remain on track to reduce costs despite inflationary pressures. ONE Transformation and our targeted cost management actions are the two levers that remain firmly within our control.

Our balance sheet risk profile remains low, with sound credit quality across our footprint, even in a more complex environment, supported by prudent risk management and resilient labor markets in general. Having said that, metrics in the first half continue to be impacted by Argentina, reflecting sector-wide trends in the country.

The cost of risk declined quarter-on-quarter, showing the first signs of stabilization as the impact of lower new production begins to feed through. Excluding Argentina, the group's underlying credit quality remained very solid.

Loan loss provisions were broadly stable year-on-year, and cost of risk improved 2 basis points, even after absorbing less favorable effects movements. This reflects the resilience across most of our markets, which more than offset the pressure we are beginning to see from a slower-than-expected rate normalization in Brazil, particularly in corporates and SMEs.

Our non-performing loan ratio remained low, as the impact from Argentina was broadly offset by the contribution from TSB. Our NPL portfolio has collateral guarantees and provisions that account for almost 90% of its total exposure.

Retail and consumer represents over 90% of the group's loan loss provisions. In retail, cost of risk improved, excluding Argentina, with solid performances in key markets such as Spain and Brazil.

In Openbank, cost of risk was stable, even with the impact of Argentina, supported by continued strong trends in the U.S. CIB was affected by a limited number of single names in Europe and Brazil.

As of today, we are not seeing a significant deterioration in employment, and credit quality remains stable. As long as labor markets remain solid, we would not expect material impact in credit quality, as resilience across most developed markets is expected to keep offsetting pressures in Brazil and challenges in Argentina, showing the benefits of diversification.

Moving on to capital, we delivered another quarter of strong capital generation. Our CET1 ratio stood at 14% after absorbing the 55 basis points impact from TSB.

Excluding this impact, the CET1 ratio increased by 20 basis points, demonstrating once again our ability to generate capital while investing in profitable growth. We generated 27 basis points of net organic capital in the quarter, driven by disciplined capital allocation to high-return opportunities with a new business RoTE of around 21%, and by a strong contribution from our risk transfer initiatives, which offset 31 basis points of risk-weighted asset growth.

This strong capital generation keeps us on track to end the year in line with our 12.8% target after absorbing the impact from Webster in the second half of the year, and further regulatory impacts during the rest of this year, leaving us close to the upper end of our 12%-13% CET1 operating range. Héctor, back to you.

Thanks, José. In conclusion, this has been our strongest first half ever, putting us in an excellent position to deliver our 2026 targets, with our performance running slightly ahead of plan.

Our businesses continue to show solid momentum, with ONE Transformation improving both revenue and cost, driving strong operational leverage. As a result, we delivered record underlying profit, a robust capital position, and double-digit value creation.

Even excluding TSB, we are generating more underlying profit than last year when Poland was still part of the group. In summary, our result remains consistent and predictable, with very positive trends that we expect to continue in the second half of the year.

On the back of this strong first half, we remain confident in our delivering sustainable growth and creating value for our shareholders. Our financial North Star is clear: to deliver an RoE above 20% by 2028.

This is about execution with precision, disciplined capital allocation, ONE Transformation, and scaling our global businesses to accelerate value creation. That is exactly what we are consistently delivering.

Now, we are happy to take your questions.

Thanks very much, Héctor. Let's begin the Q and A session.

Operator, could we have the first question, please?

Yes. Thank you for taking my questions.

I want to start with Spain, particularly NII. If you can update on your guidance for the year, the low to mid single digit growth, because first half has been above expectations.

Particularly, also comment on two points here, which is loan growth, which I see is up 8%, but retail is just 0.6%. Strong CIB this Q2.

How sustainable into the second half? Also, on the ALCO bond portfolio is up almost EUR 20 billion in the first half of the year.

You can update on your size and ALCO strategy, size and duration. My second question on Spain is if you can comment on the early retirement plan just agreed with the trade unions, and if you can update on your cost-to-income target for Spain once this plan is fully implemented.

Thank you.

Hello, Francisco. It's Héctor, good morning.

Thank you for your question. In Spain, NII, as you have seen, the first half profit is up 12% year-on-year, is mainly driven by 4% revenue growth with an increase in active customers.

It's very important that you see that we're growing 200,000 customers per quarter on a net basis, okay? It's very important to acknowledge the benefits of ONE Transformation.

Cost is down 3%, okay? Efficiency ratio improved 240 basis points year-on-year to 33.6%.

What you're seeing is exactly the operating leverage that we promised on ONE Transformation, which is more revenues and less cost. That is what's helping us quite a lot.

Trading gains are down EUR 132 million year-on-year from the lower activity markets in CIB after a record first half in 2025. The quarterly drop is driven by a one-off from state valuation in Q1.

LLPs fell by 1% with strong asset quality and the portfolio sales in retail offsetting single names in CIB. Other results were around EUR 33 million worse due to the transformation cost, okay?

On the ALCO, José will tell you. Let me talk a little bit about the loan growth.

What we're concentrating in here is always profitability, okay? Where we see the margins and an opportunity, we see it on a weekly basis.

It's a very dynamic process, and what we're doing is managing capital in such a way. Where we see opportunities, we deploy capital.

That's exactly what we're doing and how you see the portfolio growing. We started, for example, in the first half of the year, growing in mortgages in a really strong way because we saw an opportunity when the rates basically helped us out in that sense.

With that, I will give it to José to explain to you about the ALCO as well.

Morning, Francisco. Let me split my question or take the question into two different parts.

The business, the client business, obviously, rates went up slightly in the quarter, and we have negative, sorry, positive sensitivity to rates, which obviously helped, particularly with the very good management of the client base. We are adding around 5% of new clients on an annualized basis, and many of these are transactional.

When you look at the cost of deposits, because we are growing transactional accounts, it has performed very, very well. The first component of the very good performance in NII is the consequence of our commercial strategy.

Second, the ALCO portfolio, we have EUR 60 billion of ALCO at an average yield of 3.3% six-year duration. This is slightly more than we had anticipated because, as I said, we are growing in current accounts more than expected, or more than planned, because of the success of our commercial strategy.

Because we want to keep the interest rate sensitivity stable around EUR 500 million per 100 basis points, we increased the ALCO portfolio to this EUR 60 billion. We plan to keep it at this level.

We don't plan to increase the ALCO portfolio above this level. Right now, the interest rate sensitivity is below EUR 500 million.

It's EUR 450 million, more or less. We want to keep it at this point.

The third point is the other hedging strategies that we commented in the past are doing very well. The liability repricing of mortgages or pre-fixing, the repricing of mortgages, all of these, is also contributing very well.

The first half NII was up 7.7%, and we see these trends continuing to the second half. We see no reason to see a different trend in the second half relative to the first half.

Yeah, that's what I said.

Great. Thanks very much, Francisco.

Next question, please.

Thanks very much for the presentation. Good morning, everyone.

I just have two questions, if I may. The first one is on the activity levels.

We have seen a very strong NII fees, and you have highlighted in the presentation, strong activity across the board in retail, CIB, most of the units. I just wanted to see how do you see that activity going forward, especially in terms of lending and deposit growth.

Was quite curious to see the strong retail deposit growth in the quarter. If you could elaborate a bit more on the strategy in terms of gathering deposits, I think that would be very helpful.

The second question is on cost of risk evolution. For the first half, you have had a stable 115 basis points, which is slightly above the initial target that you gave for the plan of 100 to 110 basis points.

You flagged in Q1 results and reiterated now that Argentina has been a big driver of that increasing cost of risk. How should we think about that in the second half?

Should we expect a normalization? I would also like to, if you could give a bit of color on how should we think about the cost of risk in Brazil in the light of the comments that you made, José, about SMEs and corporates being a bit more stressed given the level of rates.

Also if you could elaborate a bit on the U.S. performance, which has been very strong in the quarter in cost of risk.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ignacio. Very big questions, huh?

Let me give you turn to you. First of all, the activity levels we are on track to delivering.

I think it is important to say, as José said in his presentation, that one piece, a key profit generator, and it is exactly what we are delivering, okay? We are exceeding, I would say that we have a strong momentum within our business, and we are on track to exceed some of our targets set up for the year.

Our outlook is looking better for the retail and commercial businesses in Europe, as well as for Openbank. We continue to expect fees to grow faster than NII.

This is ONE Transformation at a mid to high single digits, excluding the M&A. I would say that on asset quality, we continue to expect a broadly stable outcome with a cost of risk around EUR 115.

All right? The acquisition of TSB and Webster will improve the cost of risk towards, I would say, 1 to 1.1 range over the 2027, 2028.

In the second half, we expect some improvement in the cost of risk in Argentina. The hardest was the first quarter.

If you remember, it came down a little bit on the second one, but it is still hitting us. We have under control the portfolio.

We stopped lending in Argentina, and actually, we are much better than our peers there. We are going to see that the cost of risk in Argentina is being offset by the usual seasonality of the U.S.

in auto. That basically tells you how strong is the diversification in the group, helping us out in some places when some places get hurt by some things.

All in all, I expect in 2026 PBT to continue to improve in the H2 over H1. We expect an effective tax rate for the year around 27% and at the lower end of our usual 27%-28% range.

As I said, we are on track to exceed or above EUR 14.1 billion net profits ex M&A guidance for the year. All right?

In terms of—Where we see cost of risk evolution, I already explained to you what we see there. In particular, in Brazil, I think it is important to say the following.

In Brazil, what we have seen is a dynamics of the single names that I explained to you. It is important to say that nonetheless, we see that the worst is over, my point of view.

Why do I say that? Because we have been taking really good decisions in terms of how the mix of the portfolio is going.

If you take a look at, for example, our CIB portfolio and the commercial portfolio, both of them are 30% in U.S. dollars and 40% in U.S.

dollars, respectively. What that basically tells you is that we are going much more to the exporters, trade finance, and those kind of things.

That's why you see margins diminish a little bit in the whole overall portfolio. On the individual side, we are basically going much more to the affluent segment and concentrating in auto loans.

Margins constrict a little bit, but the cost of risk, you control it a little bit more. I don't see cost of risk basically getting worse than the 4.2 that we expect for the whole year.

I see that is where Brazil is going. You asked me a little bit about the U.S., correct?

U.S. is a great example of the ONE Transformation benefits.

Each one, the profit is up 26% year-on-year at EUR 989 million. Efficiency is improved 4 percentage points to 45.8%.

RoTE is 2 percentage points to 13.2%. All right?

Q2 total revenue is up around 9% year-on-year. Q2 2026 are up 22% year-on-year.

This is Santander CIB and Wealth helping us out in here. Q2 2026 NII is up 4%.

This is driven mainly by Santander CIB and the funding optimization in Openbank. If you remember, Openbank now, I explained that last quarter, the whole of our funding is not anymore wholesale.

It's funded by the deposits in Santander and Openbank. Actually, that is helping us quite a lot.

In terms of cost of risk is 12 months, 10 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 1.47%. Remember that in auto, we always have seasonality.

Second, sorry, third and fourth quarter will be higher on those. We see that the labor markets are quite strong in the U.S., it has it.

We have a good outlook on those specifically.

Thanks, Héctor. I think we left out, in terms of the first question, on early retirements.

Just going back to Francisco Riquel's question. Apologies, Francisco.

Héctor, would you mind addressing that?

Yes. We signed yesterday the agreement with the unions.

I think it was a pretty good result. This is going to help us out to do what is needed to be done towards the end of the year.

I think it will help us in delivering exactly the ONE Transformation that we told you about, and that's going to help us managing much better what we're doing in Spain all the way.

Thanks very much, Héctor. The costs of that are already in the other results line within restructuring.

Could we have the next question, please?

Hello.

Operator, question please.

Great. Good morning.

Thanks for taking my questions. Kind of follow up on Brazil, another one on capital.

On Brazil, I take note of your comments around cost of risk, Héctor, that it was a pretty good result for the group and regionally. Brazil, in terms of revenues, wasn't great either.

The question is, sort of how much of that weaker fees and trading you think is due to sort of company specific, potentially disruptions from implementation of Gravity? Or do you think it's purely macro?

More importantly, what to expect on the revenue front over the next few quarters. As we think about Brazil, can Gravity offset those revenue sort of headwinds as we look forward?

The second question is on capital. You've had another good capital print this quarter.

I can't help but just see that the model updates are now turning to tailwinds second quarter in a row. From memory, I think, José, you've given us the guidance for the full year of 20 basis points headwinds, which I suspect needs updating.

I don't know if you can give us any color on that, and should we expect any regulatory headwinds from now on given the changes from ECB policy? Thank you.

Thank you, Alvaro. Overall, Brazil, I believe that given current macro scenario, I think we have had a really good performance.

As you can see, ONE is delivering, and I believe there's still more to come. The macro environment, you know it quite well.

The economy is experiencing a soft landing. Growth is expected to remain resilient in 2026, we believe.

Several discussions on sustainability of growth after the October elections with our best case is that Mr. Lula repeats.

Activity continues to surprise on the upside. It's very supported, as you have seen, by strong fiscal stimulus, the resilient household consumption, favorable exports, and still very tight labor market, as you have seen.

Although credit is increasingly reflecting restrictive monetary policy, the Central Bank has started a really gradual easing cycle. Both tighter external financial conditions and sticky inflation expectations are limiting the room for significant cuts, as you have seen.

The curve is basically flat at the levels that it is today. Our business in Brazil, it's important to say, represents 9% of the group loans and remains very resilient.

Diversification is working. Higher rates and inflation in Brazil are offset by strong performance in Europe and other businesses.

It's very important. Again, the model of the group, diversification.

NII increased by around 2% year-on-year. It's basically mainly driven by Openbank and CIB.

As I explained what we're doing with the mix of the portfolio. We focus on profitable products, profitable segments, and we need to lower the pressure from the ALM portfolio.

We expect a similar growth rate for the second half. Cost, it's very important to take a look at.

This is ONE Transformation. Cost is increased by 3% below the rate of inflation.

It's higher, as you were saying, because of the higher IT cost related to ONE Transformation and the Gravity migration, and as well a little bit of Trabajistas. Remember that Trabajistas, we send them to the cost, so now we have it in there.

The cost-to-income ratio, because of that, is on 14.5%, and we continue to focus on improving the profitability. It's very important.

Transactionality, as far as ONE Transformation, to lower the deposit cost, and this is helping us out. Nonetheless, the margin is less because of what I was explaining about how we're managing the mix on the portfolio.

This is very important to take into account. All right?

In terms of all provisions increased 3% year-on-year on the quarter. This is basically the single names and provisions from Openbank, because Openbank, since we are increasing auto loans, is actually giving us a little bit more of provisions.

Nonetheless, the cost of risk remains stable at around 4.14%, and it will may remain stable and no more than 4.2% for the rest of the year. It is important to acknowledge the scenario that we have in Brazil.

Inter-rate curves have shifted higher for longer, and we continue to believe that the business in Brazil can improve its returns in the next few years to around 20%, driven by the execution of ONE Transformation. We also changed, our new CEO came in on the 6th of July, we have very good outlooks, and I think we will do the right changes in order to make the business much more into ONE Transformation and concentrate on that.

On the capital, José?

Morning, Álvaro. The positive impact of what we call supervisory regulatory charges in the first quarter had more to do with the implementation of CRR as we updated some of our models.

It was not really related to direct supervisory actions. We still think that we will have around 15 to 20 basis points charge, negative impact from supervisory actions in the second half of the year.

If you look at our capacity to generate capital, and as we are improving profitability, we think that from the 12.5% post Webster, roughly, that we are at the moment, 14% minus 150 basis points for Webster, roughly, is 150. We think we should be in line or above our target of 12.8 by the end of the year.

Yes, we would still expect some negative impact in the second half of the year.

Thanks very much. Operator, could we have the next question, please?

Thank you very much, José and Héctor, for taking my questions. My first one is on rates.

Since Investor Day, we've seen rate expectations have generally moved higher across your core markets. Despite the potential headwind in Brazil, do you see the overall change as a net tailwind to the group's low to mid single digit NII payback target for the 2025 to 2028 period?

If so, could you give us some guidance of where within that range do you now expect NII growth to land? My second question is on Mexico outlook.

Mexico macro and policy backdrop has become more uncertain, particularly following the move towards biannual SMCA reviews. Do you see a risk to your Mexico growth expectations as a result of prolonged trade uncertainty affecting investment decisions?

More recently, also, Nubank has received approval to operate as a bank in Mexico. How do you expect that to affect the competitive environment?

Do you see any implications for pricing, deposit gathering, or customer acquisition across the sector? Thank you.

Thank you, Cecilia. I will tell you that in terms of the guidance, I already explained a little bit the dynamics of the NII, how we see the second half.

I think that we're still in line to deliver what we said on Investor Day in terms of the NII for 2020 until 2028. I think that the group is very strong, also executing ONE Transformation, as I said.

I think we're in line or slightly better given the dynamics that we have seen. Still a long way to go.

I think that the group is basically doing what needs to be done to deliver on what we have said. All in all, I think that I'm positive on everything.

In terms of the Mexico competitive environment and everything that you have said, let me give you a little bit of an overview of what I believe in Mexico trends are going to be. First of all, the negotiations are going to start in the following two weeks.

I do see that they're going to be hard negotiations, but the treaty has a particular clause in which basically says that if there comes not an agreement between the three parties, the treaty will renew itself automatically for one more year, and on and on until 10 years. Okay?

I'm not so worried about that because I do believe that if they don't come to an agreement, they will basically repeat it one more time. My view is that Mexico needs the U.S.

as much as the U.S. needs Mexico, and also with inflation control, et cetera, they need the manufacturing capabilities and the low labor cost from Mexico.

I do believe they will come to an agreement. Also, it's important to acknowledge that Mr.

Trump uses all these things as a negotiation weapon, basically to submit the country to whatever he wants. I do believe that Mexico understands very well where it stands.

I was in Mexico a couple of weeks ago. The dynamics are good.

Consumption is picking up. I see a better outlook for the second half of the year.

Nonetheless, it's important to acknowledge that this is going to play out in some sort of way. On the other side, the competitive environment, as you know, we don't discuss competitors, but I see that the competitive environment is under control.

In what sense? I do believe that, even though cost of risk went a little bit up in some of our peers, we have maintained the discipline to play on the portfolios that we believe are the right ones.

We continue to see that there is a lot to do and a lot of profitable things to do in Mexico. We are deploying a little bit more capital to CIB and to the midsize corporates and SMEs because we believe it's the right play to do.

Rates are basically at a very competitive level in Mexico, and the exchange rate has sustained the drop that the Banco de México has in terms of rates. I do believe that the market is under control.

What we have decreased a little bit is our participation in credit cards and personal loans, which we believe—Not that they could damage, but they could basically not be as profitable, some of the others, because of the cost of risk. We've been cautious on those.

We've been increasing in terms of lending in auto and mortgages, which are much more secure, and also, a little bit on payrolls. All right?

That's the dynamics. I'm positive in Mexico.

I think it's going to be second half that is going to be hard because of that. Nonetheless, I do believe we're going to be able to deliver our numbers and deliver the year in quite good for the next few years.

On the competitive environment, what I would say is that it's good that some of our competitors are becoming banks. That makes the level playing field the same for everyone.

I see a lot of competition for deposits, but the prices that have been paid for time deposits are pretty big, but there are not substantial players. I mean, not substantial movements of clients towards those higher yielding deposits, given some past situations in the market.

All in all, our deposit growth has been really good. If you see the funding cost of our Mexico franchise is becoming much more competitive, and this is because ONE Transformation, again, I'm sorry to take so long to answer your question, is concentrated on transactional deposits, and this is exactly what we're doing.

Becoming number one bank to our customers, and that's why if you see, margins are basically becoming much better in Mexico, as José explained before. Thank you.

Let me add some color on net interest margin. The group's net interest income.

The group's net interest margin in the second quarter is the highest of the last 12 months. Obviously, we have structurally a positive sensitivity to rates, basically driven by the positive sensitivity in Spain, and now with TSB in the U.K.

We have a negative sensitivity in Brazil, but rates in Brazil are stable or high. This level of net interest margin is first explained by the levels of activity, which again, are doing very, very well, and we would expect that volumes are sustained as the activity with these clients remain.

Obviously, the way we're structuring the balance sheet management, again, with an overall positive sensitivity to rates, means that the net interest margin that we are seeing in the second quarter is explained by that. Looking ahead, looking into the next three years, it's fairly difficult.

Obviously the first year of the next three years, it's better. Clearly the outlook for net interest margin for the rest of the year, as I said, for Spain, net interest income, I see no reasons that these trends should change in the second half of this year.

Thanks very much. Operator, could we have the next question, please?

Yeah. Hi, good morning.

Quick couple of questions, actually. First one is if you can give us a bit of an overview or some opinions, basically, on when do you think headcount numbers on a group basis are going to start falling down.

You're cutting costs actually in many geographies already, but the headcount numbers, I think they're stable quarter-on-quarter. They're still down year-on-year actually, but a little bit of information on how that metric basically can be evolving in the future.

The second one is on Webster. If you can give us an update, basically, on when do you think the closure of the deal is going to happen?

Again, we've obviously heard the risks about the possibility of delays or even, in extreme case, actually, cancellation of the deal because of political interference. If you can give us your view, basically, about that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ignacio. In terms of headcount numbers, what we're doing is, first of all, executing ONE Transformation.

We're going through simplification, automation, and you'll see that numbers are going to start being better on and on. The last number I have seen on the group, I think it's 180,000.

Yeah. Well, naturally, obviously, TSB is incorporated in the second quarter.

Okay. Even with TSB, if we look at December 2025 to June 2026, headcount is down over 2,000 people.

If we obviously take TSB into account, headcount is down 3% or 4%. The headcount reduction is the consequence of implementing ONE Transformation.

As we've discussed in the past, this is a long-term trend that should continue going forward. The focus is not the headcount reduction per se.

The headcount reduction is obviously the consequence of implementing ONE Transformation.

Thank you, José. In terms of Webster, what I would tell you is that yesterday we got the authorization by the ECB to continue with the transaction.

We have a very constructive engagement with all the supervisors and the approvals needed to close the transaction during the quarter. Also, as you will know, we received the OCC approval.

We have just received, as I said, the ECB approval. The process is proceeding fully in line with our expectation, to close on the second half of the year, as we have said.

No news on that, Ignacio.

Thanks very much. Operator, could we have the next question, please?

Yes, thank you for taking my question. The first is on capital.

It looks like it is trending ahead of targets, and we are seeing signs from Brussels of potential easing of regulation. The first question for you is, do you feel like you will have a capital reserve soon?

Where are you on the Danish Compromise approval? I seem to recall that you were expecting approval by June 2026.

The second question is on your other provisions. They have been higher than expected.

I wondered if these are reflecting restructuring charges to accelerate ONE Transformation, and if it is so, can you quantify how much sooner you could hit your cost targets or if you could even go beyond your objectives? Thank you.

Thank you, Andrea. On capital, José will ask you in detail.

In terms of the Danish Compromise, yes, as you have said, we are expecting it in the next couple of months or so. I think that everything has been done, all the governments have been completed and everything that is needed, and it has been submitted to the ECB, so we are just expecting sooner rather than later.

Okay? In terms of other, what you have seen is exactly what you are saying in terms of ONE Transformation, and this is exactly what the execution is generating.

What we are very concentrated on right now is on the simplification part. This is still a long way to go.

If you look at the amount of products in the catalog, we started three and a half years ago with 10,000, we went down almost to 4,000. We still have a lot of things to do.

A lot of automation needs to be done in some of the banks. Eliminating the legacy, there is a lot of applications that we need to eliminate.

It is not an easy job, it is a lot of housekeeping, and it is going to take us a long time. Nonetheless, you see this evolution coming in every single quarter.

Okay? You will continue looking at this for the next until 2028.

I believe this dynamic process is never going to end up, because we always can get better. This is exactly what we are doing.

What I can tell you is that now it is within the culture of the whole organization. Everybody is on track of delivering those, but simplification is of the essence in order to be able to be very competitive in the future.

What I see is that, yes, we're going to get to the cost targets, and we maybe slide a little bit. Let's see.

Because some of these situations, you get high inflation in some of the countries, et cetera. I don't want to overpromise.

I want to tell you that we will deliver exactly as we have said for 2028. That would be my best guess.

I'm slightly positive, I would say. On capital-

Yeah. The Danish Compromise, we expected the approval in August, as sector said, so it should come any time now.

Reality is that there is much talk about easing capital requirements, directly or indirectly, for banks in Europe. Reality is that there is nothing concrete on that.

In fact, on a daily basis, what we see is no change in the supervisory actions of the ECB. I think it's premature to assume that all these, like you said, rumors or comments or talk will end up having a significant impact on capital for European banks.

So far, we are not seeing it at all.

Thanks very much. Operator, could we take the next question, please?

Hi. Good morning.

Two questions from my side, actually two clarifications as well. The first one would be if you could provide some additional color on the single name provisions that you mentioned related with CIB in Europe and in Brazil.

Basically, how much did that impact the group's cost of risk in the first half or in the second quarter, as you prefer? The second question would be actually on NII.

In Portugal, we see NII falling year-over-year, where areas loans are actually growing by 8%. I was wondering if you could give us some color on the dynamics behind the NII there.

Just a couple of clarifications, if I may. When you mentioned that NII in Spain in the second half should have similar trends to the first half, you're basically hinting that second half should be similar to first half in Euro or that the 11% pace of growth that we're seeing right now should be kept.

Finally on the early retirements, are they another provisions or another operating cost in their accounted in which unit, corporate center or in Spain? Thank you very much this.

Okay. I'm going to answer you quickly, Carlos.

In terms of the early retirements will be in Spain, it's basically online with the budget that we have presented. It's within the numbers that you have on the guidance for the year.

No changes on that. Let me tell you a little bit on the single names and what's going on in the credit quality.

First of all, 12 months cost of risk in Q2 2026, close at 1.15%. All right?

As I said, it's the higher provisions in Argentina and the single names in CIB. Excluding Argentina, actually, asset quality improved 2 basis points to 1.07%.

All right? There is no underlying deterioration of the portfolios.

Our plan assumes average GDP growth of around 1%-2% across the footprint of the bank. We see resilient labor markets, Eurozone rates at 2.25%, U.K.

and U.S. rates at 3.5%, and Brazil rates falling 10% by the end of 2028.

If that's the case, and high rates in Brazil could basically drive a little bit higher provisions, but we believe they are going to be manageable within the plan that we have. Cost of risk, I expect it to remain around 1.15%.

In H2, the better cost risk in Argentina, that is already, as I said, coming better in the second quarter, and it would continue on and on. Some benefit we're going to have from the acquisition of TSB and Webster, that is offset by the usual seasonality that we have in the U.S.

Remember that in the U.S., always Q3 and Q4, we have a little bit more provisions. Let's see how the labor markets work in the U.S.

Other than that, I see that this is going to help. 2026, 2028 average cost of risk, we see it at 1%-1.1%.

This is because the mix changes now that we have TSB and Webster on the portfolio. The target range offers flexibility for potential macro deterioration.

Nothing out of order in that sense. NII in Portugal.

This is basically due to business mix change and pricing of mortgages as we look at profitability and having profitable mortgages through the life cycle. If you look at net interest margin, the cost of deposits actually is 22 basis points lower this year than last year.

Again, as I said, for Spain, we are adding new customers, and these new customers have mostly transactional relationships with us, and this is helping in the managing of cost of deposits. On the asset side, we saw higher yields on consumer loans, 40 basis points, on credit cards, 90 basis points, but lower yields on mortgages, around 60 basis points, again, because of the focus on the quality, the overall profitability of the relationship through the cycle.

I would say this is a slight decrease. It's not that significant, and it's basically the consequence of a business mix decision on the asset side.

Again, with a very good performance on the liability side based on new numbers of transactional clients. Spain.

What I meant is that the components of NII that we saw in the first half should remain in the second half. EUR 60 billion of ALCO portfolio are 3.3%.

Volumes that are positive. Good management of liabilities.

A slight positive impact from repricing of mortgages as the 12-month Euribor went up in the second quarter, and we have a two month to three month lag in repricing of mortgages. What I mean is that all these conditions that we saw in the first half should remain in the second half.

Thanks very much. Operator, could we get the next question, please?

Thank you both for taking my questions. Two on the U.K., please.

In the last quarter, you mentioned intense competition in U.K. deposits.

Are you still seeing that elevated competition in this geography? Do you expect that to subside into half two?

Secondly, now that the TSB integration is complete, can you talk a little bit more about the cost savings expected by 2028? You've had a year to look at the assets.

Do you see any potential upsides to your existing U.K. cost-saving guidance?

Thank you.

Thank you. Benjamin, in terms of the U.K., yes, we see that the market has become very competitive.

Okay? We see a lot of competition, mainly mortgages, where we have the lion's share of our portfolio.

We see the compression of margins, and we have seen so. Also a really strong competitive in deposits.

Okay? That's what the market is doing.

I believe that we have been managing pretty well. I think that our team and the execution of ONE Transformation is helping us quite a lot, because it's helping us out to reduce the amount of cost that we had in the unit.

On the other side, it's helping us out by increasing revenue, because we're doing things in a much better way, because we are having much more principality with the customers, concentrating on transactional deposits at lower cost base. Also, as you have seen, we are pushing for the one, two, three account, which is helping us out to get market share.

Then we see that TSB is a great addition to what we are doing. TSB gave us 4 million customers more.

We have just finished the submission of the Part seven on last week, on Thursday. With that, we enter into the full process.

We do believe that the cost saving that we promised, about EUR 400 million, are in line of what we are going to be able to deliver. I think it is too soon to say if we are going to be above that, given that we need to see the exercise of the Part seven and how those updates comes out.

We are confident that we will deliver on the numbers and could be slightly better. I don't want to, again, overpromise on that, given the Part seven and how the evolution of that can be.

All in all, we already have EUR 250 million in non-recurring items included of the restructuring of TSB in the numbers that you have seen to date.

José, probably to help forecast NII in the U.K., it is worth updating the structural hedge because post TSB, this has changed. In December, we had GBP 103 billion of structural hedge.

In June, the amount was GBP 118 billion. Duration was 2.3 last year, is currently 2.6, and the yield was 3% and is 3.2%.

We have now a structural hedge with a slightly longer duration and higher yields. This obviously is important for forecasting NII.

Also, let me just complement what Héctor said. Post TSB, we have 27 million customers in the U.K.

16 million active customers in the U.K. This obviously, it is a very good sort of client base to work with going forward.

As Héctor said, we remain optimistic about the outlook for the U.K. and the fact that TSB plus Santander is a great value proposition going forward.

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator, could we have the next question, please?

Hello. Good morning.

Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have two questions, please.

Firstly, on deposits. I can see that Santander now has a critical mass across its core markets with a market share of at least 10%.

I can see that the stable retail deposits for the group are growing at a faster pace than peers. Linked to this, Openbank has become a relevant funding platform for the group.

I would like to ask, given these structural improvements in the funding franchise, do you think the consensus already fully appreciates the benefit from the lower funding costs? Linked to this, in which regions do you see the biggest opportunities to improve the funding costs from here?

Then my second question would be briefly on capital, on SRTs. If you could kindly remind me on the capital benefit in Q2, and also what should we expect for the second half of the year, please.

Thank you, Borja. Okay.

This exactly of the deposit and what happened to the franchise is a result of ONE Transformation. One of the most important premises of ONE Transformation is becoming the number one bank to our customers.

That basically results in having, as José has been saying all along during his answering of the questions, is that we are increasing transactional deposits. Okay?

When you become number one bank to your customers, you get the transactional deposit because people do everything with you. They pay their bills, they debit their utilities, they pay the school children, et cetera, everything out from your account.

That basically help us out in having much more transactional and lower cost deposits. That's exactly what we will continue to do and concentrate on.

All right. Openbank is also helping us out in that.

As you know, Openbank, we use those deposits to fund the consumer business, the auto business in Openbank, and it is helping us out also to use a lot less of wholesale expensive funding and increase the margins and help us in the NII. They will continue to do so, as we continue to increase the principality of our customers.

That is exactly the idea. What regions do I see a lot of benefits?

Look, Mexico, Brazil, every single country will benefit from it. The U.K.

is going to be very important as well, and the both acquisitions that we have done, both Webster and TSB, bring a lot of deposits to the table, which is key to our franchises in those countries. It is key to our franchises to make them much more profitable and much more competitive against our peers.

All in all, that strategy is part of ONE Transformation, and it is exactly what we are executing right now. In terms of capital, José?

Thank you. Yes.

Let me explain the dynamics of risk-weighted assets in the quarter, because, in the quarter, you saw an increase in risk-weighted assets of around EUR 16 billion. EUR 13.1 billion came from TSB.

Net of TSB, the increase in risk-weighted assets was relatively muted compared to a very healthy loan growth. We continue to mobilize assets.

The total mobilization in the quarter was EUR 13.4 billion, of which a quarter was cash securitizations, a quarter was synthetic securitization. Securitizations amounted to exactly 50% of the total.

37% was asset sales, mostly non-performing assets, and 13% was guarantees and other actions. In the second half of the year, we would expect a similar amount to the first half.

One thing that we achieved this year compared to other years, was to mobilize assets in a more linear way. When you look at first quarter, second quarter, very much similar.

I would expect similar amounts each quarter in the next couple of quarters, probably a bit more in the fourth quarter because of lower activity in the third. But in the second half, a similar amount to the first half.

Thank you very much. Operator, could we have the next question, please?

Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my questions.

I have two, one on Mexico and then a clarification on Brazil, please. On Mexico, your loans are growing at around 8% year-over-year in June.

This is a slight deceleration versus the March level, but still very healthy. Overall, I was wondering, how are you thinking about lending growth in Mexico for the full year?

Do you think that the second half should see a deceleration from here, or should we expect sort of the same level as now? In Brazil, could you remind us what are your rate expectations for the end of year Selic now for 2026, 2027, 2028?

In the light of this, how should we be thinking about your medium-term target of a 20% return on tangible equity in the country? Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Miruna.

Mexico, yes. What we do is we're very disciplined in the way we deploy capital, okay?

We see how the market is reacting, and also we see the cost of risk in the different portfolios and how do we manage them. When we see that, margins tighten or there is a part of a segment that we don't like, we actually don't come in, and we don't deploy the capital.

We're very disciplined in such a way. I do believe Mexico is an opportunity, and you're going to see us investing capital in some of the segments of the market.

As I said previously, I see great opportunity in mid-size corporates and SMEs. I think that we will be deploying capital on those segments.

If we see that the labor market continues to be strong, we might do a little bit of growth in the credit cards and personal loans. We will continue to do so, but very cautiously on those because Openbank is not what we like.

We normally do that with our own customers, and we're growing the customer base. We see how they react, and then we give them credit.

That's why I see Mexico. Yes, definitely, we want to grow the loan portfolio there at some pace.

Yeah. In terms of rate expectations, well, it's clear that rates in Brazil are normalizing at a slower pace than anticipated.

We still expect some rate cuts this year, not significant. This should accelerate in the next couple of years for the simple reason that currently real rates in Brazil are 10%.

Obviously, we have the uncertainty around the elections and the increase in public spending ahead of the elections. This scenario should normalize in 2027, 2028.

We would expect rates to go down. We are very much in line with market expectations for a maybe 13.5%, 14% rate for the end of this year, and then gradually 100 to 150 basis points cut in the next couple of years.

With that, we should be able to get to a 20% return on equity in 2028. There's no question.

Remember that we have been decreasing the interest rate sensitivity. I think this is interesting to discuss because if you look at net interest margin evolution in Brazil, net interest income is actually up in a quarter where interest rates actually hurt our deposit cost quite significantly.

Cost of deposits in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year is 87 basis points higher because of interest rates. Despite that pressure, we were able to print a positive NII.

This is a consequence of the business change mix, that business mix change that Héctor actually reflected upon before. We have a much better asset side, obviously less sensitive to rates and lower asset quality sensitivity as well.

We are definitely confident that the current 15% return on tangible equity in the country can improve to 20% in the next couple of years. Some of the tailwind will be rates, but not only.

It's all the structural changes that we are undertaking in Brazil that will basically explain this improvement in profitability.

Thanks very much. Can we have the next question please, operator?

Morning. Thank you for taking my questions.

I've got two and one clarification. On the Spanish net interest income, it seems that about half of that growth is coming from CIB, if I'm not mistaken.

Maybe you can give a bit of color towards driving that and how sustainable that is. Also, just to clarify, is it now likely that you're growing more than low to mid-single digits in terms of NII in Spain this year?

The second one is on CIB. The trading result was weak this quarter, obviously coming from a high level in Q1, but still trending below previous quarters.

Can you give us some color as to what's driving that, and whether you expect that to run at a higher run rate for the remainder of the year? Just on TSB, a clarification with regards to the restructuring costs.

Could you let us know the timing and the size of the remaining charges you intend to take this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Britta. Let me start by going into the TSB.

I'm going to start the other way around. In terms of transformation charges, okay, you're going to see that in other results, you have EUR 281 million of transformation charges.

That's exactly for the whole group, okay? On the line of non-recurring items, you have EUR 250 million from what we have done so far in TSB, okay?

What we expect is another EUR 250 million in the following quarters. We will try to do as much as we can, the sooner the better, okay?

That's the idea of what we're trying to achieve there. On synergies, as I said, the number that we have told you is around EUR 400 million.

I already explained exactly the dynamics on how do we see that. We need to do the partnering, et cetera, we're on the right track of basically doing that.

In terms of the CIB, you see the trading income. You see year-on-year decline mainly explained by the FX hedge, okay?

Which was a headwind this year, and it was a tailwind last year. We could say the weaker trading activity quarter-on-quarter in CIB is seasonality.

We have lower volatility in global markets and the business mix. As you know, we are not a player in equity, so it's much more related to fixed income, and that's basically the way it is.

What we have seen is a lot of our trading and a lot of what we do, Britta, it depends on client flows, okay? If we see a lot of client activity, it depends on volatility of what's going on in the market.

We would see that basically that could help us in the future. That will depend if we continue basically growing our relationship with the customers and be having much more principality, it's going to help us out.

In the long term, that's going to give us some help on how do we see it. In terms of Spain, I see it sustainable.

Yes, it is. I think we have done a pretty good job in terms of what we're doing.

It's also going to depend on what market and the activity that we have there. Nonetheless, we have a pretty good backlog of transactions, and I see that it could help us quite a lot.

This is also the beauty of ONE Transformation and the network benefits we're doing, because it's very important to understand that CIB is not just the CIB business and with the big corporates. CIB is a factory for the rest of the bank.

What do I mean by that? Is a lot of CIB product is sold to mid-size corporates in the commercial business and to SMEs.

Trade finance, for example, is quite a lot. You see the results that we're doing.

For example, I explained to you that the portfolio in Brazil, in commercial, is now almost 30%-40% in dollars related to trade finance and what we're doing with ECB financing and a lot of export-related transactions. It is exactly the way that we use CIB.

The network benefits that we're getting around it and how this franchise is working together in order to get more business out of that. You're going to see CIB growing a lot more in the next few years and few quarters by doing that exactly.

It's going to give us a lot of new things, with Webster, for example, coming in, a lot of commercial business that is going to also be followed up by what we do in CIB. I really see that.

I'm sorry that I went all the way because it is important for you to understand what we're doing in the franchise, which is exactly the result of what we're having in Spain. Remember that Spain is also the hub for CIB Europe.

Okay? You have to take that into account.

I don't know, José, if you have anything else to say.

My only comment would be that to understand or to better understand the year-on-year performance at CIB, I think we need to look at gross revenue, gross income, total revenue. If you look at the different lines and the movements between the different lines, I think that might not give you the right way of looking at that, because depending on when the transaction is distributed, how it's accounted, the transactions, there might be some movements between NII and income from financial transactions.

The best way to look at CIB's performance is to look at total revenue, because you've seen other operating income, very good performance, trading income, financial revenue weak, NII strong. I think this doesn't really give you a picture of what's going on structurally in the business.

If you look at gross revenue, flat year-on-year, I think that's a better way of looking at how the business is performing.

Thanks very much. Could we have the next question, please?

Yeah. Hi, here is Sofie from Goldman Sachs.

Thanks a lot for taking my question. On net interest income, I see your net interest income in Chile was up almost, or slightly more than 25% quarter-on-quarter.

Could you maybe just discuss what drove that and how sustainable the net interest income in Chile is, and if there are any one-offs that we should be mindful of going forward? Also related to net interest income, your NII in the Corporate Center was much more negative this quarter compared to the previous quarter.

How should we think about the NII trajectory in the Corporate Center going forward? Just a final question.

Your leverage ratio continues to trend down. It was 4.8% this quarter.

Does that in any way limit any of the SRT capacity over the next two, three years? I know you gave very helpful guidance on the second half SRTs, but does that slightly limit the SRT capacity in the longer term, and how low leverage ratio would you be happy to run with?

Would you be comfortable with a 4% leverage ratio? Thank you.

Thank you, Sofie. In Chile, yes.

You have to understand that Chile inflation helps us a lot. Inflation moves in the right way.

We always make much more NII. There is no one-offs on the NII in Chile.

We foresee that we're going to have a pretty good year all in all, and I think continue to strengthen up for the second half. Chile is having a good run in the sense that also ONE Transformation is being implemented there.

I'm not going to go through the whole thing again, but I could tell you that yes, Chile is strong and for the first time actually, we are best in class in that market. We are the best bank in the country in terms of how we're managing it, and we'll continue to do so with ONE Transformation.

Thank you.

Yeah. Remember, Sofie, in Chile there are actually three currencies.

You have the US dollar, you have the peso, and you have the UF, which is the inflation-linked currency, and you have assets and liabilities linked to inflation. The increase in the quarter and the year, and the year-on-year is explained, as Héctor said, by inflation.

Is this currency, the performance of the currency, that helped the margin in the first half. The corporate center, two reasons why NII was weak.

First, we paid for TSB, and obviously there is less cash and less return from that cash, and we had to increase issuances ahead of the Webster acquisition to meet with TLAC/MREL requirements. More or less, we will need to issue, or we need to eventually cover around EUR 10 billion of senior non-preferred needs for TLAC/MREL requirements for Webster.

That's the explanation. Oh, securitizations and the risk going forward.

Well, as long as the market remains as it is, meaning there is a strong demand for private credit, I think we should be able to continue mobilizing assets on a recurring basis. As you can see, our new origination, assets that are coming in new into our books, are increasing, and this has given us new opportunities to rotate the balance sheet.

Also, markets that were closed a couple of years ago are opening up to investors, like in Latin America. As long as the market remains what it is, with this strong demand for private credit, I think we can.

It's very difficult to put a number, but EUR 35 billion to EUR 40 billion securitizations. As I explained before, it's very small, particular.

Synthetic securitizations is a very small part of what we do to mobilize assets. In the second quarter, we actually sold more non-performing loans with impact on capital than we did synthetic securitizations.

Cash securitizations are actual sales. Between sales, securitizations of both types and guarantees, can we keep on doing something like EUR 35 billion to EUR 40 billion a year at least?

The answer is yes.

Thanks very much. Could we have the last question please, operator?

Hello. Thank you for taking my questions.

Two questions please. First one on wealth management and insurance.

I think those three to three minutes growing incisively in the quarter. Can you please drive us to what regions and segments are driving this growth?

What can we expect going forward, please? The second question is more a follow-up on capital.

The regulatory capital impact expected for the rest of the year, these 15-20 basis points you mentioned, José, does this reflect the Danish compromise benefit? If not, can you please disclose and clarify or refresh how big is this impact, please?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Fernando. Yes.

As you have seen, yes, premiums are going up, that would be the idea. This is part of what we're doing.

That's probably one of the biggest growth opportunity that we have in the group today, probably is going to be the biggest delta in terms of fees, for the future, given that ONE Transformation, again, is principally on our accounts, what we can do much more with our customers is exactly penetrated the huge client base that we have selling them more products, one of the most important ones is insurance. That's where you will see premiums basically coming up and has to be quarter by quarter, given that it's a great opportunity.

If you take a look at our markets, we punch below our weight in every single market in insurance, below our natural market quota that we have. In Spain, in Portugal, for example, we have been having tremendous growth.

You will also see the same in Brazil, Chile, Mexico, where we have a great opportunity of growing to our natural quota. We'll continue to do so.

If we get to our natural quota, insurance will be a very important product for the group all in all in the next few years.

Thank you.

The Danish compromise will not add any capital to Santander. Obviously, future investments will benefit from the Danish compromise treatment for capital, but no impact from the Danish Compromise at all, okay?

There is no impact on what I said in the expectation for capital in the second half. Thank you, Fernando.

Thank you, everybody. Thanks, Héctor.

Thanks, José, for your time. The investor missions team is available if you've got any follow-up questions.

This concludes our first half results call. I wish you all a very good day.