Banco Bradesco SA

Banco Bradesco SA

3.40
EUR
-0.06
(-1.73%)

Q3 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptOctober 23, 2026

Marcelo Noronha

Hello, good day everyone. It is a pleasure to be here with you once again.

I am Marcelo Noronha. I'm speaking directly from our studio in Cidade de Deus, our Bradesco headquarters, to present our third quarter earnings results.

Today, I will start with a special thank you to all of our shareholders. We have just completed our capital increase of 10 billion reais.

Let's move on. I always talk about a cause and effect.

It would be no different today. I would like to have the net income in the last slide.

I spoke about this in the last quarter because we always speak about the cause and effect. One cause is revenue generated by several line items of the balance sheet.

I'd like you to look at the complete release and you'll see that we grew in NII and in our liabilities. Look at the complete earnings release and that contributes to NII.

We grew in fee income and also in the insurance group. There's a baseline, but when we look at the premiums, we posted significant growth as well.

Our loan portfolio totaled 1 trillion 150 billion, growing 11.1% year over year and in the quarter growing 1.1% quarter on quarter. Our conclusion is that we continue to have traction.

We are tractioned where we have risk appetite. If we look at the national financial system that has data published by the central bank until August, the national financial system grew 9.2%.

If we exclude Bradesco that has a significant share in the national financial system, the market is growing even less. In the quarter, in August and July, we would have about 0.5% growth in the national financial system.

We grew less in individuals, 7.4%, and grew more in legal entities, particularly large corporates, growing 14.8%. I'm going to detail that, our expanded loan portfolio.

On this slide, I bring you our NIM. Our NIM is explained here.

If you all look at the third quarter 2025 earnings release, you're going to see the same slide, but with a huge difference. When we look at large corporates, we had a minus 3.5% growth, and in the second quarter it was also dropping.

Here we had the 341 billion. Large corporates grew this year more than 50 billion.

How do we explain the NIM? Individuals were growing more, 13.8, and SMEs with 24.8.

This has been growing a lot. The weighted distribution of our portfolio was different.

If we take large corporates, if we exclude them, and you can do any calculation, if you removed 50 billion, if you deduct 50 billion you'd get to a higher NIM. I'll tell you: zero growth in large corporates, even if we had a zero growth, our NIM would not be 9.

It would be 9.3. That is the explanation.

This is a weighted average of NII generated by the portfolio. You can see the traction that we have.

Where do we have risk appetite? Let's look at individuals.

In payroll-deductible loans, we continue to grow, 7.4. Private payroll loans, we accelerated after some other competitors and the market have been growing quite a lot, but we grew 102% year over year, 13.3% in the last quarter.

I'm going to talk about the default in payroll loans, and we can debate that. In public payroll loans, we've been growing, and INSS, we've been growing less.

Actually, we posted a decrease. Do you know why?

For one basic reason: the market continue to operate with BPC, and we stopped operating BPC since 2024. We're going back to growing also with INSS payroll loans.

Vehicles, with our new platform, the technological platform offering a totally different experience to customers, a new operational and commercial secret, and the result is we grew almost 27%. We are accelerating the top line where we have risk appetite.

Same for mortgages in real estate, and we are growing 15.2%. For credit cards, this kind of portfolio is a more stressed portfolio.

This is a relationship product. We are growing more in high-income, but it is a product in which we have controlled risk appetite.

Here, personal loans, we don't have risk appetite, we're reducing the portfolio. For rural loans for individuals, this is the impact of the baseline, but we can see a decrease of 2.2, unlike the wholesale bank where we have companies with good ratings, good crops, and we are growing quite well with guarantees.

For legal entities where we have more risk appetite, it's growing in general 14.1% for companies. You see here FGI, FGO, 31% growth.

We grew non-stop in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Here we have a lot more guarantees.

This is collateralized assets, but it has other effects which I will explain in a moment. Moving on, to show this risk appetite as I have been commenting, we see here working capital and without guarantees, unsecured SMEs, dropping quarter on quarter, year on year.

If we compare with September 2025, we dropped 11.4%. With guarantees, FGI, FGO, 31.5%, as I mentioned.

This means capital management, portfolio management. This is the choice we are making.

In rural loans, individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises in December dropping almost 6%, but for large corporates growing more than 40%. Clean personal loans, I just mentioned that.

Credit card, again, we are growing, but we are growing in high-income segment. Private payroll loans, 102%, and 13.3%.

The public, we have a huge portfolio, almost 60 billion, growing 11.1% year over year. Vehicles, 27%, and real estate for individuals and legal entities, 2 8% and 2.9%.

Another interesting point to highlight and compare in terms of our portfolio: rural individuals, in December '25, our over 90 NPL was 3.9%. We ended August, to compare with the national financial system, 3.1.

The market, 6.6% increasing to 9.7%. Private payroll loans: Bradesco, in December '25, 4.9%; in August, again to compare with the national financial system, 5.4%.

Look at the market: 5.5% increasing to 10.6%. INSS: Bradesco, 1.7%, 1.8% in August.

Market, 1.9 and 2.2. When we get global private payroll loans, INSS and public, and private of course, we increased in December 2025 from 2.7 to 2.8, and the market, 2.8 to 3.8.

You just have to look at the sequence of disclosure by the Central Bank. They've disclosed a series from January to August.

If you look at it attentively, in the last month, the level of NPL grew again to 5%. If Bradesco has a lower level of delinquency, it means that there are some players, not everyone, but some players in the market that are posting greater NPL than we have.

Our portfolio is under control, but they're also affected by the macroeconomic scenario. We gained market share in the national financial system until August, 1%, and the highlight goes to earmarked loans.

We highlight FGI, FGO, 20% compared to 12.9%. We have non-earmarked loans where we have much lower risk appetite than the market.

We showed this from the last quarter, and we're managing this. Like this: FGI and FGO influencing more and more our over 90 NPL.

We're going to detail that momentarily. Because to level two, it influences level three at a greater proportion.

The expected loss is lower than a clean personal loan, for example. It is totally different.

If we don't understand this dynamic, we don't really understand what's happening with the portfolio. You see, our over 90-day non-performing loan, it was 4.1, increasing to 4.6.

When I look at the quarter, it was 4.3, increasing to 4.6. Where's this coming from?

It's coming from FGI and FGO. FGI and FGO guarantees, but the expected loss here is lower because we have very good guarantees.

Half of the growth is coming from here. This dynamic didn't happen only this quarter, it happened before that, and it's been influencing the asset quality.

The John Deere bank that has seasonality in this period from May to now, almost 10 bps. These two portfolios explain the variation of our over 90-day NPL.

Now let's look at some other things here. When I look at SMEs, we have 4.9, which is the effect of FGI, FGO guarantees.

It influences the main curves. We have the service.

Here we have the impact of status one, two, and three. We have write-off, of course, but it's not a write-off of FGI portfolio.

When we exclude the John Deere bank, we are kind of flat. We have an effect in stage three of FGI and FGO guarantees.

You see, if you don't understand this dynamic, we cannot really pinpoint what's happening with the portfolio. One more detail: this is Bradesco's portfolio.

In August, this index of the national financial system was 5%. If we look at December today, we grew 4.5.

I'm showing you where exactly we're growing. When we look at the national financial system from January to September, it grew 0.8%.

Which means if we exclude Bradesco, which has an important share in the national financial system, we will see that the national financial system has an NPL which is higher than 5% because we are pulling the delinquency of the national financial system down. Our coverage of guarantees, I've been showing you this.

We look at individuals, 72% secured loans for individuals, and the restructured portfolio totally under control. When we look at the level of coverage of stage three with FGI and FGO, that accounted for more substantial portions, we see the level of drop in coverage.

When we split and separate that portfolio, our coverage is 105%. Sometimes we debate things, but we don't understand the dynamic of the portfolio.

Now about revenues. All of the revenue lines, as I said at the beginning, assets, liabilities, fees and commissions, the insurance group The weighted average is 8.4%, but our total NII was up by 14% and 2.4% in the quarter, meaning to say that we still have a very strong traction.

We grow where we want to grow. Please look at the entire release and look at all of the liabilities and the growth we posted.

We posted 4% growth, meaning that we are growing in every line. Fee and commission income, look at the quarter's performance.

It's interesting to notice, especially when I break the numbers down. When you look at credit operations, we defer according to 4966, that's why this will continue to grow, and we see solid growth going forward.

In the insurance business, the same thing, but if you look at the insurance premium, you will also see growth. Now moving forward, look at our NII.

The effect of NIM that I mentioned before. Here we grew 10.1%, but the effect of NIM is right here, because if you look at the wholesale bank portfolio, this would be 9.3.

If we were still in the same situation we had in the third quarter of 2025, this would be 9.3 or 9.4. Certainly.

The NII net of provisions is almost flat, but it comes from the fact that there was an increase in the cost of credit. Now, look at our total NII, or NII net of provision.

It's still growing, about 5%, with the growth of gross margin and almost 1 billion reais right here. I've been saying this to you for quite some time, that our treasury is constantly operating in a recurring fashion.

I have my client desk, and when do we zero all the positions during trading? The dynamics is quite robust.

We also introduced other verticals, like the energy desk, being one of them, and we have ALM here, too. The expectation here is quite positive, but there is pressure on the cost of credit.

Yes, in some specific portfolios, as I said, personal loans, something in credit card, and agribusiness credit to individuals, and FGI and FGO, because there is secured operations, you're not going to lose down the road, but it follows its own dynamics. Now, when we look at fee income revenue, and I drew your attention to the growth, we know that checking account and collection are detractors of growth, meaning it's not growing any further.

Then, when we look at custody and brokerage services and our IB or investment banking, look at the level of growth. I even posted this nine months percentage, 15.6, but then we have 23.8, 4.8.

Now, looking on the left-hand side of the chart, our brand posted significant growth, gaining market share via AUM, asset under management, and also our consortium is very resilient. We have the largest consortium company in the country.

There's very resilient growth. Now, card income, it's interesting to notice the resilience of the portfolio, because this portfolio does not only contemplate the issuance side, because there is a whole myriad of other things, and the best quarter is the fourth quarter rather than this one, the third quarter, the one we are looking at.

Certainly now we have the insurance group, resilient ROI, 22%, and this level of growth of net income. Now, look at insurance premiums and revenues from insurance premiums.

It's been growing through the entire period. There is some traction, internal distribution through the bank's channels, customer channels and internal distribution, and particularly Bradesco Saúde was a big highlight.

The result of insurance operations shows here, the highlight being the operating result, which is even more important than the financial results, and with technical provisions of almost 480 billion, growing year over year. If you look at the entire release, the ratio is quite good and very well-balanced when it comes to our insurance business.

Now moving forward, now operating expenses. Some sell-side colleagues, they always ask about when we are going to reduce expenses.

We are constantly investing. We continue to invest over and over again, and even then, we posted good growth year over year.

Look at how much we grew. Then there was a collective bargaining agreement, and then we see the effects of that collective agreement.

If you look at the entire release, you'll certainly find many different lines: admin expenses, transportation, and they are decreasing. The growth is negative year over year.

Now, processing expenses, that grows because we are increasing our activities. Therefore, what I'm saying is that we are doing everything we need to do to pursue our strategy, pursue our transformation, and our interest on capital is also growing.

We continue to review our footprint all the time. Now, BIS ratio, CET1 was 12.1%, level one 13.7% with capital increase, meaning that we are very solid to continue to invest.

I would like to thank shareholders for their trust. The IOC that we paid, this is my one before last slide, because I want to conclude my presentation soon.

I would just like to highlight a few things. I will now run over the summary of our transformation, because in February, we will then talk about what happened in the fourth quarter.

Starting with technology, we have productivity gains with GenAI, and then we have that tool called Bridge. Last quarter, I think we had 500 cases, now that number grew to be over 1,000.

We said that when we look backwards in 2023, our delivery capacity in terms of technology achieved 300, it grew three times, and now we are saying that it will grow four times, fourfold, meaning I'm not growing or increasing the number of personnel, but rather this is productivity. This is a breakdown of the numbers.

Now, when we look at customer experience, our BIA, she's been around for 10 years. Of course, we work with AI.

Obviously, the technological base of BIA involves GenAI, it's conversational, it also performs transactions. Look at the level of interactions of BIA.

It is part of Meu Bradesco platform, and you will also see that there are new things coming along the way. We will have new things coming in our Bradesco platform about BIA so as to provide better experience to the bank's clients and also corporate and SMEs.

Now to finalize this slide, I have some important deliveries. Principal was a very important initiative when it comes to high income.

Principal has been very successful. We gained share of wallet in the cohorts that already migrated.

In September, we had 93 offices with more than 500,000 clients, and we will have more so in December. Therefore, we are just delivering to the expectations in our transformation journey.

It will still evolve, but just think about the amount of investments. We are investing in the team, training, new offices, positioning, and so on and so forth.

Prime, by the end of December, we have 4.7 million clients, and we will see a good upside when it comes to relationship, changes in the management model, and our digital wholesale, the same thing applies, we achieved more than 45 million clients. When it comes February for our next earnings presentation, I will bring more information.

I will conclude by saying that our net income is resilient. We will continue to grow.

We will grow liability, we will grow fee and commissions, and we will grow our loan portfolio where we do have a risk appetite, regardless of the macro landscape. We can only do that because we have commercial traction.

Operating expenses, needless to say, we are gaining efficiency. Obviously, there will always be the baseline challenge, but the fact is that things are happening, and we remain expediting our transformation.

I would like to highlight that our transformation project is moving at full speed. Look at all of the deliveries, and that's not an easy thing.

At the 45 million on digital wholesale, we are now concluding the delivery of our Principal. I think it's going to be three years It's not just three years since we disclosed our plan.

That will be in February when we will then have our results presentation for the fourth quarter. Thank you again for your patience, for joining us, and now I will join my colleagues: André Carvalho, our head of IR, and Carvalho, CTO.

They are the ones who answer all the questions now. Okay?

I think I said it all, now over to you.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Marcelo. Hello, Cassiano.

Good day, everyone. I'd like to remind you that Carlos Marinelli, CEO of Bradesco Saúde, and Nei Dias, CEO of Bradseg, are joining us remotely.

If you want to send questions, you can ask questions in Portuguese or in English. Send your questions to the email [email protected], or you can use WhatsApp 11 97443-8238, pointing your camera to the QR code.

First question from Daniel Vaz with Safra. Daniel?

Daniel Vaz

Hello André, Noronha, Cassiano. Congratulations on the results and on the improvement on the efficiency agenda.

I'd like to ask a question about NIM because we explained the effect of the large corporate portfolio that had an impact on the NIM while individuals decelerated. I wonder, would this be a trend to be repeated in the next good quarters?

You have a portfolio with a longer duration for large corporates, you can distribute the TVM if the need arises, but I don't see great appetite to grow in retail lines. They have a perception to be that they are more risky.

The question is: if you have a NIM that continues to decrease with the mix effect, when will your cost of risk start offsetting the effect of the NIM so that you would have a risk-adjusted NIM? Thank you.

Marcelo Noronha

Thank you, Daniel. The answer is: believe it or not, in the past, we had long-duration portfolios in the wholesale bank, but the portfolio of the wholesale bank today, we're doing business with 60 days.

It's a portfolio that is very fast. The long-duration portfolio is much more in retail with payroll loans and real estate loans, mortgage, and FGI and FGO.

They also have long duration, it's a different dynamic. Here's what I can tell you: like I said, we will continue to grow our NIM, and this is coming from several lines, no concern about that.

If the wholesale bank impacts NIM, but increases a lot more the NIM, is it better to have a NIM of 9.3 and lose revenue here, or is it better to have more gross revenue with a NIM of 8.9, 8.8? It really depends on the moment.

I just wanted to show you this effect, because in the second quarter and third quarter of last year, the wholesale bank had negative growth. It is possible we'll get to Q4, and we'll settle these short-duration portfolios and not rebuild them again, and we would have the effect in the subsequent months.

The NIM can increase again, and we can have slightly different mix. What matters is the top line.

The top line is the results of the bank, and the top line is growing, all of it. The cost of risk that you asked about, it is a fact, but it's not a privilege of Bradesco.

This is a market effect. I showed you the over 90-day NPL.

Look at the Central Bank data for August: 5%. I showed you our September number: Bradesco, 4.6.

I said that a good part of that comes from FGI, FGO guarantees. If we exclude Bradesco in the weighted average, the percentage of the national financial system will grow.

Falling? No.

Some players are under pressure. The market is more pressured for over 90-day.

The cost of risk is more under pressure for the whole system. Here at Bradesco, we continue to follow our script, our defined strategy and the commercial traction, and I'm proving it in the top line, growing all lines of revenue, and we'll continue to grow.

I'm sure that in the fourth quarter, we'll see a higher NIM as well. The cost of risk, well, that will depend on what will happen.

My feeling is we have a macroeconomic environment in which the level of committed disposable income of individuals has increased. Real interest rates is astronomical, and that impacts the companies.

It's a macroeconomic environment that impact everyone. We expect that this environment will improve.

It doesn't change overnight in 2027, but perhaps more towards the end of 2027 and 2028.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Daniel, for the question. Two quick comments here.

What we see in wholesale is that the risk-adjusted return of the wholesale bank is high and it is increasing, more business in wholesale adds value to our organization. Secondly, operations with large corporates pull revenues in other areas, for example, service, in treasury revenue and market NII.

The more we do in the wholesale, the more business we get in market NII and in services.

Marcelo Noronha

Absolutely, you're right, André. Also in investment banking, origination in the corporate segments and all of the segments we have that.

André Carvalho

Perfect. Next question from Anahy Rios of Santander.

Your microphone is muted? No, it's not?

We cannot hear you.

Anahy Rios

Can you hear me now?

André Carvalho

We'll pass to the next question, and we'll figure out what's happening with your microphone. Pedro Leduc with Itaú BBA.

Pedro?

Pedro Leduc

Thank you André, Noronha, Cassiano. Good day, everyone.

Thank you for the question. My question is about LLP.

You spoke a little about the macro environment which is impacting everyone. In retail, will this require some course adjustment?

We see auto loans, for example, growing a lot, and in wholesale where the LLP remains at the same level even with all the court reorganizations that we have been seeing, perhaps it will need some reinforcement for these provisions. It's a question on cost of risk.

If you could give us some color on general trends, I would appreciate it.

Marcelo Noronha

Pedro, thank you. It's always a pleasure to have you on board with us.

Rollovers of auto loans: excellent. We're doing really well here, competing really well in this market.

We planned to go into this market strong and very consistent way, and we're operating where we want to be with a credit policy which is very well defined and based on our models. We gained competitiveness in customer experience, in dealer experience of our managers across the board.

Rollovers: good, they're good, very good. What's putting pressure?

FGI and FGO, they do put pressure on cost and over 90 NPL. A clean portfolio.

We are now seeing the effect on credit cards where we have over 90-day NPL of customers, and I spoke about this in the last call. We have that from clients of 2019, 2020, and sometimes in clients with payroll loans.

The scenario for individuals got worse in general terms. We do have a portfolio of older clients that have been with us, and now they started delaying payment.

Of course, we speak with them, we negotiate with them, we don't want to have them in default, but we have a higher risk in those clean lines. We have been growing the portfolio in collateralized loans.

You're going to see this effect of FGO and FGI until the day that we have a curve inflection, but we haven't gotten there yet. We are growing 31% in these portfolios with more than 20% market share in 2026 in this market.

There are three banks competing strongly here for these loans, and I see the cost of risk a little bit more under pressure, like I said, and over 90-day NPL a little bit more under pressure. These are specific loans.

I'm talking about rural loans, individuals and SMEs, and I'm talking about personal loans, a little bit of credit card, and another loan with good coverage, FGI and FGO guarantees. We're navigating well, and we're growing in all line items, I see the top line paying the bill.

In wholesale, LLP remains flat and stable. Oh, good, Cassiano reminded me.

You asked about the court reorganizations. I have all the statistics here, but we are monitoring that.

In the past quarter, I showed you this number. We are not participating in many court reorganizations.

We're below the market regarding that. In the next quarter, I will bring you some numbers regarding that.

Thank you very much for your question, Pedro.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Pedro. Next question.

Let's go back with Anahy Rios from Santander.

Anahy Rios

Hi. I think now you can hear me.

Great. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question.

Thank you for your patience with my microphone. I think you made it very clear that part of that NPL increase came from lines that were collateralized by the government.

Along these lines, can you probably tell me the magnitude of that impact for this quarter, and based on the cohorts, do you have any estimate of how much NPL could still grow in these lines in the coming year?

Marcelo Noronha

Thank you. I'll ask André to answer part of that question.

I told you that we grew 30 basis points. Half of that came from FGI and FGO.

The composition is growing. FGI and FGO is already among the five best portfolios of the entire portfolio, individuals and corporate.

It's just natural that as long as we are growing, this will increasingly impact over 90 NPL. The cost of credit is lower when compared to other lines, but even then, it has its own impact because you have the 4966 that you have to comply with.

Therefore, it continues to influence until the time when we have an inflection of the curve. In theory, you may say, okay, the year is over, if the cure period is up to 180, 185 days, probably in the second quarter or in the third quarter you would see the decline of the curve, the curve will go down.

André Carvalho

It's just a matter of time. This is what is impacting it the most.

The second most important when it comes to over 90 NPL has to do with the John Deere bank, almost 10 bps, and this has its own seasonality. We are familiar with that topic.

Because if you were to look at the other portfolios in general, the weighted average is very minimal, and it's not enough to cause a major impact. The only thing is the over 90 for SMEs, that's where we see the influence, working capital impacted by FGI, FGO, especially in the fourth quarter, especially due to the recent origination in these lines.

Over 90% of origination with 31% growth year over year. We are still very tractioned.

Anahy Rios

Thank you.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Anahy. Next question from Guilherme Grespan with J.P.

Morgan. Grespan?

Guilherme Grespan

Good morning. Thank you, André.

Thank you, Noronha and Cassiano. My question is more like an update in terms of interest rates.

It's very difficult for us because this exposure is very dynamic, not only due to hedging, but the insurance company gained more momentum in your results in the past few years. I also want to know what is part of your income statement or not, because the 4966, most securities were to be carried over to maturity.

What is your best estimate, and what is the bank sensitivity to any interest rate variations?

Cassiano Ricardo Scarpelli

Guilherme, thank you for your question or comment. As we've been saying, our sensitivity is on pillar three, I'd say.

As you said, it's quite dynamic. Our treasury department has been working a lot, especially this year, and we had lots of opportunities, which indeed, this is a very specific picture of the month because there was a closing of a certain quarter, but the most important thing is that we see the evolution of our strategy, especially with ALM and everything has to do with the market account.

You look at the market, everything has to go through that. The client desk, when it comes to the treasury desk, but all of the other ALM, trade, flow, the energy desk, all of those things are part of the market structure.

Since we are running around 900 to a million reais, I would say that it floats quite a lot. Therefore, we have interesting strategies that can allow us to minimize or either maximize the move.

We posted some interesting transactions this year, and certainly, the lower the risk, the better it is, and certainly this will also benefit the market NII. Say hello to Yuri.

Yuri is very provocative, I like his provocation. All the best.

André Carvalho

Next question from Antonio Hoefi with Bank of America.

Antonio Hoefi

Good day. Thank you very much for your time.

I'd like to focus on the regulatory aspect to continue Anaí's question. When we look at FGI and FGO, they have been the main contributor of growth to SMEs, and the market is discussing a potential reduction of this volume for next year.

If that is the case, how would Bradesco react? Would you expect a reduction in growth, a replacement for other unsecured loans for SMEs, or would you look for other collateralized loans for SMEs?

How would you act when these funds play a lesser role? Still on the regulatory side, anything that you expect for individuals in terms of macroprudential, an anticyclical measure, any such things?

Antonio,

Marcelo Noronha

thank you for your question. I'll be very objective answering your question.

Number one: if we cannot work with FGI and FGO, which I think is one of the best governmental programs we have seen, because it does benefit the micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises with longer duration loan facilities and with much lower interest rates and with a grace period. It depends on the government.

If I were the government, I would maintain that because that's a fund. Everything you recover goes back to the fund, you recycle the resources.

Of course, some effect on the primary level, there's a challenge there. If there are no such resources, you can rest assured that we are here managing a huge organization, and we have many revenue streams.

You see, the relationship with these companies is growing. That portfolio has a long duration.

It's not settled overnight. It involves relationship, and of course, there's good clients who pay well and have other receivables.

We'll continue operating with them. For certain riskier clients, it might not be worth it.

The fact is, if we lose any revenue stream, we will look for alternatives and other revenue streams. If we have that kind of headwind, it's not just for us, it will be headwind for everyone in the market.

As for macroprudential measures for individuals, we haven't got those measures yet. If I tell you anything about it, it's merely speculation.

I don't really believe or expect any hard measure coming from the Central Bank. That's my personal perception regarding that.

André Carvalho

Did you have anything to add? Thank you very much, Antonio.

Next question from Beatriz Shinye with UBS.

Beatriz Shinye

Hello, everyone. Good morning, Noronha, Cassiano, André.

Thank you for taking my question. On our end, we have a question regarding efficiency.

I think that OPEX was a very positive point this quarter. There were some one-off events, and Noronha mentioned in the presentation, but just to check, looking forward, do you still expect improvement in efficiency?

Which would be the main drivers for this improvement in efficiency to continue?

Marcelo Noronha

Thank you, Beatriz. I'll let the guy responsible for the transformation office to answer your question, because we have a number of projects there.

Cassiano?

Cassiano Ricardo Scarpelli

Hello, Beatriz. Thank you for the question.

We didn't have any one-off events. This is an ongoing process we have been working on since 2024.

This has translated into structural improvements. The footprint is one.

We are getting to a more residual level because we're getting close to the optimal adjustment in what we expect to have in terms of service network, branches and offices. We're doing strong work on procurement.

We are revisiting all the major general contracts for the organization, and this has resulted in great efficiency. Thirdly, contracts and technology licenses.

We are using more agents, we're using AI, and more than that, we are improving all of the bank's processing capability, because that benefits all our back processing and our online. This, in turn, means efficiency.

Not all of it is captured. We're still expecting about 40 points of efficiency, and this will be the mix: efficiency, productivity.

We're getting to the end of the footprint adjustment, and of course, looking at the best technologies at a reduced cost. This is what we're expecting for the next two to three years.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Beatriz. Next question from Gustavo Schroden with Citi.

Gustavo Schroden

Hello, good morning. Good morning, Marcelo, Cassiano, André.

Thank you for your time. My question has to do with services, more specifically in regards to investment banking.

The bank has been very strong in originations, especially DCM. This year is quite weak, but in that DCM line and even different from what we see from other peers, I would just like to understand the strategy behind it, and where you believe that Bradesco has managed to distinguish itself and presenting a different dynamics vis-a-vis the market.

Whether there is any possibility depending on the volume of originations, if we have a possible drop in interest rates, whether we should expect some positive results if interest rates continue to decline.

Marcelo Noronha

Gustavo, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. I'll tell you the following, and what is happening with investment banking has to do with our management.

The team did some excellent work. Bruno is heading that, but Tucci is working on the DCM side.

DCM, it's quite sluggish, but when you look at André, what we are seeing is, depending on what happens in the market, we may see a leap in DCM. We are not saying that, okay, I want to be a leader.

That's not our target, Gustavo. The strategy is to be close to our clients.

We are becoming much more assertive, our team is much better prepared, we are originating more with all of our corporate segments. All we want is our fair share, that's what we usually say.

I see that people are working quite well. Global and Ágora also posted relevant growth, and we continue to originate more and more.

In regards to a drop in interest rates, what I have to tell you is, not necessarily you have specific gains here because of that, but what we're doing today, and that I think it was a question asked by Vaz at the beginning when we talked about the wholesale bank, because the duration is much lower when compared to the past. We have short transactions in terms of receivables from suppliers, and we are also operating in what we call origination for distribution portfolio, OPB, you put something in our books, and then it gets out.

That's why it can go up 10% in one quarter and down 10% in next quarter. Depending on the situation, that exit at OPB is when you find a secondary, and Gustavo, you're very familiar with that, there is a premium for you to leave that distribution in that window.

Cassiano Ricardo Scarpelli

I would have two things to say, Gustavo: first of all, the percentage of firm offering that we had executed was lower when compared to our peers in 2026. Secondly, in terms of DCM, the new thing is origination for middle markets, for mid-sized companies.

I think this is quite important. Thank you, Gustavo.

Gustavo Schroden

All the best.

André Carvalho

Next question from Matheus Guimarães with XP. Over to you, Matheus.

Matheus Guimarães

Good morning André, Noronha, Cassiano. Thank you for taking my question.

My question is about market NII. I think this was another very strong market.

In nine months, you were able to deliver what we were expecting for the full year. How do you see this line going forward?

Do you believe that this current level should be a more recurring level? How do you see that going forward?

Marcelo Noronha

I hope so. Again, this has to do with our good management.

As I said before, our treasury is operating quite well. The team is excellent, very well-prepared, and there is a recurring scene with wholesale bank with the middle bracket and companies as well.

We're offering different alternatives to companies, and that impacts trading, the energy desk. My expectation is positive for this quarter, and we will continue posting this recurring scene in our treasury.

I can just add to what I said in previous answers: our treasury is well organized and well in place, and I think we will post similar numbers in the fourth quarter. It will be around 3 billion this year, and treasury has a very suitable strategy.

We have all it takes to see things happening. Lower interest rates, no matter what, is always very good to the organization as a whole, and our treasury, of course, and I think 2027 will be a very promising year.

It will be a very good year. Maybe in 2027, we will come with more robust numbers for you.

To reinstate what Cassiano said, I already talked about our total NII, market NII, client NII. Assets, liabilities, I have very good expectations for next quarter, including market NII.

André Carvalho

Next question from Eduardo Rosman with BTG. Rosman?

Eduardo Rosman

Hi, good morning, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity.

I'd like you to give us an update on the transformation of the retail bank. What do you think has worked well, what has been more challenging since you designed the plan?

Thank you.

Marcelo Noronha

Rosman, thank you for participating. It's always a pleasure to have you here with us.

Cassiano, over to you because you're responsible for the transformation office. Start answering the question, and myself and André will add comments.

Cassiano Ricardo Scarpelli

Good, Rosman. I think the first challenge was when we started the base of transformation along 2024, '25.

Those were the foundation for us to bring clients who would go to branches to digital service with BIA, online chat, and some resources. For 80 years, we told our clients to go talk to the managers of the branches, and now they started talking with a remote agent.

This was an important foundation in the first two years. The challenge for this year specifically was to actually migrate them all.

We have 45 million clients already migrated, and that helped the other side of transformation, which is the footprint. 45 million clients being served remotely, that's very important.

More than 50 million interactions with BIA. In 90% of the cases, BIA answers the questions.

Only 10 to 12 of the contacts will be migrated to a human agent. This was an area that involved a lot of manual processes at the branches.

Now everything is 100% digital. The two main challenges now: engaging, and we've been doing this really well.

We have been opening checking accounts that are more and more profitable, and that's very important. That's the first big positive.

Clients are much more engaged, they're using the bank a lot more. Of course, working to have the bank primacy of those clients who didn't really go to the branches, but they had our app and they prefer our bank.

Now we're offering them the best proposition for these clients. That is the challenge.

We have to make the clients more profitable. Once the cost is right, now we have to increase their profitability, and we have to continue to have a more assertive opening and a much healthier opening of checking accounts for the bank.

Now,

Marcelo Noronha

here's what I can add, Rosman. If you look at the entire release, we grew our client base also in this quarter.

Our people is working on engage to grow, as Cassiano mentioned, and then working on the life cycle of the clients, particularly in the retail bank. We have digital retail plus Prime.

I won't repeat what Cassiano said about digital retail, but for Prime, the Prime segment, Prime was a big giver of clients and managers for the Principal segment. We made an effort: training, etc.

People made an effort to migrate clients, and the last migration will happen now this quarter, and the process will be complete in December. Next year is the year of Prime and the segments of business one and business two, which we are improving.

We're also changing the management model for the Prime segment. We ended the quarter with 4.5 million clients, and we'll end the year with around 4.6 million.

We're going to have a value proposition which is different. Now, a segment focused on what they need to do: a different account loading, a different front end that was implemented, a platform that is completely different.

We'll see Prime taking off because it had to pass clients and managers, and some clients were transferred to Principal, some clients were migrated to digital retail, Prime was a big giver of people, clients, and structure. Now that we are ending the deployment of Principal, and that's when we are going to have a leap for Prime.

That was the side effect of adjusting digital retail and high-income, which is Principal. Prime was in the middle of this.

It continues to work and to deliver results, and it will take off more and more. Now we are focused on that only.

We don't have to work with the other segments of clients given the whole initiative that we implemented during this period.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Rosman. Next question from Eduardo Nishio with Genial.

Eduardo Nishio

Hello, good morning, André, Noronha, Cassiano. I have two questions.

The first: we are in the eve of a very important moment for Brazil, in this weekend. I'd like to understand from you what would the bank be like, how would the lines behave if there is an accelerated reduction in the Selic interest rate?

How do you see the bank navigating in a lower-interest environment? My second question is: trying to understand more the movie than the snapshot, we see client NII increasing 1.5, but NII net of provisions dropping.

We have the fact of having a secured portfolio, and we have some companies in the agribusiness going into stage three. There is also the cure that comes later after FGI and FGO.

How do you see NII evolving in the coming quarters, and whether it is possible to say when we're going to have an inflection point in NII net of provisions?

Marcelo Noronha

Thank you, Nishio, for your questions and for your participation. Cassiano spoke about it: a declining interest rate is positive for the organization in general terms.

That's the first answer for you. The second answer: in terms of NII, I see our NII, client NII coming from loans and liabilities, and market NII growing.

Now, NII net of provisions, as you mentioned, was under pressure given the cost of risk, and we have to have the possibility to foot that bill. The cost of risk over 90-day will be under pressure for a while.

This is not our privilege only. Actually, our privilege is lower than that of the national financial system, but it will be an impact on the Brazilian market.

Like I said during the presentation, over 90-day NPL disclosed by the Central Bank from January to August grew 0.8%. It's not so little.

Ours grew 0.5%, but ours grew concentrated in the FGI and FGO portfolio and with the John Deere bank. This is different.

It's a difference when you look at the portfolios: it's a higher cost of risk, a higher over 90-day NPL. Again, look at our top line.

Our top line is good. We'll continue to grow, and I believe in this.

I believe that we are going to deliver a market and client NII that will be higher in Q4 2026. Lower interest rates are positive, and positive for the whole macroeconomic environment in Brazil, because today the real interest rate is very high.

We're talking about almost 10%. Lower interest rates drive the economy, drive our clients, our clients pay more and better.

It removes costs from the companies, companies free capital to invest.

André Carvalho

For companies that are more indebted, small, medium-sized enterprises or large corporates, they suffer more. Lower interest rates impact the cost of risk, but this doesn't happen fast.

It really depends on the economy. We're not going to get that bulk of people who have a higher committed disposable income and change that profile overnight.

It's a cycle. In terms of NII net of provisions, we have a guidance: 42 to 48 billion in the year.

We are in the lower range, and the performance is within expectance.

Marcelo Noronha

André is correct in what he is saying, but when I look at the NII, I have a slightly better expectation for Q4 as regards our guidance, but let's wait and see.

André Carvalho

Next question with Renato Meloni with Autonomous.

Renato Meloni

Good morning, everyone. Good to see you.

I would like to still talk about risk-adjusted client NII. You still have risk appetite in segments with lower spread.

The cost of risk is reasonable, it would be reasonable to think that the margin will continue to be pressured going forward. What do you see happening throughout next year that will allow you to grow more, and what will be the inflection point of the margin?

Marcelo Noronha

Renato, thank you again for joining us. It's always a pleasure to talk to you.

I think you were referring to the NII net of provisions. The internal cost is a bit more under pressure, but look: we are growing in portfolios that not only bring a very high RAR, but they also present a very inviting margin with a good duration, and an example of that is public and private payroll loans.

This is a portfolio that if you look at it, 110 billion, we still have a lot of room to grow more. Secondly, I am showing you that when it comes to rolling out the vehicle portfolio, we chose where to operate.

I will clearly say that if we only look at new light vehicles, the RAR is very low, the margin is very low. We positioned ourselves in such a way that we can capture more margin here, with almost 27% growth.

That means that all of this will contribute to our next year's margin. By December, we have a very important carryover portfolios that already have a margin that can be carried over towards 2027.

Also, we are growing the numbers. Look at the entire release.

The margins are important. The funding credit is stable, and primacy especially among individual clients.

André Carvalho

Thank you, Renato. We now conclude our Q&A session.

The questions that were not answered will be certainly answered by our IR team. Before I turn the floor over to Marcelo to conclude our meeting, I would like to remind you all that in our IR website, you will find this presentation and also all of the material pertaining to this quarter.

Marcelo Noronha

I'd like to thank Cassiano and André for joining us. In particular, I would like to thank all the participants of this call.

I would like to thank the shareholders that approved our capital raise, all of investors from buy-side and sell-side. Thank you for being with us.

Moreover, our clients that join us during this release presentation. I cannot forget to mention all of our employees, Marinelli and Nei who were also here.

We will soon see you again to talk about the results for the fourth quarter of 2026. I wish you all a great weekend, and thanks for joining us.