Turkiye Is Bankasi AS
IST:ISCTR.E
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Turkiye Is Bankasi AS
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Ladies and gentlemen, we welcome you to Isbank's 2023 First Quarter Financial Results Audio Webcast. The presentation will be given by Ms. Gamze Yalcin, CFO; Ms. Nilgun Osman, Head of IR and Sustainability. [Operator Instructions] Now I leave the floor to Gamze.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to our earnings presentation for the first quarter in 2023. This is Gamze speaking. Before we delve into the highlights of the period, I would like to once again stress that our thoughts are always with those who have been affected by the catastrophic earthquakes, which occurred in the southern eastern region of the country. As Isbank Group, we are committed to provide support in any way we can and continuously explore ways to assist those in need.
Now let's start with our presentation. Today, we are presenting together with our new Head of IR and Sustainability, Nilgun Osman. Before leaving the floor to her, I would like to touch upon the highlights of the period.
In the first quarter, once again, we were able to navigate the challenges in the operating environment successfully, demonstrating the strength of our balance sheet. Our net interest margin remains relatively strong. Despite a highly competitive market, we defended our core spreads. Another factor for keeping our net interest margin at a high level was related with the stable revenue contribution of CPI linkers, positively decoupling us from the downward trend in the market. As we always share, we have a conservative valuation methodology approach for CPI linkers where we use 12 months ahead CPI expectation of market participants.
Fee generation was again quite outstanding. Our focus and capabilities allowed us to generate a strong income stream without consuming any capital. Having well-diversified business lines definitely help us to achieve robust revenue composition. But here, I would like to emphasize that leadership in payment system is one of our strategic priorities. On top of fast-growing credit card business, we have gained remarkable market shares in issuing and acquiring volumes. As a result, by the end of the first quarter, we posted the highest year-on-year growth in payment system fees by 155%, surpassing the performance of private peers.
Our asset quality metrics remains intact. In the period, we further increased our strong collection performance to 27.4% from 25.6% at year-end and observed negative net inflows. During the quarter, we sustained our conservative provisioning policies, further increasing our NPL coverage ratio to highest among peers level above 77%. We have obviously set aside additional provisions for our portfolio in earthquake-impacted areas as an indication of our prudent stance. We sustained solid capitalization levels, and liquidity continued to be robust. We believe that our capital levels are strong enough to absorb the potential adversities in the economy as well as supporting the potential future growth. Last but not least, we maintained our steady cushion of free provisions at TRY 8.5 billion, indicating the highest level among private peers.
On the next page, we have the major P&L items as well as the profitability and efficiency indicators. In the first quarter of the year, due to increasing funding costs in the market, we observed a negative net interest income performance. However, we contained NIM pressure on a Q-on-Q basis through our agile balance sheet management approach. On an annual basis, we achieved an increase of 76% in our swap-adjusted NII. Our remarkable net fee income generation continued, posting a quarterly increase of 14%, carrying the annual growth further up to 129%. We believe that strong momentum in this area will be carried on in the coming periods through our strategic focus and capabilities.
OpEx was relatively high, obviously, in the post-earthquake period, in line with the market trends. Earthquake-related costs, including donations registered in the first quarter, was around TRY 684 million. All in all, our return on equity stood at 27%, which is largely in line with our guidance. Please once again note that we maintained our strong free provision base of TRY 8.5 billion, which is, as I mentioned earlier, the highest among peers. When adjusted for free provisions, our return on equity will be at 30%.
Now I will leave the floor to Nilgun for the details of the bank's performance.
Thank you, Gamze. Welcome all, and thank you for joining the webcast. On Page 5, you can see the main balance sheet items. In the first quarter, we strategically managed our loan growth with a risk-return approach in the face of macro prudential regulations. Our TL lending increase was 13.5%, in line with the private sector banks. Naturally, growth on retail side, including credit cards, was relatively stronger.
FX lending continued to decline quarterly, with 2.9%. On the funding side, in this quarter, we maintained our cost-sensitive and rational pricing approach. Additionally, we kept our focus on widespread granular core deposit base. TL deposits posted a growth of 14.3%. Also, we registered an around 7% growth in FX deposits. As you know, Isbank has the largest demand deposit base among peers.
In the first quarter, despite the increase in deposit rates, share of demand deposits stood at 46%, providing substantial support to our funding cost base. Please note that 29% of TL deposits and 60% of FX deposits are in the form of demand deposits, contributing further to contain funding costs. Moreover, core deposits, which are sticky in nature, make up around 76% of total deposits. Increase in our non-deposit funding base is a reflection of our flexible and cost-oriented approach maintained in the period.
We have utilized cheaper alternative sources such as repos and swap transactions in a period where TL time deposit rates had an upward pressure. As for the external liabilities, our total external views were USD 6.6 billion, of which USD 3 billion is due within a year. Against that, we have FX liquid assets as much as 4x of short-term repayment amount. FX LCR was again impressive at 506%. Please note that share of sustainable financing in our FX wholesale funding is around 35% as of the end of Q1.
On the next page, we have the NIM and spread evolution. In the first quarter, swap adjusted net interest margin slightly declined, which was an inevitable outcome given the current market conditions. On the other hand, this was already accounted for in our budget. Over the quarter, we also observed an upward pressure on the funding costs. However, we managed to contain this at a limited level and achieved to display a superior core spread defense. Additionally, stable CPI linker contribution enabled us to preserve our net interest margin. All in all, our swap-adjusted net interest margin stood at 6.4% at the end of first quarter, in line with our guidance of above 5%.
As of the end of March, share of securities in total assets was 21.2%. On the TL side, while we added TL fixed income securities to the portfolio as a result of regulatory framework, we maintained a diversified structure of the book via purchasing further CPI linkers and other FRNs at the same time. At the end of Q1, these floating-rate notes, which provide a natural hedge to our portfolio, comprise more than 60% of TL securities.
As of the end of first quarter, our CPI linker portfolio make up 44% of TL securities, contributing to our income base by TRY 7.6 billion. As you know, we are using 12 months ahead CPI expectations called valuation of CPI linkers portfolio. As an outcome of our conservative methodology, we haven't experienced a decline in our CPI linker revenue, unlike market trends.
On our next slide, I will summarize the fee income performance. As you already know, in the recent years, we have been focusing more strongly on the fee-generating businesses. As a way of boosting income base without consuming capital, we have concentrated our efforts to grow business volume of products and services, which provides fees and commissions, and recalibrated the pricing tools and practices to improve this revenue stream. Accordingly, fee income generation was again remarkable in this quarter, thanks to our diversified business model and solid customer base.
We achieved a quarterly increase of 14%, carrying the annual growth an impressive 129%. Largest drivers of the strong growth were again, payment systems, lending-related fees and money transfers. Ongoing efforts to enrich the type and scope of fee-based services on digital channels will be supporting the fee growth going forward.
Next page shows the NPL and provisioning trends. In the first quarter, we have seen further improvement in our asset quality metrics. Our NPL ratio declined to 2.7%. In the first quarter, as a result of our prudent lending policy, inflows displayed a declining trend. Needless to say, our collection performance was remarkably strong at 27.4%, indicating the highest level among peer group. Therefore, quarterly net NPL formation was negative in Q1.
Including precautionary provisions related to earthquake, quarterly net cost of risk stood at 4 basis points, increasing 23 basis points compared to previous quarter. Besides, as a part of our prudent approach, we increased our NPL coverage ratio by around 3 percentage points to 77.3%, highest among peers. Additionally, as mentioned earlier, we have an exceptional free provision buffer of TRY 8.5 billion, providing a steady cushion for any risks and uncertainties.
Next page shows the capitalization levels. Despite the negative impact of dividend distribution and annual operational risk adjustment over the period, our capital ratios remained at solid levels at the end of Q1. Capital adequacy ratio without the BRSA's forbearance measures stood at 20.2%, while Common Equity Tier 1 was at 16.8%. As we always share, the sensitivity of our capital adequacy ratio to 10% depreciation in TL is limited to around 50 basis points, while sensitivity to 100 basis points increase in TL interest rates is around 15 basis points.
Please note that our strong free provision base of TRY 8.5 billion, which is not taken into account in regulatory capital, can provide around 75 basis points further uplift to our capital adequacy ratio if and when needed. This concludes our presentation. Thank you for your attention. And now I would like to open the floor for questions.
[Operator Instructions] So first, let's go with a written question. Our free provision strategy is asked. I'll leave the floor to Gamze.
Okay. Thank you very much for the question. As we always share, maintaining a substantial free provision base and topping up these when suitable is part of our prudent stance. As a matter of fact, these provisions, which indicate the highest level as we share, provide us a significant buffer against any volatilities and risks that may come up in the operating environment. And they are also part of our funding base and serve as free capital instruments in financing our assets. So briefly, I can say that we are happy with our free provisions and definitely, they keep us healthy in terms of weathering any rainy days as well. And before closing -- answering this question, I should also mention that please note that these free provisions are on top of our more than sufficient loan provisionings. So this is an extra cushion for us. Thank you.
Valentina Stoykova from Barclays has a couple of questions. I will summarize them for you. First, I mean, she asks the exercise of call option for our Tier 2 bonds that are callable in June. And another question of her is our FX liquidity as of Q1. And the last question from her is the share of local currency government bonds that we bought as a result of macro prudential measures. So I leave the floor to, first, Nilgun.
Thank you. So the call dates for our Tier 2 bonds that are outstanding is June and January -- June 2023 and January 2025. As for the Tier 2 notes, which have a call option this year, we still have some time for the call date, and the decision process is going on. And as you are aware, in addition, BRSA's permission is also required for calling the notes. So we will continue to process accordingly.
So let me continue with the remaining 2 questions. The first one is related with the FX liquidity. We have a solid FX liquidity buffer at around USD 11.5 billion. And I should mention that these constitute high-quality liquid assets of the balance sheet. Around 60% of the FX liquidity is composed of funds that we utilized for swap transactions. 40% of the FX liquidity is composed of money market placements, FX reserves, unencumbered cash and bank notes and securities. So as you see, these are -- constitute the high-quality liquid assets of the bank, in line with the Basel III's framework.
The other question was related with the securities composition, the amount of fixed income securities that we purchased in line with the regulation. Indeed, there is an increase in the fixed income securities in TL Securities portfolio from 32% to 38% regarding the current operating environment. And this is a function of the FX deposit base, Turkish lira loan pricing, Turkish lira loans roll and Turkish lira versus fixed deposits breakdown. Of course, in line with this framework, while we further increased the fixed income securities within the portfolio, we continue to purchase floating rate notes, including CPI-linked notes -- CPI-linked securities as well to balance the securities portfolio structure. And this is for the diversification and for natural hedging of the portfolio. And definitely, going forward, our strategy would be keeping this well-balanced structure of the portfolio.
[Operator Instructions] I guess we have no further questions. Thank you, everyone, for joining. You may now disconnect. So sorry. [ Sohail Kumar ] has raised his hand.
I just have one clarification on your capital adequacy ratio sensitivity. Could you please repeat in terms of if there is 100 bps change, what would be the impact on CAR?
[ Sohail ], this is Gamze speaking. Of course, a 10% depreciation in Turkish lira leads to around 50 bps deterioration in our capital adequacy ratio. And in line with the interest rate sensitivity analysis, I can say that 100% increase in Turkish lira interest rate leads us to around 15 bps deterioration in the ratio.
And maybe I should mention that this impact is for the mark-to-market revaluation differences in our available for sale securities. Of course, in line with our best practices, in line with the best practices in risk management according to the risk management framework of the bank, of course, we analyze this sensitivity for the securities registered in the held-to-maturity book as well. And according to the extreme case scenarios, even under these extreme case scenarios, I can say that the impact is quite manageable indeed in the beginning of the year. As we shared with yourselves, the capital adequacy ratio of the bank to be about 15%. And even under extreme case stress scenarios, I can share that the impact on the held-to-maturity book increase in interest rates keep us well above this -- above 15% of capital adequacy ratio.
I think this was the last question. So thank you, everyone, for joining. You may now disconnect.