Bankinter SA

MAD:BKT

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Bankinter First Quarter Earnings Call. Our CFO, Jacobo Diaz, will now explain in detail the results of this quarter. Thank you.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this presentation of Bankinter's earnings for the first quarter of 2021. The related financial statements were posted on the website of the CNMV a few minutes ago before market opens. All related documents can also be found at this time on the Bankinter corporate website. First, I want to emphasize that we have started 2021 with a very strong commercial performance. This is reflected in main balance sheet volumes growth and subsequently in pre-provisioning profit growth. We see this as a remarkable performance considering the continued special circumstances of the beginning of the year, with still lockdowns and restriction of mobility that impact on all businesses and geographies. We have been able to maintain continued growth in the bank's balance sheet, in our loan portfolio, in retail deposits, and particularly in this quarter, in assets under management. Therefore, our net interest and fee income were able to post growth despite the current environment. We continued to show a solid asset quality and solvency, with flat NPLs year-to-date, increased coverage of provisions and our CET1 fully loaded ratio at record levels, over 12%. As usual, this is a brief comparison year-on-year in our key financial indicators. Group's total loan book grew by almost 6% to EUR 65 billion, thanks to the strong corporate demand in 2020 and the mortgage loan book growth, particularly in this quarter, while Consumer Finance continued to show some contraction. Gross operating income at EUR 465 million grew by close to 7% with respect to last year, showing strong resilience in incomes coming from the business and the positive trading income contribution. After our quarterly seasonal cost reduction that makes easy to keep costs under control, the pre-provisioning profit posted an improved growth rate, over 6%, in still difficult environment. NPL ratio shows no change, in line with all our asset quality indicator. Despite the difficult economic situation at 2.37%, same as December '20, it just dropped 21 basis points from a year ago. Coverage ratio after the recorded extraordinary provisions of last year now stands at 62%, 13 points increase over the previous year. Group's net profit stand at EUR 148 million, a 14% increase from a year ago. Our CET1 fully loaded capital ratio remained flat at 12.3% despite the 50% approx reserve on dividends. It stands comfortably 88 basis points above last year and our long-term guidance of 11.5%. Our return on equity reflects this improved performance as shows at 11.3%, clearly ahead of that of our domestic competitors and above our cost of capital. We will follow the usual agenda for quarterly presentations: first, our quarterly results; then risk management; to end with a review of the business in the period. Here are the group's P&L accounts for the first quarter 2021. Our income statement continued to show positive trends in the 2 main lines of revenue: net interest income and fee income. Group's net interest income maintains a positive trend despite the negative seasonality and adjusted by a lower number of days in the quarter. Year-on-year growth is a reflection of our lending growth and client margin resilience. It's up 1.3% from 2020. Better market environment and increased commercial activity did support our fee income. Fee income grew by 5.6% with respect to the previous year. Other operating income and expenses at EUR 23.3 million were much higher than a year ago due to a better trading income in the quarter and the exceptional bad quarter in 2020 with -- from the trade activity. Total gross operating [Audio Gap] money operations are now fully comparable. In total, they grew only by EUR 1 million year-on-year or only 4.7%. The group's total cost grew by 7% with respect to previous year, mainly due to personnel expenses that went up by over 12%, only due to a EUR 17 million regularization in first quarter 2020, but went down by more than 9% over the previous quarter. General and administrative expenses are under control with the less than 1% increase in respect to a year ago and the previous quarter. This positive income and cost performance through the year allowed pre-provisioning profit to increase by 6.4% from a year ago. Loan loss and other provisions are down 4.6% from 2020. After the small decrease in provisions, pretax profits for the banking activity stands at EUR 161 million or 14.7% above that of 2020. Pretax profits coming from Línea Directa, LDA, brings an additional EUR 39 million to the group in the quarter or an increase of 2.2% from 2020. This shows a steady performance of the insurance business in a more difficult environment that we will analyze most probably for the last time later on this presentation. After taxes, the group posted a net profit of EUR 148 million, an increase of 13.8% from a year ago. All in all, the banking business after closing the first quarter has been in line with our plan for the year in almost all incomes, volumes, cost and the recurrent cost of risk. Group's pre-provisioning profit growing at 6.4% clearly indicates the resilient growth in all of our customer activities and geographies. However, the necessary caution of the future evolution of credit risk models under this slow recovery scenario had made us to fine-tune the guidance of cost of risk for the full year to range it in 50 to 60 basis points comparing to the 60 basis points that we provide in previous quarter as guidance for the year. Here, we present the quarterly P&L, which shows the usual fourth quarter positive seasonality in incomes and the offset of the fund -- of the guarantee fund charges booked on the same quarter. Those first quarter comparison of different years gives a better view. This is why we bring first quarter of '20 and first quarter on '19 for comparison. Thus, we can see a very positive operating income growth pattern, up 6.6% and 15.3%, respectively. While operating costs increased by 6.7% and 12.7% in the same period, those pre-provisioning profit increased by 6.4% and 17.3%, respectively. After the very different credit risk provision, 2021 provisions doubled those of 2019. Profit before taxes of banking activity has been up by 14.7% in respect to first quarter of 2020 and only 5% in respect of first quarter 2019. Finally, group's net profit came to EUR 148 million in '21 versus EUR 130 million in '20 and EUR 145 million in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 crisis. The pre-provisioning profit increased by 41.7% from last quarter, after provisioning quarterly comparison of profit before taxes of the banking activities over 2x that of 2020. Comparison with the previous quarter is not relevant due to the impact of the regulatory charges. Let's move to the balance sheet. The group's loan book grew by 5.8% from a year ago, bringing EUR 3.5 billion in new loans in the new year to reach EUR 64.6 billion. Growth in the quarter of EUR 258 million comes from mostly from our mortgage business, including EVO Banco in Spain, and also in Portugal and Ireland during this period. At the same time, and as expected, demand incorporates and SME shows negative impact after the end of the government programs for providing liquidity to the economy. First quarter always see a drop in lending from the high activity in the last quarter of the year in corporate loans. This year, mortgage lending to individuals maintained the high level of the fourth quarter, as we will see later in the presentation. On the other hand, consumer loan book continued to fall with weak demand and stricter requirements in the new production. In net terms, this first quarter loan book grew by EUR 258 million, including other geographies, mainly in mortgages, personal loans and loans to corporate, basically in Portugal. In Spain, lending growth maintained a pattern from the previous quarter. It grew by 5% on -- year-on-year, well over 2.6% of the sector as of February '21, bringing market share increases in both household and corporate loan book. For corporates, loan growth has been 9.2% year-on-year or EUR 2.2 billion. This growth was different by segment, but very well balanced: large corporates adding EUR 0.7 billion; mid-corporates, EUR 0.9 billion; and SMEs, EUR 0.6 billion, mainly with the equal guarantee credit lines. In Portugal, lending is up by 7% from a year ago with an additional EUR 574 million or up 4% from last December, slightly ahead of our business plan. Retail deposits continued to perform strongly in all geographies at 11.2% year-on-year and EUR 6.6 billion to EUR 65.9 billion. They were up by 11.4% in Spain from a year ago, while market grew by 9.2%, bringing Bankinter market share on domestic deposit to 3.9, with the last available data of February '21. In Portugal, deposits grew by 5% in the quarter or EUR 238 million, also grew by 10% year-on-year to reach EUR 5 billion. Moving on. Net interest income continued to show a good resilience. It grew by 1.3% over the same quarter a year ago and reduced only by 2.6% from last quarter. This is mainly due to being able to reduce by over 4% the year interest expenses, cost of deposit and debt, while keeping almost flat the interest earned, thanks to volume and asset yield resilience. The contribution of EVO and Avant Money to our net interest income continued to be small. They contributed with EUR 18.5 million to the group's net interest income this quarter versus EUR 19.6 million the same quarter last year. In Portugal, net interest income also grew by 5.7% and by just 0.8% with respect to the previous quarter, with a small impact from extraordinary recoveries in the quarter. The profit resilience in the net interest income is mainly driven by loan book growth, together with keeping stable customer margin, as we will see. Customer margin improved by 1 basis point from last quarter, thanks to the flat credit yield and 1 basis point reduction in the cost of deposits. The 15 basis points decrease year-on-year is mainly due to the reduction in Consumer Finance yields, together with an important reduction in the U.S. dollar LIBOR reference rate in our international business. Cost of deposits helped, with an additional 3 basis points improvement in the year. After a year with the cost of deposit at all-time lows, we believe that stable credit yields are the key to our customer margin to remain resilient in the coming quarters. We continue with a positive prepricing of yields of the mortgage loan book from versus back book yields and also some asset mix improvement in corporate lending with more weight in working capital. Group's ALCO portfolio showed a small change in the quarter after a more volatile bonds market with -- but with a lower fair value portfolio, unrealized gains of the portfolio now amount to approximately EUR 630 million, slightly down from year-end. Out of this, capital gains, 81% sits on the amortized portfolio with no impact in the capital ratio, and the remaining 19% correspond to the portfolio at fair value with a small impact in capital, as we will see later. Moving to the fee income. Fee income performed in line with our guidance for the full year after a first quarter with the usual seasonal lower activity levels. Those quarterly fee income was EUR 8 million below the previous quarter, and it continued to show growth of 6% over the same quarter last year. Fee income from our recurrent customer business continued to grow, except payment and collection, as in previous quarter, due to the slowdown in the activity. On the other hand, assets under management volumes enjoy a very good quarter, and this is reflected in the strong 15% improvement from last year fees. Total net fees account for 28% of our gross operating income. The largest contributor to our fees, with EUR 44 million in the quarter, continues to be asset management fees, 26% of total fees charged and up by 15. A strong commercial activity brings our assets under management to record level at the end of the quarter. The second largest contributor to fees, EUR 27 million, is payments and collection from corporates and individuals. Performance has been clearly impacted by the slowdown in the economy. In consumption, despite this environment, it has been limited to a 10% decrease and improving from last year drops. After one year of very positive trend in fees from bond and equity trading and our broker online, it's still growing at 9% to EUR 24 million in the quarter. Other relevant fees, our FX business with customers, it went up by 15% from a year ago on the back of international trading and third-party mutual fund subscription. Then a very stable life insurance and pension fund sales brings fees up 2%. And finally, risk-related transactions and other fees from investment banking are also up 15% and 75%, respectively, showing again a strong momentum in this business, with very strong potential. Moving on, in other operating income and expenses. Here, you can see the main components of these lines. The EUR 30 million of trading income plus dividends this year increased by almost 24 from last year to higher trading volumes. And the 80% increase in regulatory charges are EUR 6 million, weighted on the other expenses for the quarter, totaling EUR 13 million or almost 2x the charge from a year ago. Gross operating income for the quarter stood at EUR 465 million, an increase of almost 7% from a year ago. Quarterly comparison also grew by 13% from the previous quarter and by 15% from first quarter 2019. In Portugal, gross operating income grew by 9.8% from last year and quarterly grew by 3.6% from December, following the improved trend of recurrent business in our Portugal or Portuguese franchise. The chart on the right shows the breakdown of the contribution to incomes without Linea Directa. Net interest income represents 67% and fees reached 28%. Group operating costs in the quarter totaled EUR 202 million. They are up 7% from the previous year, but down by EUR 25 million or 11% from last quarter. Operating costs from EVO and Avant Money was EUR 46 million, growing by only EUR 1 million from a year ago. Without them, costs would have been growing at 8.6% in Spain. In Portugal, costs are down by 2% over the last year. Personnel expenses are up, mainly to the one-off adjustment of the incentives recorded in the first quarter of 2020. General and administrative expenses plus amortizations are under control, only growing by 1% over last year. Our recurrent banking efficiency continued to improve in the quarter. The group's cost-to-income dropped 117 percentage points from December '20 to 43.4%. And remained flat from March 2020, at levels close to 43%. We plan to keep the long-term banking cost-to-income below 45%, always trying to improve efficiency in all our businesses. We continue to do so in Portugal, now with efficiency at 55%, and in Avant Money at 62%. EVO still in negative efficiency. However, our Spanish business standalone runs at 38% efficiency ratio. With all these, the pre-provisioning profit show a quarterly record at EUR 263 million, 6% up from 2020, and more relevant, more than 17% ahead of that in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 crisis and part of the record full year of Bankinter net profit, EUR 551 million in 2019. Now let's look at the cost of risk. Total recurrent cost of risk in the quarter finished at 35 basis points or total credit exposure with an increase of 5 basis points from December and only 1 basis points from the first quarter last year, still in a very contained trend. It remained almost flat year-on-year due to NPL ratio evolution. The increase came only from our Consumer Finance loan book and then -- with the rest remain almost stable in personal lending, mortgages and large and mid corporates. The small growth in SMEs still not significantly, it is probably affected by the extension of the government support programs. We expect this good behavior in the first quarter to be extended to the second quarter, as is has been in April. However, we have been anticipating some stage 2 migration for the second half of the year, more difficult in Consumer Finance as well in the small, medium-sized enterprises. The increase in the quarter of 5 basis point was only in Spain, and again, related to the Consumer Finance activity. Therefore, the SMEs loan book, the commercial banking loan book as well as the large and mid-corporate loan book did not have a significant impact during the quarter. It is probably too early to anticipate what will be the impact of the beginning of maturities in the mortgage moratorium and the ICO liquidity lines for SMEs and corporates, both in Spain and Portugal. But just a reminder, the use of the public and private moratoriums for individual in our Spanish portfolio was limited to less than 2% of the total portfolio and up to 15% in Portugal or EUR 1.1 billion, including SMEs. As we see these things today, 2021 will show an increase of recurrent cost of risk in the second half, that will bring our cost of risk for the full year somewhere between 50 and 60 basis points, down from last year. After provisions, group net income stand at EUR 148 million, up 14% and 2% up from that of the first quarter of 2019, the record year so far in profits. As we have made public recently, we expect the group 2019 level of net profits to be matched at year-end 2023, once the expected recovery in the economy provoke asset quality to normalize as well as the growth of our recurrent business. At the end of quarters, group's return on equity stands at 11.3%, still with high provisioning. Once we exclude LDA contribution from May 2021, we expect group's return on equity to improve at year-end, the levels of last year, excluding extraordinary provisioning. In this chart, we see the evolution of our tangible book value per share at EUR 5.33, with a solid growth of 1.7% in the quarter, probably again, a best-in-class in our domestic banking sector. And now I will move into our management credit risk liquidity and solvency section. Nonperforming loans continued their downward trend. And despite a difficult start of the year in an economic cycle, we have been able to show a stable number. Total NPLs went down by 3.4% from March '20, mainly due to the last year annual NPL sales in Consumer Finance. Year-to-date, NPLs remained flat at EUR 1.69 billion. Total group NPLs grew by only EUR 7 million in the quarter. Of this growth, 27% came from our Consumer Finance business, and other business in Spain came down as a reduction. Portugal NPLs -- Portuguese NPLs came also down EUR 6 million. Avant Money in Ireland brings only EUR 0.9 million, and EVO only EUR 0.2 million. Therefore, the growth in consumer finance NPLs in Spain was mainly offset by a reduction in the rest of the business segments. The group's NPL ratio remained at 2.37%, lowest point since 2008 and 21 basis points lower from a year ago. It decreases from last year, mainly due to the EUR 92 million sale of NPLs in Consumer Finance. In Spain, NPLs stands at 2.44%, 19 basis point below last year and 2 up from December '20. This ratio continues to be weighed down from the sector average at 4.54% last data of January '21. In Portugal, NPL ratio declined to 2.03% or only EUR 144 million of NPLs. And as shown in the chart on the right, the group's NPL ratio went down to 2.2% for households, same level as in December, and decreases to 2.8% for corporates and SMEs. Total provisions for nonperforming assets increased consequently after the extra provisioning of 2020 to EUR 1.2 billion, an 18% increase from last year and 2% since December. All this had a relevant impact on provisions coverage, which now stands at 62% from 49% a year ago. Coverage for foreclosed assets were also improved to 50% and 11.5 points more than -- sorry, an 11.5% increase, and clearly above the average discount of our sold assets. The group's foreclosed asset portfolio in the following slide is 21% smaller than a year ago. It decreased by EUR 58 million. This small portfolio now amounts to EUR 216 million, coming from EUR 227 million last year-end. Total sales in the quarter amount to EUR 20 million or 9% of the stock at the beginning of the year. We sell most of our repossessed assets through our commercial network, with an average discount on sale stable at 38%, below their provisioning coverage. Let's move into capital. Our fully loaded CET1 ratio finished the quarter flat at 12.3%, a small decrease of 1 basis point from last quarter and 82 basis point from a year ago. Since December '20, our retained earnings bring an increase of 19 basis points, taking into consideration the accrual of dividends at approximately 50% of earnings. Capital consumption of risk-weighted assets has been limited to 7 basis points due to the flattish loan book. Valuation adjustments bring a small negative 3 basis points due to markets volatility in our ALCO portfolio. And insurance decreases by 10% points, due to the deduction of the accumulated profits of Linea Directa before the dividend distribution to be recorded in April. Also, the new default definition, with a negative 6 basis points contribution, together with the anticipated implementation of new IRB parameters in our internal rated based models, with another 8 basis points negative, brings a total of 14 basis points negative impact in the quarter. Total capital ratio remained at 15%, a very comfortable level, and the leverage ratio at 5%. Finally, the ratio -- the 21.6% ratio of risk-weighted assets for the MREL remained well ahead the 18.7% requirement for 2022. In the next slide, we got continued increases in our customer deposit, have brought our funding up to negative since the end of 2020. Those -- the relevant negative gap in Spain more than offset the gap coming from Portugal and Ireland. As a result, loan-to-deposit ratio reached record level of 95.9%. As of the TLTROs and after the last auction in late March with a new take of EUR 1.3 billion, total stake now stands at EUR 14.2 billion. And we account the interest earned at its 3-year average of 85 basis points approximately, with the total confidence of meeting the minimum growth requirement for loan growth in the period. Now let's move and let's review the performance of our business line in their respective contribution to the P&L. I will skip directly to the banking activity. Over the last few years, we have been working and investing to improve the diversification of income sources. We have reached a well balance between the main contributors. Corporate and Commercial Banking together represent over 60%, with now 13% coming from our Consumer Finance subsidiary despite the recent loan contraction, together with 8% that represent Portugal income, 6% of Investment Banking, 3% of Ireland business and 1% of the new EVO. Okay. Moving on. The corporate and SME loan book in Spain and Portugal grew by 8% over the year or over EUR 2 billion in the year. It increased by almost 8% in Spain, while the sector grew at 8.8% year-on-year. But only, this data is as of February 21, which is the last data available. All this growth started during the second quarter of 2020 with the government guarantee ICO lines. After the summer, there has been a slowdown in corporate loan demand, only improved by the December pickup and followed by the seasonal reduction of first quarter. In Spain, during the first quarter of '21, like every year, loan book declined by EUR 0.5 billion or 1.7%. Despite this seasonal decline, we have increased our market share to 5.2%. Net loan growth over March last year by business segment has been as follows -- 60 -- sorry, EUR 683 million from large corporates; EUR 913 million in mid; and EUR 572 million in SMEs. In Portugal, where we have been growing our market share in corporate lending, it now stands at 2.13% or 15 basis points up from a year ago. Let's do a quick review of the 3 most important sources of income of our Corporate Segment. International trade and supply chain finance continue to strengthen its loan book in short-term international working capital funds. Balance remained almost flat from the end of last year. Transactional business turnover with corporate customers continued down in the period due to the lower economic activity. Still, it generates EUR 28 million in income in the quarter. And finally, investment banking has started once more the year with a very good performance in revenues for Corporate Banking. In the quarter, it generated EUR 20 million, 22% more than a year ago. The loan book stands at EUR 3.7 billion, that's grown by 25% in the year. And the new production in the quarter was almost EUR 300 million. In this slide, we show Bankinter participation in the government guarantee ICO lines for corporate and SMEs. Total ICO loans with a state guarantee disburse were EUR 6.3 billion. Of these loans, have been granted mainly in medium and small corporates. Total of EUR 8.7 billion of ICO loans have been signed with Bankinter. Our moratoriums over mortgages and Consumer Finance to individuals amount are still very small in Spain and represents only 1.8% of the total loan book. NPLs, unamortized ones, has been 4.7% or EUR 25 million. And for the current one, NPL stands at 0.39%. Moratoriums in Consumer Finance are negligible in both Spain and Ireland, only EUR 3 million. In Portugal, where moratoriums were more relevant and include corporate loans as well, they represent 14% of total portfolio. Our Asset Management business maintained its growth trend in the 3 categories: mutual funds, 6 -- 26% up; pension funds, 21%; and [indiscernible], 29%. In mutual funds, net new money in the first quarter has been a strong and record EUR 1.1 billion, that, together with the positive market effect, brings a total to EUR 25.5 billion, a new record. All this commercial activity in Spain is based on a strong customer acquisition, growing 34% year-on-year and 8% in number of active clients. In Wealth Management, in the next slide, customer assets increased strongly from last quarter due again to the strong commercial activity, together with a positive market effect adding both business, private and personal banking, assets under management increased by almost EUR 14 billion in patrimony on this year. The strong commercial activity and these are measured by new -- net new money in the quarter shows a total of EUR 3.7 billion increase, EUR 2.4 billion in Private Banking and EUR 1.3 billion in personal banking. Moving into our activity in the commercial retail banking during the quarter. Again, very strong. Salary account balances continued to grow. They are up by 25% from a year ago. And since December, they grew by EUR 0.8 billion. Mortgage origination in the quarter of EUR 932 million outperformed that of last quarter and represent 44% from the first quarter of 2020 and even more than 2020 -- sorry, than 2019. So our market share in new mortgages is now around 6.5% as of January '21. The total mortgage back book keeps growing and reached almost EUR 28 billion, an increase of 3.2%, while the rest of the market continues to shrink. The loan-to-value of the total back book stands at a comfortable 54%. Now let's move to Portugal. Loan book grew by 7% to EUR 6.7 billion. And retail funds at EUR 5 billion, up 10% from a year ago. So growth in loan book was in both corporates, up 13% as well as in retail line lending, 5%. Off-balance sheet reached EUR 3.8 billion, an 21% increase from last year. Again, a very, very strong figure. The balance sheet growth is due to the record growth of new customers in retail banking. As the income statement, operating income from the business grew by 10%. Costs show a 2% reduction, and pre-provisioning profit, up 28%. So now 4 years since the acquisition, Bankinter Portugal shows an efficiency ratio of 55% and has become the fifth region in operating income contribution to the group. Moving to Bankinter Consumer Finance. At the end of the quarter, loan book was EUR 2.9 billion, almost flat from a year ago. The geographical breakdown of the total loan book includes EUR 525 million from Ireland, from Avant Money, growing EUR 31 million in the quarter, and EUR 262 million from Bankinter Portugal, growing by EUR 12 million in the quarter. And the rest is EUR 2.1 billion in Spain, where the loan book contracted just EUR 8 million. So let's see the breakdown by type of financing and a different behavior. Personal loans represent 59% of total, growing by 3%. Transactor credit cards outstanding represents 38% of total and EUR 600 million with flat growth. And revolving credit cards at 17% of total are less than EUR 500 million and went down by 16%. New home mortgage production from Ireland with EUR 76 million since September, represents only 2.6% of the total on the -- of the total book. The total new credit origination, mainly in personal loans, represent only EUR 283 million. And total number of customers grew by 2% to 1.76 million. In Spain, credit card business represents 40% of the EUR 2.1 billion of total loan book, and revolving credit cards, only 24% of total. The rest of the cards are payable at the end of the month, with a much better risk profile than finance customers. We continue to feel very comfortable with the asset quality of this risk card business. NPL ratio as of March '20 stands at 7% from 8.6% in the first quarter of 2019, 2 years ago. Provision coverage is close to 100%. Cost of risk at 3.5%, still below 2019 when our loan book was 40% smaller. And when the risk-adjusted return was 18% higher due to the yields, over 20%, in revolving credit cards with -- or anymore in our books. Also to be mentioned regarding risk-adjusted return is that at the end of September last year, we have started to lend mortgages under the new name of Avant Money in Ireland. Plans are to increase production in 2021. We have reached 56 million during the first quarter of the year. This new activity has been able to increase the loan book by 10%, and at the same time, maintain and even improve the very good asset quality ratios. NPLs at 0.98%, coverage EUR 353 million, and cost of risk, 1.76%. Moving into EVO. New mortgages granted from December '20 were EUR 179 million. This is 2.3x the origination of last year first quarter, making mortgage loan book to jump since March '20 by over EUR 400 million to EUR 1.4 billion, up 43% from a year ago. Subsequently, net interest margin from customer activity jumped by 17%. EVO has EUR 3.5 billion in retail deposits, up 11% and EUR 270 million of off-balance sheet funds, up 16%. Customer margin stood at 1.1%, NPL at 1.22%, with only EUR 17 millions in NPL, and cost of risk just at 16 basis points. Finally, let's look at Linea Directa. In the last quarter, this is the last quarter within the group. As usual, it continue to perform strongly despite pressures on premiums in the new year. Total insured risk, the old number of policies, increased by 2.8% year-on-year, increasing Linea Directa's market share in Spain. Issued premiums grew only by 0.4%, which suggests continued price competition and weak demand, particularly in the car insurance. Nonetheless, Linea Directa's growth in motor premiums continues to outperform the industry's average, with a reduction of 1.9%, while the sector reduces by 2.3%. And in-home insurance, it grew by 8.1%, while the sector grew by only 3.8%. In health insurance, the Vivaz -- our Vivaz company total policies reached 92,000, 26% increase from a year ago. Linea Directa's combined ratio improved year-on-year to 85.4% as predicted. It start to deteriorate from the stunning 83.4% from December. In this new year, an increase in frequencies, mobility and worse weather condition pushed the claim cost in the quarter to 65.9% or 430 basis points more than last December. At the same time, and thanks to the cost flexibility, the cost ratio went down to 19.5% from 21.8% in December '20. Linea Directa's combined ratio at 85% is expected to grow from this level, while maintain below 87% for this year. Having one of the lowest combined ratio in the industry and keeping the gap represents a strong competitive advantage for Linea Directa to outgrow its competitors in the future despite the new more difficult market conditions. If we look now at its income statement, net profit went up by 2% from last year. This is due to the minus 3% claim cost reduction, combined with the small 0.4% increase in premiums. These revenue trends, together with a tight cost control in their operation resulted in a technical insurance result of EUR 32 million, 9% increase. This earnings performance keeps the already high return on equity at 32%. And due of the absence of the dividend distribution until March '21, company solvency ratio continues to be well above industry standards at 266%. After the EUR 120 million dividend distribution prior to this coming spin-off, the pro forma solvency ratio will stand at 208% with March data. As always, I will finish with a brief recap of what we consider our main achievements in the quarter. A very strong commercial activity despite the difficult economic scenario with increased pre-provisioning profit. We'll continue with our effort in recurrent cost to remain almost flat to be able to support pre-provisioning profit growth going forward. Also, a clear effort in increasing the coverage for potential risk to try to anticipate the impact of the liquidated quality deterioration in stage 2 balances, for example, mainly in consumers and small, mid corporates. And improved solvency and coverage levels with record liquidity levels and keeping a strong buffer from regulatory requirements. And finally, Let me come back to our guidance and -- that we will maintain, basically similar to what we shared with you in the previous quarter. We expect growth in all geographies, in Portugal, both in Commercial and Corporate Banking; in Ireland, more in corporates than in Consumer Finance, that probably at the second half of the year, we will see the increase; EVO Banco in mortgage production; and customer acquisition in Spain. We also expect in 2021 that corporate loans will be impacted by less activity and lower corporate demand after ICO finance, to be offset by a better loan growth in mortgage lending and in other nonmortgage retail lending. Obviously, waiting for the next-generation EU funds that are expected to come in the second half of the year. Therefore, net interest income for the group should post a low single-digit growth despite the negative interest rate that will impact mostly in the first 2 quarters. We expect an increase in activity and more stable markets, and that will make fee income to post growth in the range of mid-single digit. The group's operating income, we expect to move to stay or to post in a mid-single digit as well, like in 2020. The group's cost, we expect to remain flattish. And preprovisioning profit should remain resilient and improve the growth of 2020. And finally, the total cost of risk will show a double-digit trend down, thanks to the absence of additional provisions for macro scenarios. And as I mentioned at the beginning, we expect the range somewhere between 50 and 60 basis points with the information that we have today, moving from a 60 basis points guidance that we provide at the end of last year and based on the reality that we have shared with you in this first quarter. Thank you very much. And then I am open to take your questions. Thank you.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you, Jacobo. Let's kick off with the Q&A session. Probably the first few questions, on the loan book growth expectations for the rest of this year.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. Thank you. I think it's very similar to the guidance that I just shared. Just talking about geographies. In Portugal, we do expect an increase in retail and in the corporate banking group. In Ireland, we do expect growth, mainly in the mortgage book that has started the year with a very strong momentum, but also in the consumer finance, that we will expect a correlation with the macroeconomic recovery, and therefore, we do expect some slight increase in the second half of the year. Of course, talking about EVO. EVO, as you see, we are delivering a very good set of growth in the mortgage world. And we will see, in the second half of the year, an increase in the other activities like mutual funds, for example. And at the end, in Bankinter Spain, we are delivering a very good set of growth in the mortgage world. As you have seen, we have reported a record first quarter in mortgages, and this is something that we do expect to keep following quarters. And in the Corporate banking world, as we mentioned, the strong demand in ICO lines in 2020 has made a very stable demand or no demand at the beginning of the year. However, we do expect a reaction once the next-generation EU funds come to the country that we expected to happen in the second half of the year. So overall, we do expect a mid-single-digit growth in the loan book at the end of the year.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you. Now that you mentioned about the mortgages and the strong momentum there, how does front book versus back book compare in terms of spreads?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

So the spreads compare much better. Bear in mind that the new production of mortgages are around 75% fixed rate mortgages and the book -- the back book is around 20% of the portfolio in fixed rate mortgages. So that means that the front book is definitely better than the back book. And just bear in mind also that the new production of variable rate mortgages have always the first year of -- first year of fixed rate. Therefore, we do expect, as it has been in the last year, better front book spreads than the back book.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Now moving on to the P&L. Probably just a one-off question. Can you reconfirm -- we already did on the presentation. But can you reconfirm the guidance on the main items of the P&L?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. Sure. We provide a guidance of net interest income to be a low single-digit growth, so positive low single-digit. In fees, we posted a mid-single-digit positive growth, mid-single-digit positive growth. In group's operating income, a mid-single-digit growth. Group costs remain flattish. When we mean flattish, that means somewhere around 0, but more or less. We don't know if it's minus 0.5 or plus 0.5, but somewhere around 0. Pre-provisioning profit to be resilient and similar to the one that we saw in the previous year. And we mentioned also the cost of risk that in this session, we update and we do some fine-tuning. And we share with you a range of 50, 5-0, to 60, 6-0 basis points range. And this compares to the 60 basis point that I mentioned, and I'll share with you in the last results presentation. And the fine tuning is just due to the reality of the first quarter of recurrent cost of risk, which is still much lower than expected.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Just to make it totally clear. This is the guidance for the credit cost of risk?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. Credit cost of risk.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Going back to the P&L items. Can you just give a brief explanation on the NII of the quarter, the moving part?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. So the NII, as you saw, was 1.3% better than a year ago. So that means that we have a positive contribution from all the different items. Basically, the first large item is the volume of the portfolio of the corporate banking due to the ICO loans that were granted in the second quarter of last year. So that provides a very good increase related to the net interest income. Also, the mortgage book in terms of volume is much -- is higher than a year ago. We do have the TLTRO contribution from a year ago as well. And I would say these are the main -- of course, the cost of the deposits is lower than a year ago. And this is another good potential distribution. Comparing to the fourth quarter of December of 2020, which is slightly low, this is basically due to the number of days of the quarter and to the seasonality of the loan book growth.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Just to confirm. We have increased our intake in the TLTRO program this quarter? And how are we accruing for it?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Yes. At the end of March, we have increased the TLTRO book by EUR 1.3 billion, and that total amount of TLTRO is now at EUR 14.2 billion. And we are currently accruing for the entire life of the program at 85 basis points.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you. Moving on to the fees now. Given the strong start to the year, how do you see payments, which are in negative in the first quarter? And how do you see brokerage and FX trending evolving through the year, which are the other way around?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. So payments and collection, as you know, are very correlated to the consumption activity and macro environment. So now we are expecting a slight -- a slow recovery quarter after quarter to become, at the end of the year, flattish or even positive because we expect positive recovery. So this has been the unique or the only item that has been negative, has been providing a negative growth over the past quarters. So very correlated with the macro environment. You mentioned also the brokerage activities. So the brokerage has provided a very positive growth in the previous quarters since, I would say, March last year. And we have been able to maintain this positive growth in the first quarter. The level of growth has been lower than the previous quarter. We have booked to the 9% growth in brokerage income, if I'm not right -- if I'm not wrong. We will see the brokerage fee to reach some more stable, and let's put it in a way, or a flattish comparison in the following quarters because the level are very high and they will be very difficult to beat the figures that we had last year. And the FX, the FX should be again positive and stable. They are strongly related to what the activity in the brokerage or in the assets under management. But also, there's a lot of correlation between the international banking business. So as far as we have a recovery in the macro scenario and imports-export, we will see this figure just providing good results in the following quarters.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you. Moving further down on the P&L. Are we expecting any similar trading gains in the coming quarters?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

I think what happened last year is that we have a very bad quarter. That's why the comparison seems like it's been -- it's extraordinary results. But in fact, what we had last year, it was a very poor result in March, and that makes a comparison probably more attractive to see. The results of the trading income should be similar to the ones that we've seen in the first quarter, at least until the first half of the year. As you can imagine, trading is a very volatile activity. And it's very difficult to provide a good guidance of that specific line. I would say that we have a first good quarter of trading activity. That could be repeated in the following ones, although we always prefer to be more conservative in this line because, as you know, this is not our core business line.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Can you explain the decrease on the other income losses line?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

The decrease -- on the other income line, this is due to the regulatory charges. Yes, this is basically due to the growth of our resources, our balance sheet. And as you know, the provisioning that we need to do for taxes on deposits is related to the growth of our balance sheet. Therefore, there's nothing special. It's basically BAU, business and regulatory charges.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Very small amount, by the way.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

On the credit risk, a couple of specific questions really. How -- what explains the growth in Stage 2 this quarter?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. So the growth in Stage 2 in this quarter is basically explained to a criteria of being more prudent, because the level of -- as you've seen, the level of NPLs, the level of delinquency is still very low. So the reality tell us that nothing is happening. Although we all know that there is a potential impact in the coming quarters that we need to take into consideration. So for conservative purposes, we have decided internally to increase the level of H2, basically in the SMEs portfolio, in consumer and also in some type of mortgages. But very, let's say, decided internally by criteria because objective criteria will not move this amount.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Regarding NPLs, when do you think they might start to grow, and by how much?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

This is -- I don't have the crystal ball. But I think we all know that there is a negative impact in the economy that has not been brought into the reality. And basically, this is due to probably moratorium programs or ICO programs, et cetera. So sometime in point, we will see a deterioration. We don't know exactly when this is going to happen. In fact, as I mentioned, we were expecting a 60 basis point cost of risk guidance for the year. And in this session, I have to to bring the range from 50 to 60 because the reality is that the first quarter has been much better than expected. Obviously, we do expect bad news to come. But we don't know exactly when. If it has not happened in this first quarter, that means that probably the bad impact will be delayed even to subsequent quarters of 2021 or even to 2022. But as of today, our reality is what we have shared today, which is the cost of risk still at 35 basis points.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Regarding moratoria, have we seen any changes there? And what is the split between Spain and Portugal?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. In terms of moratoria, we have shared with you the moratoria in the mortgage world, which is 1.8% of our book, around EUR 511 million of Spanish moratoria. In Portugal, as you know, the moratoria is different. Moratoria is at EUR 980 million, which is around 14% of the portfolio. There are some moratoria that have already due in March, around EUR 50 million. So we stand today in Portugal with EUR 580 million of mortgage moratoria and EUR 400 million in Corporate Banking moratoria that they will due in the following quarters during this year.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Thank you. Moving now on to noncredit risk, other provisions. What are we seeing there? And what is the guidance for the rest of the year?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. In other provisions, what we see is, as you know, we have the litigation risk regarding the FX mortgages. As we shared with you during the different quarters of 2020, we still -- we are still appreciating a reduction, a reduction in the FX litigation risk quarter after quarter. However, there is always small new items that arise in this case. We are talking about expenses related to the mortgages, et cetera. That are not relevant figures, but compensate the reduction that we are appreciating in the FX litigation. So we do expect quarter after quarter to have an optimistic view and a reduction quarter after quarter because this is the reality that we are perceiving today.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Moving now into capital. Given that we are above our targets there, how are we planning to deploy capital? And also, if we can be more specific or just rephrase on the deductions, mainly insurance and regulatory deductions, that we apply in the quarter?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. Regarding capital, we are with 12.3% CET1 ratio, which is quite above our long-term guidance. As you can imagine, we have plans to grow. And this is the application of our capital, will be dedicated to the growth and will be dedicated to dividends. So that's what we accrue, our normal dividend policy of 50% payout, and this is something which is recorded in our figures. Although, as you know, until September, the ECB will not release the new recommendations of dividend distribution. But for the time being, we will accrue at 50%. Regarding the new topics of capital, I've gone through 2 main regulations. The first one is the new definition of default, that I did mention, that represent around a 6 basis points of negative impact. And then I've mentioned the new -- the guidance -- the new guidelines from the EBA regarding IRB parameters, which is regulation that will be put in place formally in January 2022, but we have preferred to anticipate the impact as soon as possible. And we have shared with you the total impact in the IRB deficit with these new parameters that have post a 14 basis points negative impact.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Great. Any further regulatory charges expected this year?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

No. Basically, no.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Moving now on to the subsidiaries. Any words on the performance of EVO Banco or the strategy we have in Ireland?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

No. Nothing different from what we've shared today. EVO Banco is performing an excellent year, growing more than 2x the level of mortgages and applying strong commercial activity related to the growth of assets under management and Consumer Finance businesses. So very positive trends in EVO Banco. In Ireland, again, we share with you the good initial of the business of mortgages, where we have recorded EUR 56 million of mortgages in this first quarter. So there is plenty of room dedicated to this business. As you know, 2 of the main financial institutions in Ireland have recently published that they will leave the country. That gives -- give us a good opportunity to keep capturing new market share in that business. We ...

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. Regarding Linea Directa, can you update us on the impact on capital? And also, if you have any words on the performance of the quarter.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. In terms of capital, I'm not sure if you're talking about the deductions. As they have not distributed dividends in the first quarter, the deductions from the CET1 have been increasing again in this quarter. So that is the negative impact that you've seen in the slide. But if the question is related to the spin-off impact, it remains at 8 basis points positive once it happen.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. And regarding the performance in the quarter, any words there?

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

No. I mean good quarter of Linea Directa. I hope you've -- you will be able to attend to the Investor Day of Linea Directa, where they dedicated a full day to the entire business. The first quarter has been good. I just remind you that for 2021, they do expect a year -- somewhere between 2019 and 2020, because 2020 was extraordinarily good. So they do expect a reduction comparing to the 2020, but definitely a better year than a pre-COVID situation.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Okay. A very last question. We have an analysts asking about the -- you can put some color on the 2023 targets? The main figures there.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Okay. So color is green or -- we think that we have performed a very good first quarter. Very strong commercial activity. Good client acquisition. All geographies growing, and all the elements. And in the right direction to meet the internal commitment to achieve the same net income levels that we had in 2019 pre-COVID, and without Linea Directa, by 2023. So we think that we are in a good way in terms of growth of recurrent activity. And as you know, the way we manage risk, again, we think that our credit risk portfolio is very resilient. And of course, once the macroeconomic environment is normalized or recovered, we will come back to our usual levels of cost of risk by 2023.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Excellent. Thank you, Jacobo.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Thank you so much.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Keep safe.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Thank you, everyone. That's all for now.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Bye-bye.

[David López Finistrosa, Director of Investor Relations]

Please contact Investor Relations team for any further questions. Many thanks, and goodbye.

[Jacobo Diaz Garcia, Chief Financial Officer]

Goodbye. See you soon. Bye.