Banco de Chile

SGO:CHILE

Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q2

[Operator]

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Banco de Chile's Second Quarter 2018 Financial Results Conference Call.

If you need a copy of the press release, it is available on the company's website.

Today with us, we have Mr. Rodrigo Aravena, Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of Institutional Relations; Mr. Pablo Mejia, Head of Investor Relations; Mr. Daniel Galarce, Head of Financial Control; and Mr. Cecil Diaz, Investor Relations Specialist.

Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that the call is being recorded, and the information discussed today may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's financial and operating performance. All projections are subject to risk and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. Please refer to the detailed note in the company's press release regarding forward-looking statements.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Rodrigo Aravena. You may proceed.

[Rodrigo Aravena, executive]

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us on our second quarter conference call. It's a pleasure for me to share with you our comments on the Chilean economy and the banking system during the quarter. After that, Pablo Mejia, our Head of Investor Relations, will review the financial result.

Please move to Slide #3. The Chilean economy continues posting a strong sign of recovery. After growing a disappointing 1.6% during the last 4 years, GDP posted an average rate of 4.7% in the first half of the year, which is the strongest growth since 2012. The pace of this recovery can be seen on the top left chart. Chile has been growing faster than its potential rate in spite of some recent opposite forces such as the decline in copper prices and more uncertainty in the global economy.

In this context, GDP grew 5.2% year-on-year in the second quarter, following a strong 4.2% year-on-year expansion in the first quarter. Although the higher annual GDP rate was explained, in part, from a weak comparison base, the activity has improved in the margin. On a sequential basis, GDP was also strong, revealing that the economy had a real recovery beyond the statistical effect. As we also highlighted in our previous conference call, the economy is showing a synchronized improvement across different sectors. While mining GDP expanded 5.1% in the second quarter, the rest of the economy, which represents nearly 85% of the total GDP, increased 5.3%. The breakdown suggests that there was an important recovery in private investment while private consumption remains strong. The strengthening of the local demand is reflected in the impressive pickup of Chilean imports and confidence levels, as shown in both charts on the slide.

Chile's CPI remains low, although it has been increasing slightly towards the Central Bank target of 3%. In the second quarter, it was up by 0.7% quarter-on-quarter, raising the annual rate to 2.2%. The core CPI, which is the measure that excludes food and energy prices, posted a 1.7% annual rate in the same period. Both trends can be seen in the CPI chart on this slide.

Now I would like to talk about our macroeconomic scenario for this year. Please move to Slide #4. In general, we expect a similar scenario in comparison to that we outlined in the previous conference call: better growth, high inflation and stable rates, at least in the short term. We also expect these positive conditions will prevail for most of the next year. We are forecasting an economic growth of 4% this and the next year, led by an improvement in gross investment, as seen on the top right chart. The recent evolution of several indicators such as capital goods imports, business confidence and some construction-related figures are supporting the positive view on this component of domestic demand. In relation to inflation, the depreciation of the Chilean peso and the stronger activity will likely generate a normalization in the next quarter. These lead us to expect inflation to be close to 3% this and the next year, after posting a 2.3% increase in 2017. Given this macro scenario for 2019, we expect a level of around 3.25% for the monetary policy rate.

Now I would like to present the main trends observed in the Chilean banking system. Please move to Slide #6. During the second quarter, the banking industry was able to post solid result, characterized by robust growth, low risk and stronger levels of profitability. In general, these trends have been explained by the better economic environment that has translated into strengthened demand for loans from personal banking and companies this quarter. Specifically, the industry recorded net income of CLP 649 billion (sic) [ CLP 659 billion ] in the second quarter, which was 6% higher when compared to the figure observed 1 year ago.

As seen on the chart, this result was largely explained by higher operating income. As a result, the system posted an average -- return on average equity of 14%, slightly above the same period last year. As you can see in the graph below, there is a strong relationship between GDP growth and the loan cycle. In this context, it's expected that the acceleration of GDP will be reflected in greater growth in the industry, mainly in commercial loans, which have been in negative territory in recent years. Considering that the economy would grow around 4% this and the next year and that historical elasticity of loans to GDP is close to 2x, it would not be surprising that the real loan growth will reach around 7% to 8% real in the coming quarters.

Please turn to Slide #7. This recovery is clearly seen on these 2 charts. The graph on the left shows the quarterly loan growth in real terms on a sequential basis. As can be seen, there's a clear recovery of commercial loans since the second quarter -- the fourth quarter '17. And in fact, this is driving the second quarter's '18 growth. This trend is consistent with the acceleration seen in private investment, as we mentioned in the first part of this presentation.

On average, total loans accelerated to 2.6% this quarter or 10.4% on an annualized basis. This acceleration can also be seen on the chart on the right, which shows that net loan origination has grown faster this quarter, especially in commercial loans, which more than doubled the increase posted in previous quarters.

Now I would like to pass the call to Pablo Mejia, Head of Investor Relations, who will review Banco de Chile results for the second quarter.

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

Thank you, Rodrigo. Please flip to Slide #9. Once again, we obtained solid results this quarter, demonstrating our ability to generate robust figures that are consistent with our successful track record. This is not something that we have achieved this quarter, but it's rather this consistency in our result, the characteristic that has differentiated us in relation to all of our competitors.

Our net income for the quarter reached CLP 163 billion, 1.7% higher than the level recorded the same quarter last year. And on a sequential basis, our net income grew by 14%, thanks to solid customer income growth from both retail and wholesale segments, coupled with excellent risk figures. It's worth mentioning that this result is the second highest in our history.

Consequently, we reached a return on average equity of 21%, well above the average of the industry. Beyond our high return on average equity, it's important to highlight our strong leadership when we take into account credit risk. As you can see on the chart on the right, we achieved a high profitability but with substantially less NPLs than all of our peers. This has been an effect of our long-term strategy based on responsible growth and prudent risk management policies and practices. We are convinced that this strategy is the best source of long-term sustainability.

How have we accomplished these results? In the next slides, we'll go into further detail. As we've mentioned in previous calls and as Rodrigo presented a few slides ago, the better economic scenario is beginning to be felt in demand for loans from both companies and individuals. This improving cycle should permit us to begin a period of stronger loan growth in key market segments and improve our bottom line. We plan to leverage this by taking advantage of several commercial initiatives and intensive use of business intelligence tools to increase loan penetration, cross-sell and upsell our customer base, which is the main driving force behind organic operating revenue growth. Additionally, we are permanently focused on improving our credit evaluation, monitoring and collection processes, along with achieving more productivity and efficiency in our business support processes.

Please turn to Slide 10. The improvement in the economic conditions have permitted us to retake growth with lower levels of risk. As you can see on the chart on the left, total loans this quarter grew 3.4% year-on-year. But on a sequential basis, we grew an important level of 2.5% or 10% annualized basis. The year-on-year figure was led by the retail segment, increasing 7.5%, while wholesale decreased by 2.4% year-on-year. The opposite trends in loan expansion are consistent with selective growth in personal and SME banking segments with attractive risk and return relationship, and on the other hand, on the loan level activity shown by the large companies segment.

Nevertheless, during the last 3 months, we have seen a strong improvement in lending demand from all segments, especially commercial loans, which grew an impressive level of 3.2%. This was mainly due to foreign trade loans and commercial loans to larger companies that grew 3.4% quarter-on-quarter, a significant change when we consider that this segment actually decreased in volumes in the last 12 months by 2.4%.

The quarterly gross figure in commercial loans was supported by SMEs, which continued growing at 2.7% in the quarter and 11% year-on-year. We also saw an acceleration during the quarter for middle and upper-income personal banking segment. This higher demand translated into an increase of 7.6% year-on-year and 2% for the quarter for consumer loans for this segment and in residential and nonresidential mortgage loans, which grew at 7.3% year-on-year and 2.2% quarter-on-quarter. This greater dynamism in retail lending activity is even clearer when we analyze the origination of consumer credit and the acceleration, which took place during the quarter of [ total debtors ], as you can see on the charts on the right. Consumer loan origination grew 26% this quarter compared to the same quarter last year. And total consumer loan customers in the middle and upper-income segment grew 1.4% quarter-on-quarter or 5.6% annualized.

This is very important to consider, as growth has not only increased in quantity but also in quality. Actually, we're selling consumer loans more efficiently and with less risk than in the past. I mention this for 2 reasons. The first of them is that we have been able to attract more loans through online channels, which benefits clients in terms of products and delivery times and security, in addition to greater efficiency for the bank. The second is that we have substantially improved the supply of preapproved loans, which in addition to allowing us greater efficiency in the credit-granting process, has been able to reduce the expected loss of the most recent sales [ close ].

Please turn to Slide 11. Simultaneously, with our positive figures in loans, we continued to show a solid track record in the acquisition of new account holders. In effect, we grew at a strong pace and increased 7.2% year-on-year, as you can see on the chart on the top left.

And checking account originations grew 36% over the same period last year. This has been possible thanks to 3 main factors. First, towards the end of 2016, we internalized and reorganized the external sales force subsidiary. This meant making important changes in incentives, which led to significant productivity gains, as you can see on the chart on the bottom left. Second, the implementation of several business intelligence actions that allowed us to attract new customers as well as acting proactively to retain them when we see signs of possible attrition. Finally, we provide attractive value proposal based on better product benefits and excellent post sale customer service.

Please turn to Slide 12. One of the main competitive advantages of our bank is our robust liability structure. Our strong growth in current account balances, significant increase in checking account originations and excellent attrition levels allowed us to grow demand deposits by 13.1% year-on-year versus the industry that grew at 9.6%. This progress once again permitted us to maintain the highest market share in the industry in this source of funding of 23% and to post the lowest cost of funds of only 2.6% in local currency. Additionally, it's important to mention that we have the strongest franchise and high net worth individuals with a total market share in personal banking, current account deposits of over 30% and an average balance per account of CLP 3 million, well above all of our competition.

In terms of capital, the local banking industry continues to use Basel I. As of June, our capital ratio reached 14.1% with a Tier 1 ratio of 11.2%, both of them above most of our peers. We feel comfortable with these levels, especially in view of the imminent approval of Basel III in Chile, which the market expects to occur in the coming quarters. In any case, the current [indiscernible] our application of Basel III will be gradually phased in during a 6-year time frame.

Please move to Slide #13. Banco de Chile continues to have the best service quality, which is an essential part of our long-term strategy. On this slide you can see various charts that confirm this reality. For example, our bank has a Net Promoter Score of 73%, which is only the best in the market, but it's also well above the average of our peers. This difference is even greater in mobile banking, high-income segments. It's also worth mentioning that our bank has a very strong brand, which translates into the highest top of mind of the Chilean banking industry.

In previous conference calls, we mentioned that the customer service experience is a core competence in our strategy for which we have implemented various digital solutions, strengthened loyalty programs and improve the series of processes, among others. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the important improvements in this area, such as the significant reduction in numbers of problems received, which, in just 2 years, has been reduced to almost half, as well as the improvement of the attrition rate, which is already located below 6%. We believe that these advances are essential to continuing having the best customer base in the local industry.

On the next slide, we begin our discussion on our financial results. Through our successful strategy of attracting new profitable customers and developing strong, long-lasting relationships, operating revenues, driven by retail customer income, continued to grow, as you can see on the next Slide #14.

Total operating revenues for this quarter came in at CLP 457 billion, up 2% year-on-year, and on a sequential basis, 2.7% or 10.8% annualized. As you can see on the chart from the left, this growth was led by customer income from the retail side, which is in line with our strategy and market conditions.

Retail customer income expanded at a pace of 3.6% year-on-year and accelerated to about 2% or 8% annualized when compared to the first quarter of 2018. This is mainly due to our change in loan mix that is geared towards more profitable segments as well as lower cost of funds from our strong growth, as mentioned in the prior slide, and in demand deposits.

Wholesale customer income decreased 2.2% year-on-year but grew over 5% quarter-on-quarter, completely due to better economic scenario and our ability to take advantage of this growth; noncustomer income as well, thanks to higher contribution of our U.S. net asset exposure; a positive effect in foreign exchange, an instrument that hedge allowances and certain fee expenses denominated in U.S. dollars; along with higher revenues from trading and available-for-sale instruments, primarily explained by favorable shifts in interest rates. Those effects were partially offset by a negative impact of credit value adjustments for derivatives.

Our net interest margin is consistently higher than the average of the industry. This quarter, we reached 4.46%, in line with last year and 18 basis points higher than the first quarter of 2018. The quarter-on-quarter rise was mainly due to higher inflation that we experienced this quarter.

In terms of total net fee income, we grew 2% year-on-year. This reduced level of growth was related to 3 factors. First, we incurred a few one-offs in credit and debit card fees due to a change in our loyalty program as well as the negative impact of the depreciation of the peso to U.S. dollar that affects our U.S. dollar fee expense allowance for that same benefit program.

Second, wholesale-related fees were slightly down due to the past economic cycle, which reduced demand for all company banking products. If we exclude wholesale and credit card-related fees, net fees would actually grow strongly by 10%, mainly due to higher revenues from our subsidiaries, insurance mutual funds and stock brokerage and the retail transactional products.

In terms of wholesale, we're confident that these fees should begin to show a gradual improvement in the second half of this year, following the greater activity as we begin to observe in the segment.

Please turn to Slide #15. Total operating expenses increased 7.2% year-on-year, which was mainly due to nonrecurring operating expenses related to a technological incident that took place in the quarter. This was partially offset by a reduction in marketing and outsourced services. Excluding this onetime charge, operating expenses would have grown by 2.1% year-on-year, below inflation.

This quarter, we completed successfully agreements with all of our trade unions ahead of schedule. This was accomplished thanks to our good relationships we maintain with employees and unions.

Salary expenses remained flat year-on-year. However, it's important to note that this year we begin to defer this expense based on a straight-line method over the course of the term of the contract, which, in this case, was 36 months for the agreements reached with the unions.

Before moving on, I would like to emphasize that we have been focused on controlling costs and personnel expenses by implementing changes to improve productivity across the entire organization. On the chart on the right, you can see our productivity levels per employee have continued to improve, up 8.4% year-on-year. We're also working on improving both the origination process and our distribution network that is increasingly focused on incorporating digital banking and automating certain services and back-office tasks. This has allowed us to maintain good levels of efficiency, as you can see on the chart on the bottom right. If we adjust these ratios for these onetime expenses, our efficiency ratio would have actually shown a slight improvement with respect to the same quarter in 2017.

We pride ourselves on having a solid track record of risk management and prudent credit policies. Please turn to Slide 16. This quarter, we once again posted excellent levels of cost of risk, which were below our expectations. Our loan-loss provision ratio reached only 0.82%, and the loan loss provision was merely CLP 53.8 billion, 13.4% lower than the same period last year.

As demonstrated on the charts to the right, this improvement was due to a net quality improvement, mainly in the retail segment, and to a lesser degree, a release of provisions due to 2 large corporate customers prepaying their loans. This was partially offset by a negative effect of the depreciation of the Chilean peso and allowances denominated in U.S. dollars, although this is hedged and reflected in the financial income, and growth was primarily in the retail segment.

I think it's important to emphasize once again that our track record and that these levels of risk are not by chance. At Banco de Chile, we're very meticulous when it comes to risk management. We invest a large amount of resources to ensure we implement and maintain the best standards and risk management throughout the life cycle of our customers. By clearly understanding the economic environment and the industries that we do business in, this assists us greatly to identify risks and to take the necessary actions to limit our exposures if they occur.

Please turn to Slide 17 for highlights. We are happy with our results. Our bottom line this quarter was one of the strongest in our history, and we have generated over CLP 300 billion as of June. Our return on average equity for the first 6 months reached 19.5%, and we're confident that, with the improving economy, we should end the second half strongly. The improving economy is becoming apparent in many indicators. Loan growth is increasing 2.5% quarter-on-quarter or 10% annualized, consumer loan origination also continued growing versus the same period last year at 26%. Not only that, we have also continued growing our customer base at [ important ] levels. Current account sales increased 36% over last year. Thanks to this base of new customers and taking advantage of cross-selling opportunities, we grew retail customer income by 4% year-on-year and net fees by 2%. But if we exclude the wholesale fees and credit card, we grew the rest of our fees in double-digit levels. The stronger economy is also showing through in cost of risk, which has helped to report low figures of only 0.8% this quarter. Finally, our Basel ratio remained above 14%, which allowed us to be well prepared for the implementation of Basel III in Chile.

Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions, we would be happy to answer them.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And today's first question will be from Erin (sic) [ Ernesto ] Gabilondo with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

[Ernesto María Gabilondo Márquez, analyst]

My first question is regarding the cybersecurity impact that you experienced during the quarter. So far, is everything solved? Or are you expecting to do some additional investments to strengthen your platform? I don't know if you are considering new programmers or a new IT platform. But if yes, how do you see your expense line in the next quarters? And then my second question is on the investigation regarding the fraud to the Luksic Fund. Can you elaborate on what could be the potential implications for Banco de Chile like your requirements to improve internal controls of the bank? And finally, the cost of risk I think was particularly low during the quarter due to the improvement of the retail portfolio. But do you think this is sustainable or do you expect a gradual deterioration in the next quarters?

[Rodrigo Aravena, executive]

Just one second, please. Thank you for the questions. So first of all, in terms of cybersecurity, I would like to highlight some important things for us. First of all, I would like to highlight that security is a priority for us. So in this context, I would like to highlight that a new cybersecurity division has been created in the bank, [ individuals ] from the operations and technology division in order to carry out a short, mid- and long-term plan. So it's important to mention that. In terms of investment, we will invest everything that is necessary. It's important to mention that, for example, last year, we invested $16 million in cybersecurity. So besides the fact that we don't have a specific number, of course, we are working on that, it is very important for us. It can imply that we are having [ a majority ] in order to have the best investment plan. We don't have a specific number, but it has been and it is still, of course, an important priority for us. In terms of your third question regarding cost of risk, Pablo?

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

In terms of the third question, in cost of risk, it was cutting out a little bit. But I understood very well it's regarding the growth in the retail segment and how we saw that would follow through in cost of risk. The growth that we've been having in the retail segment is to the middle, upper-income segment. It's at very reasonable levels. We're very cautious in growing responsibly. And especially with the improved economy, better employment figures, we shouldn't expect a significant change there. We're not expecting a significant change in the retail segment, and we're not expecting -- we don't have, in reality, any particular industry that we're worried about at this time. So it's reasonable to expect a cost of risk for the full year at between 1% and 1.1%.

[Rodrigo Aravena, executive]

And sorry. In relation to the second question, we don't have information that it affects Banco de Chile, so we don't have any different thing to mention affecting Banco de Chile.

[Ernesto María Gabilondo Márquez, analyst]

And then just a follow-up on the expenses or investment line, so just want to know -- you have already said that you don't have a number in terms of investments for this year. But how do you -- how should we expect the expenses line growth for this year?

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

For expense line growth, what you should expect is because of this new accounting standard that we're implementing and because of a comparison basis, salary expenses should be a little bit above inflation, so around 5% we're expecting. While admin expenses should be slightly below that, around 4% due to growth. So for this year, you should expect something around the 4% level, between 4% and 5%. And it depends on growth. If we continue seeing stronger growth, obviously those numbers could increase, but it would be offset by higher top line.

[Operator]

Today's next question will come from Jason Mollin with Scotiabank.

[Jason Mollin, analyst]

Yes. My question is, looking at the trading income line, we have traditionally added the foreign exchange -- what you call foreign exchange with the net financial operating income, and it was CLP 50 million -- CLP 50 billion, excuse me, positive in the net financial operating income and negative CLP 18 billion in the foreign exchange for a net in the CLP 30 billion range. And that's a lot higher than the run rate we've been seeing. It's up 20% year-on-year and 15% quarter-on-quarter. Clearly, we had volatility in the FX with the 8% move. But if you can tell us what drove that large change and if this was specific [ this should ] taking and what we should think about this line going forward and how we should think about kind of a core ROE, if this is somewhat sustainable or not.

[Daniel Ignacio Galarce Toro, executive]

This is Daniel Galarce. Well, of course, it depends on the volatility of the exchange rate. During this quarter, we had a huge depreciation of the Chilean peso. And of course, we have more volatility on those line items. As long as the exchange rate behaves more or less on the average, we shouldn't have volatility on those lines. Nevertheless, we have also had some results from derivatives and also credit value adjustment for derivatives that was a little bit important this -- during this quarter. Net-net, over the next quarters, as long as the exchange rate moves along with the -- or quite close to the long-term average, we shouldn't have surprises on those lines.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Thiago Batista with Itaú BBA.

[Thiago Bovolenta Batista, analyst]

I have 2 questions. The first one is about the change, the provisions methodology in Chile that, if I'm not wrong will be implemented next year. Banco de Chile has traditionally a much higher level of provisions than their peers, so it's fair to say that the impact of this new methodology should be smaller for Banco de Chile than the average of the Chilean banks. And if you have any estimation on how much should this methodology should impact. And the second question is about the tax rate, only to confirm if we will see the end of a tax shield now in the second half. And what is a level of tax rate that you are expecting after the end of the next tax shield?

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

Okay. So well -- based on -- well, the first question on the provision model, that was released by the superintendency on July 6, 2018. And basically, the new model affects the group based methodology for commercial loans. So it's part of the superintendency funds released standard models for each of the segments. This has to be implemented by July 1, 2019, and it affects something around 12% of total loans. But the impact, what we've analyzed up today, is not material for our results. It will flow through income, but it's similar to other models that have been implemented in Chile. So if you think of the mortgage loan model, when we implemented that, the standard model, the impact was very material. It was around -- between CLP 5 billion and CLP 10 billion in total at that point, so it's reasonable to expect what you're indicating in your question. And the second question?

[Daniel Ignacio Galarce Toro, executive]

Tax rate.

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

The -- and the second question, the tax rate. We should expect the effective tax rate for this year of around 17% -- sorry, 20%?

[Daniel Ignacio Galarce Toro, executive]

20%.

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

And the end of the tax shield is July of this year. So beginning August, we should have a similar level of the industry, which is -- should be around -- depending on inflation, because the tax authorities use inflation accounting to calculate taxable income, should be around 23%, 24%. So for the full year, 20%.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from Alonso Garcia with Crédit Suisse.

[Alonso Garcia, analyst]

My question is regarding the liquidity ratio that were announced by the Central Bank. The LCR was -- I mean, minimum levels were set for the liquidity coverage ratio as well as the time line for its implementation. So I just wanted to check if you have any color on the liquidity position of the bank, if you could share, if possible, the -- where you stand in terms of liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio or what is your view on the level of liquidity of the bank concerning these levels and this time line?

[Daniel Ignacio Galarce Toro, executive]

Daniel Galarce here. Well, as you probably know, the implementation of the new regulatory limits for LCR and NSFR are going to be phased in during approximately 5 years. So we have been starting 0.6 or 60% for LCR. And considering that, we feel comfortable with the current levels we already have. In terms of the final ratio or the final threshold for this ratio, which will be 1% -- 100% or 1, we will -- we are not going to have any troubles in order to comply with them.

[Operator]

The next question comes from Neha Agarwala with HSBC.

[Neha Agarwala, analyst]

My question is towards loan growth. We've seen higher demand, but we're also aware that you are very cautious in your underwriting. What kind of loan growth could we expect for you for this year with the way things are going right now? And what do you expect in your model for the system as a whole? And my second question is on the profitability for the second half of the year. Now as we understand, as you mentioned, about the tax rate, which is going to pick up in the second half, how do you expect to offset that higher tax rate? Is that with higher margins or with -- at similar levels of provisioning as we saw in the second quarter?

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

Well, our intention, as we've mentioned in prior conference calls and based on what we've been seeing, is to grow faster than the market with a key focus in certain segments, which are loans to SMEs, which, as you saw on the presentation, we're growing above 10% year-on-year and consumer loans to the middle and upper-income individuals. But what you also saw in the presentation is what's been happening in corporate loans, both from the demand side and what we've been posting, is much stronger growth in the last 2 quarters. And actually, the growth that we had over the last quarter was stronger, was well above what we posted in the last 12 months. So what we're expecting and what the intention is to grow above the average in the market, and the -- that the market will grow in those key segments. In terms of your second question, for profitability for the second half, it's true that we'll have a slightly higher tax rate. And what we're planning on doing there is to continue growing. We're expecting to have better [ the ] loan growth in the second half than the first half. As you saw, there's an acceleration in loan growth. And because of better overall sentiment, business confidence levels, more demand from corporates, more M&A, we should also see an improvement in the fees from the wholesale segment as well as efficiency is something that we're always very cautious to -- very, very focused on in controlling. So I would say that those 3 areas, growth, better fees and continuing to grow with good level of efficiency, should help us posting solid results in the second half.

[Operator]

This does conclude today's question-and-answer section. At this time, I'd like turn the floor back to Banco de Chile for any closing remarks.

[Pablo Ricci, executive]

Thank you for joining us on this conference call, and we look forward for the next quarter's results. Thanks.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes today's presentation. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a great day.