Banco BBVA Argentina - Q3 2022

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to BBVA Argentina's Q3 2022 results conference call. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded and all participants will be in listen-only mode during the company presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question and answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. Should any participant need assistance during this call, please press star 0 to reach the operator. First of all, let me point out that some of the statements made during this conference call may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions found in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 under U.S. Federal Securities Laws.

These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these factors is contained in BBVA Argentina's annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year 2021, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Today with us we have Mrs. Carmen Morillo Arroyo, CFO, Mrs. Inés Lanusse, IRO, and Mrs. Belén Fourcade, Investor Relations. Ms. Fourcade, you may begin your conference.

María Belén Fourcade (Investor Relations Manager)

Good morning and welcome to BBVA Argentina's Q3 2022 earnings conference call. Today's webinar will be supported by a slide presentation available on our investor relations website on the financial information section. Speaking during today's call will be Inés Lanusse, our Investor Relations Officer, and Carmen Morillo Arroyo, our new Chief Financial Officer, who will be available for the Q&A session. Please note that starting January 1, 2020, as per central bank regulation, we have begun reporting results as applying hyperinflation accounting pursuant to IFRS rule IAS 29. For ease of comparability, 2021 and 2022 figures have been restated to reflect the accumulated effect of inflation adjustments for each period through September 30, 2022. Let me turn the call over to Inés.

Inés Lanusse (Investor Relations Officer)

Thank you, Belén, and thank you all of you for joining us today. As we are all aware, the combination of an unstable global context, the difficulties of our country to correct current macroeconomic distortions and to meet the established objectives in the loan agreement with the IMF, local market volatility continues, especially in the FX market and local currency debt market. A high uncertainty persists about the future development of our economic policy. Being this said, Argentina has been able to continue with economic recovery, although within a context that presents great challenges with a sustained high inflation and a capped foreign exchange rate. BBVA Argentina has a corporate responsibility with society, characteristic of the bank's business model, which encourage inclusion, financial education, and support scientific research and culture.

The bank works with the highest integrity, long-term vision, and best practices, is present through the BBVA Group in the main sustainability indexes. Moving into business dynamics, as you can see on slide 3 of the webcast presentation, our service offering has evolved in such a way that by the end of September 2022, retail digital client penetration reached 62%, slightly increasing from a year back. While that of retail mobile clients reached 55% from 52% as of the same period of last year. The response on the side of customers has been satisfactory, we are convinced this is the path to pursue in the aim of sustaining and expanding our competitive position in the financial system.

Retail digital sales have increased from 79.6% in the Q3of 2021 to 83.4% of units and represent 55.7% of the bank's total sales measured in monetary values, versus 52.8% in the Q3 of 2021. New customer acquisitions through digital channels reached 66% in the Q3 of 2022, from 67% in the Q3of 2021. The bank actively monitors its business, financial conditions, and operating results in the aim of keeping a competitive position to face contextual challenges. Moving to slide 4, I will now comment on the bank's Q3 2022 financial results. BBVA Argentina Q3 2022 net income was ARS 9.7 billion, decreasing 50% quarter-over-quarter.

This implies a quarterly ROE of 13.5% and a quarterly ROA of 2.4%. Operating income in the Q3of 2022 was ARS 48.4 billion, 24% above the ARS 39 billion recorded in the Q2 of 2022. Quarterly operating results are mainly explained by, 1, greater interest income. 2, higher income from measurement of financial instruments at fair value to P&L. 3, lower operating expenses, mainly personal expenses. This allowed net operating income to increase above operating expenses. These effects were partially offset by a fall in net income, mainly affected by the negative effect of inflation.

Net income for the period fell 50% quarter-over-quarter due to the contrast generated by the effects of a benefit in the income tax line as a result of the implication of tax deferrals recorded in the Q2 of 2022. In the first nine months of 2022, the accumulated net income was ARS 34.8 billion, 28% above the ARS 27.2 billion recorded in the first nine months of 2021. The nine-month accumulated ROA reached 2.9%, while the nine-month accumulated ROE was 16.8%. Turning into the P&L lines in slide 5, net interest income for the of 2022 was ARS 76.6 billion, increasing 15.6% quarter-over-quarter and 43.3% year-over-year.

In Q3 of 2022, interest income in monetary terms increased more than interest expenses, mainly due to, 1, higher income from government securities, 2, an increase in income from interest on loans, in particular, overdraft and discounted instruments, and 3, increase in income from CER/UVA close adjustments. The items mentioned take place in a context of increasing interest rates, product of sequential increases in the monetary policy rate by central banks, as well as an increase in the inflation rate. In the quarter, interest income totaled ARS 144.3 billion, increasing 18.8% compared to the Q2 of 2022.

Quarterly increase is mainly driven by, 1, higher income from government securities, both from an increase in the nominal rate and the volume in the possession of Leliq, and 2, an increase in interest from loans, mainly overdraft and discounted instruments, especially due to the increment in interest rates and higher activity. Interest expenses totaled ARS 67.7 billion, denoting a 22.5% increase quarter-over-quarter. Quarterly increase is described by higher time deposit expenses together with higher CER/UVA adjustment expense. Interest from time deposits, including investment accounts, explains 70.9% of interest expenses versus 69.3% the previous quarter. Net fee income as of the Q3 of 2022 totaled ARS 9.1 billion, decreasing 27.5% quarter-over-quarter.

In Q3 2022, fee income fell 5.9%, mainly explained by a decline in fees from credit cards, mostly due to the effect of inflation and an increase in the use of the Puntos BBVA benefit program. This was offset by an increase in fees linked to deposits, given the average increase in prices of accounts and packages maintenance during the month of September. Regarding fee expenses, this increased 48.4% quarter-over-quarter. Higher expenses in the quarter are partially explained by expenditures linked to credit and debit cards due to the higher client acquisition costs. In the Q3 of 2022, loan loss allowances increased 37%, mainly due to the periodic update of macroeconomic scenarios in IFRS 9 impairment model.

During the Q3 of 2022, total operating expenses were ARS 43.8 billion, decreasing 2.9% quarter-over-quarter. 32% were personal benefits versus 34% on the Q2 of 2022. These past effects surpassed the collective agreement with unions corresponding to the Q3 of 2022 and the revelation of stock of vacations not taken. As of the Q3 of 2022, administrative expenses also decreased 1.8% quarter-over-quarter. The quarterly decrease is partially explained by, 1, a reduction in rent, 2, greater efficiency in armored transportation, and 3, an improvement in maintenance, electricity, and advertising costs, among others.

The accumulated efficiency ratio as of the Q3 of 2022 was 69%, improving compared to the 71.3% reported in the Q2 of 2022. The quarterly improvement is explained by a decrease in expenses and also an increase in income, both due to a reduction in expenses as well as a significant increase in interest income. In terms of activity, on slide 6, total consolidated financing to the private sector in the Q3of 2022 totaled ARS 582.4 billion, falling 8% quarter-over-quarter and 6.4% year-over-year. Loans to the private sector in pesos decreased 6.3% in the Q3 of 2022.

During the quarter, the decline was especially driven by an 8.6% fall in credit cards, a 13.6% decrease in other loans, followed by a 5.7% fall in consumer loans. Regarding our other loans, the main fall is observed in commercial loans fee. These decrees were offset by a 6.4% and a 27.5% increase in overdrafts and in receivables from financial leases. Loans to the private sector denominated in foreign currency fell 27.8% quarter-over-quarter. Quarterly fees is mainly explained by a 47.9% decrease in other loans, followed by a 22.4% fall in pre-financing and financing of exports and a 12.5% fall in credit card. During the quarter, both the retail and commercial portfolio fell in pesos.

Loan portfolios were highly impacted by the effect of inflation during the Q3 of 2022, which reached 22%. In nominal terms, BBVA Argentina managed to increase the total loan portfolio by 11.9% during the quarter. BBVA Argentina's consolidated market share of private sector loans reached 8.47% as of the Q3 of 2022, improving from 8.10% a year ago. In the Q3 of 2022, asset quality ratio, NPL, was 1.07% compared to the 1.08% recorded in the Q2 of 2022. This is mainly explained by a similar percentage reduction of the non-performing portfolio as well as the total portfolio.

The covered ratio was 236.87% in the Q3 of 2022, above the 219.39% recorded in the Q2of 2022. The increase in coverage is merely the product of a greater fall in the non-performing portfolio versus a lower percentage fall of allowances. Cost of risk reached 2.65% as of the Q3of 2022, above Q2 2022's 1.94%. This is mostly explained by a growth in loan loss allowance in the quarter, mainly due to the periodic update of macroeconomic scenarios in IFRS 9 model impairment.

On the funding side, as seen on slide 7, private non-financial sector deposits in the Q3 of 2022 total ARS 1.1 trillion, falling 9.9% quarter-over-quarter and 7.2% year-over-year. Quarterly decrease was mainly explained by site deposits. The bank's consolidated market share of private deposits reached 6.68% as of the Q3 of 2022. Private non-financial sector deposits in pesos decreased 9.8% compared to the Q2 of 2022. The quarterly change is mainly affected by a decrease in site deposits, especially checking accounts by 23.3%, followed by saving accounts by 17.9%. This was partially offset by an increase in investment accounts by 14.7%.

Private non-financial sector deposits in foreign currency expressed in pesos fell 10.6% quarter-over-quarter. As of the Q2 of 2022, the bank's transactional deposits, considering checking accounts and saving accounts, represent 55.2% of total non-financing private deposits versus 60.2% in the Q2 of 2022. In terms of capitalization, BBVA Argentina continues to show strong solvency indicators in the Q3of 2022. Capital ratio reached 26.2%. Exposure to the public sector in the Q3 of 2022, excluding central bank instruments, represented 9.8% of total assets, slightly above the 9% in the Q2 of 2022 and way below the 13.1% reported by the system as of August 2022.

It is worth mentioning that as of the date of this report, BBVA Argentina has distributed dividends by ARS 12.1 billion in installment 1 to 11 according to the established schedule published on June 16, 2022. The twelfth and last installment was announced last Friday, November 18. The bank's total liquidity ratio remained healthy at 79% of total deposits as of September 13. This concludes our prepared remarks. We will now take the questions. Operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. Showing no questions, this concludes the question and answer session. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Mrs. Lanusse for any closing remarks.

Inés Lanusse (Investor Relations Officer)

Okay, thank you for your time. Please let us know if you have questions. Bye. Have a good day.

Operator (participant)

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