Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Grupo Financiero Galicia for Squatter 2026 Earnings Call. This conference is being recorded and the replay will be available at the company's website at gfgsa.com. We would like to inform you that all attendees will only be listening to the conference during the presentation and then we will start a question and answer session when further instructions will be provided. Some of the statements made during this conference call will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws and are subject to risk and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed. Investors should be aware of events related to the macroeconomic scenario, the financial industry, and other factors could cause results to differ materially from those expressed in the respective forward-looking statements. Now, I will turn the conference over to Mr. Pablo Ferdida, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Good morning. Although activity levels in February stood 2.2% below those observed in December 2025, high-frequency official indicators of March point to a constructive short-term momentum. In this regard, the manufacturing production index increased by 3.2% month over month, on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the synthetic construction activity indicator, ISAC, rose by 4.7% month over month, also seasonally adjusted. In the first quarter of 2026, the primary surplus stood at 0.4% of GDP, compared to a primary surplus of 0.5% in the first quarter of 2025. The result was explained by a 22.4% year-over-year increase of revenues, whereas primary spending rose 25.9% in both cases, increasing below inflation rates. The National Consumer Price Index accumulated a 9.4% increase during the quarter. Monthly inflation rose from 1.5% in May 2025 to 3.4% in March, 2026. On a year-over-year basis, inflation stood at 32.6% as of March. Following 2025, marked by increasing volatility resulting from the electoral process, the spike in volatility has faded, with the exchange rate and interest rates showing clear signs of stabilization. As of January, First, 2026, both the lower and the upper limits of the chain rate band began to adjust on a monthly basis in line with the latest available monthly inflation data published by INDEC T-2. In March, 2026, the chain rate averaged 1,396 pesos per dollar, reflecting a 23.4% year over year depreciation. In March, 2026, the average rate on peso denominated private sector time deposits for up to 59 days stood at 27.9%, 1.6 percentage points below the March, 2025 average. Private sector deposits in pesos averaged 108.3 trillion pesos in March, increasing by 4% during the quarter and 34.4% in the last 12 months. Time deposits rose 13.8% during the quarter and 41.7% in year-over-year terms. Peso-denominated transactional deposits decreased 6.4% during the first quarter, but increased 25.7% in year-over-year terms. Private sector dollar denominated deposits amounted to $38.7 billion in March 2026, increasing 6.2% during the quarter and 30.4% in the last 12 months. Peso denominated loans to private sector averaged 92.2 trillion pesos in March, showing a 5.3% quarterly increase and a 51.7% year-over-year rise. Private sector dollar denominated loans amounted to $20.5 billion, recording a 12.5% quarterly growth and a 45.5% annual increase. Turning now to Grupo Galicia, net income for the first quarter amounted to 66.5 billion pesos, 66% lower than in the previous year. which represented 0.6% return on average assets and a 3.2% return on average shareholders' equity. This result was mainly due to profits from Banco Galicia for 47.7 billion pesos, from Galicia Asset Management for 34 billion pesos, from Galicia Seguros for 12.5 billion pesos, and from Galicia Securities for 1.5 billion pesos, partially offset by an 18.6 billion pesos loss from Naranja X. Banco Galicia's net income improved by 162.6 billion pesos compared to the fourth quarter of 2025. Although results continue to be impacted by elevated loan loss provisions, charges declined quarter on quarter in line with improved delinquency rate. Net interest income was pressured by lower intermediation volumes. However, the financial margin continued its sequential recovery. Also, seasonal factors typical of the first quarter led to lower fee income, while expenses reflected efficiency gains from the integration process. Operating income increased 153% quarter-on-quarter, driven by an 11% rise in net operating income, mainly reflecting a 25% reduction in loan loss provisions, partially offset by lower net interest income amid reduced average interpretation volumes. Expenses declined 17% quarter-on-quarter, reflecting efficiency gains from the integration with Galicia Mass. the former HSBC. Despite interest rate volatility during January and February, the financial margin improved sequentially and closed the quarter at 16.7%, while results from government bonds showed a favorable trend toward quarter end. Average interest earning assets reached 26 trillion pesos, 4% lower than in the previous quarter. primarily due to a 4% lower volume of flows in pesos and 5% in dollars, and a 6% decrease of government securities in pesos, partially offset by a 52% higher volume of government securities in dollars. In the same period, its yield decreased 260 basis points, reaching 28.9%, 36.8% in the peso portfolio and 7.4% in the dollar portfolio. Interest-bearing liabilities decreased 5% from December 2025, amounting to 23 trillion pesos, mainly due to a 38% lower volume of other deposits in pesos, and 9% in saving accounts in dollars, partially offset by a 9% higher volume of time deposits in pesos. During this period, its costs decreased 260 basic points to 11.7%. Net interest income decreased 7% when compared to the prior quarter, with interest income declined 13%, mainly driven by a 15% lower interest income from loans and other financing. While credit card income fell 28% due to seasonal lowered average volumes, and income from promissory notes decreased 19%, reflecting both lower volumes and a reduced interest rate during the quarter. In addition, income from government securities declined 8%, mainly due to lower volumes and yields in the early months of the quarter. Interest expenses declined 22% quarter on quarter, mainly driven by lower deposit-related costs amid reduced interest rate and average volumes. Expenses on time deposits fell 13%, while costs associated with other deposits declined 47%. In addition, interest on repurchase agreements decreased due to lower average volumes and interest expenses on negotiable obligations fell following the maturity of a corporate bond in February. Net fee income declined 6% quarter on quarter, mainly reflecting the seasonality typical of the first quarter, which usually records lower transaction levels than the fourth quarter. Fee income decreased 5%, primarily due to a 4% decline in grade card fees following the seasonal spending streak of the prior quarter. Collection-related fees also fell, with collections fees down 13% and with lower transaction volumes, including a 10% decrease in utility bill collection services. Their income from financial instruments increased sharply quarter on quarter, partially driven by the sale of certain government securities. In addition, results from government securities measured at fair value improved sequentially. These effects were partially offset by weaker performance in private sector securities, reflecting lower returns during the quarter, and by a decline in results from derivative financial instruments, mainly associated with forward transactions. Results from quotation differences of foreign currency increased 10% quarter on quarter. This performance was supported by overall valuation effects, partially offset by lower income from foreign currency trading, reflecting reduced transactional activity following the unusually high retail volumes recorded in the previous quarter. Provision for loan losses declined 25% quarter-on-quarter, driven by a significant improvement in early delinquency indicators in the individual segment, which fell 49% compared to the previous quarter. As a result, portfolio quality closed the quarter with NPS at 7.7%, while trade risk stood at 9.5%. Personnel expenses declined 8% quarter-on-quarter, mainly reflecting a reduction in average headcount. Administrative expenses also decreased sequentially, falling 18% compared to the previous quarter, driven by operating efficiencies and synergies achieved through the integration with Galicia Mass. Other operating expenses declined 21% quarter-on-quarter, driven by 74% lower other expenses, 12% lower turnover tax expenses, 73% lower charges for other provisions, and a 30% decrease in other financial results. The quarter included an income tax recovery, mainly reflecting the recognition of the tax credit associated with the filing of the fiscal year 2025 tax return, driven by the impact of inflation adjustments. Other comprehensive income declined 86% quarter-on-quarter, reflecting the comparison with the prior period that recorded strong market valuation of government securities, as well as the sale of part of the portfolio during the quarter. The bank's financing to the private sector reached nearly 23 trillion pesos at the end of the quarter, down 4% in the last quarter, with peso financing decreasing 6% and dollar denominated financing up 1%, equivalent to a 21% growth when measured in that currency. Deposits reached 24 trillion pesos, 15% lower than a quarter before, due to a 12% decrease in deposits in pesos. and an 18% decline in dollar-denominated deposits, primarily due to restatement effects, as when measured in original currency, the decrease was 6%. The bank's estimated market share flow to the private sector was 14.4%, 75 basic points lower than at the end of the previous quarter, and the market share of deposits from the private sector was 13.9%, 274 basic points lower than in the fourth quarter of 2025. The Vance liquid assets represented 95% of transactional deposits and 56.5% of total deposits, similar levels of the previous quarter. As regards asset quality, the ratio of non-performing loans to total financing ended the quarter at 7.7%, recording an 80 basis points defibration as compared to the 6.9% of the fourth quarter of 2025, despite the improvement in early delinquency indicators in the retail segment. At the same time, the coverage with allowances reached 91.4%, down from the 97.4% recorded in the prior quarter. As of the end of March, the bank's total regulatory capital ratio reached 25.5%, increasing 30 basis points from the end of the prior quarter. In summary, during the first quarter, financial margin partially recovered, efficiency improved and the cost of risk declined. However, loan demand did not rebound and asset quality and the monetary loss related to inflation had a significant impact on profitability. Nonetheless, Grupo Galicia was able to keep liquidity and solvency metrics at healthy levels and we expect a sequential improvement in profitability and asset quality during 2026. Now, Gonzalo Fernandez-Cobaro, CFO of Grupo Galicia, will make some additional remarks. And I would like to mention that Hernan Garcia, the CFO of NaranjaX, is also here with us and will be available to answer specific questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Pablo. Good morning, everyone. As you know, the quarter started a bit challenging with interest rate volatility, policy tightening, and high inflation. But then the rate, you know, went down in March and continued to be stable so far. So looking ahead, we believe Argentina will continue with this phase of stability, a more predictable policy framework, and really potential for growth. And as normalization continues, as you know, the financial system will play a key role in the development of the country. Talking about this specific quarter, about volume, the year started with low, with low growth, due to low demand in the commercial credit side, mainly in pesos. It was better in dollars, but peso really very soft demand. And a stricter hallucination policy on the consumer side that we implemented. We believe that commercial lending will pick up starting in the second quarter. In fact, we have already seen some movement in this area in dollars, but also started to see some demand in pesos. And we believe this will continue. And, of course, as economy improves, consumer lending will also increase. start to grow again as we expected. Projection for long growth for the year, we are now at between 20% and 25%. We were expecting a 25% growth at the beginning of the year. Now we're seeing it a bit lower than that. And in the case of deposits, we are now seeing an evolution, an increase between 15% and 20%. We were talking about 20% before at the beginning of the year. As we said in prior course, cost of risk already had its peak in the fourth quarter of 2025. And we have started to see the credit logic charges to decrease, as you can see in the first quarter P&L. And we expect that to continue quarter after quarter. And MPL should have had the peak in the first quarter, I would say. Stability, bid reduction in the second, and then continue to go down. On the cost side, we are capturing the benefit of the restructuring made last year after HSBC acquisition. We expect to end the year with an 11% cost reduction year over year. As you know, we made a big, big restructuring in Z count and also in branches. Talking about branches, we are already at the number of branches that we got before the HSBC acquisition. We maintain our ROA guidance for 2026 in the low double digits range. I would say 10%, 11%, between 10% and 11%. We expect to go from low to high during the year. It's true that we started a bit lower than expected in the first quarter, but mainly due to revenues. As you can see, the cost of risk and costs are coming on or better than expected. Revenues are a bit behind, mainly due to lower asset growth or loan growth. and higher inflation that, as you know, has a big impact in banks P&L. But we expect that now with loans increasing as we expected and inflation going down, we can catch up during the year to maintain the guidance. To be more specific, in the first quarter, January and February, were bad months in terms of results, but March was a very good month. We are seeing April also good, so we expect that from now on, you know, month results to come good and be able to catch up going forward. In fact, we expect regular, you know, quarter after quarter to improve net income for the world. So that's what I have. So now we are open to questions.