Grupo Aval Acciones y Valores S.A. ADR (Each representing 20 preferred shares)

Welcome to Grupo Aval's fourth quarter 2021 consolidated results conference call. My name is Hilda, and I will be your operator for today's call. Grupo Aval, Acciones y Valores S.A., Grupo Aval is an issuer of securities in Colombia and in the United States. As such, it is subject to compliance with securities regulation in Colombia and applicable U.S. securities regulation. Grupo Aval is also subject to the inspection and supervision of the Superintendency of Finance as holding company of the Aval Financial Conglomerate. The consolidated financial information included in this document is presented in accordance with IFRS as currently issued by the IASB. Details of the calculations of non-GAAP measures, such as ROA and ROA-A, among others, are explained when required in this report. This report includes forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify these forward-looking statements by words such as may, will, should, expects, plans, anticipates, believes, estimates, predicts, potential, or continue, or the negative of these and other comparable words. Actual results and events may differ materially from those anticipated herein as a consequence of changes in general, economic, and business conditions, changes in interest and currency rates, and other risks described from time to time in our filings with the Registro Nacional de Valores y Emisores and the SEC. Recipients of this document are responsible for the assessment and use of the information provided herein. Matters described in this presentation and our knowledge of them may change extensively and materially over time, but we expressly disclaim any obligation to review, update, or correct the information provided in this report including any forward-looking statements and do not intend to provide any update for such material development prior to our next earnings report. The content of this document and the figures included herein are intended to provide a summary of the subjects discussed rather than a comprehensive description. When applicable, in this document we refer to billions as thousands of millions. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutierrez, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Luis Carlos Sarmiento Gutierrez, you may begin.

Good morning, and thank you all for joining our fourth quarter 2021 conference call. It is my pleasure to share with you our strong financial results for the year 2021. I am proud to report that during 2021, in the backdrop of a country's very strong economic recovery, we at Grupo Aval achieved the highest net income in the company's history. It has been two years since the lockdowns caused by the pandemic began. Since, we believe we successfully managed the crisis, appropriately addressing risk management and commercial issues, supporting our customers, and caring for our employees. We further believe that our handling of the crisis coupled with our diversification strategy resulted in the manageable volatility in our results, especially when compared to our peers. In Aval, during 2022, things have progressively gone back to normal. Among the most important changes to our customary way of working, we have migrated to a hybrid work scheme, presencial slash remote, which will remain our standard going forward. We're now much more mindful of the benefits of such working standard, which we believe, when applied wisely, results both in employee satisfaction and operating efficiencies. 2022 will also result in a material change to our ownership structure as we execute the spin-off of 75% of BAC Holding International Core, BHI, the holding company which owns our Central American Banking Group. More on that later in the call. And now, before we jump into the detail of our financial results, I will refer to the economic performances of the countries in which we operate. I will provide a brief update of the status of our clients' pandemic-driven loan reliefs, of our digital initiatives, of our ESG efforts, and, as I said before, I will also update you on our progress regarding the spinoff. Around the world, 2021 was a year of economic transition, with countries experiencing a rebound in their business activity, domestic consumption, and a marked acceleration in their inflation indicators. According to the IMF, global GDP in 2021 would have grown 5.9% in 2021, after the 3.1% contraction evidence in 2020. For 2022, the IMF forecasts a GDP growth of 4.4% despite the Ukraine-Russia conflict that has already adversely affected growth prospects in Europe and developed countries. Specifically, during 2021, the Colombian economy recovered and surpassed in most instances the production levels lost during the sanitary crisis, with one notable exception, unemployment. Additionally, as in most economies around the world, the recovery has not been devoid of inflationary pressures. In fact, Colombia's economy grew 10.6%, the highest rate in Colombia's history. During the last quarter, GDP expanded at 4.3%, above the market consensus of 2.6%. This result is mainly explained by a rebound in private consumption that grew 14.6% versus 2020, and 8.9% versus 2019. The recovery in domestic demand reflects the use of excess savings by households, a significant increase in remittances from abroad, the fiscal stimulus put in place during the pandemic, and a partial recovery in the labor market. From the supply side, growth in the last quarter was driven by commercial activities and manufacturing that grew 4.6% and 2% respectively, and represent 30.3% of GDP. Construction and government services representing 19.7% of GDP grew 4.3% and 1% respectively. Regarding COVID vaccinations, a year in 2021, 55.7% of Colombia's population had a complete vaccination schedule. In Central America, approximately 50% of the population has a complete vaccination schedule. Costa Rica leaps with 75% and Guatemala lags at 32%. This has allowed Colombia and Central America to reestablish pre-pandemic production at a relatively good pace. However, 2022 is not free of other challenges. As you know, this is an election year in Colombia and the contractionary monetary policy currently in effect will no doubt affect the growth momentum. It remains to be seen how profound the impacts of these challenges are. Despite these challenges, 2022 also brings the opportunity to further normalize cost of risk, to strongly grow the loan portfolios, and in theory to expand interest margins, at least initially in our majority commercial loan portfolio banks. In addition, the unexpectedly higher oil prices boost export revenues and provide some relief to Colombia's twin deficits. All in all, we currently expect 2022 Colombia's GDP growth to be in the 4% to 4.5% range. This is in the lower side of market consensus and lower than the government forecast of 5%. The exchange rate registered material volatility during 2021, ranging between $3,421 and $4,024, closing at $3,981. On average, a devaluation of 15.98%. mainly as a result of the global strengthening of the U.S. dollar due to the expectation of an early reduction of monetary stimulus by the Federal Reserve and the increase in the local country risk premium due to the partial loss of investment grade. However, during the last few days, the peso has strengthened below 3,800 pesos per dollar in response to the surge in oil prices due to the expected shortage of supply in the upcoming months. I must note, that the Ukraine-Russia conflict implies an increase in the value of cereal and fertilizer imports, which will no doubt pass a toll on the Colombian trade balance. We currently expect some volatility of the exchange rate around the 3850 pesos per dollar level during the remainder of the year. Inflation closed the year at 5.62%, up from 1.61% in 2020. On a 12-month basis, At the end of February, inflation reached a six-year high of 8.01%, mainly driven by supply factors affecting particularly the agricultural sector. In fact, food prices increased a record high of 23.3% in annual terms. As monetary policy starts to anchor inflation expectations, we expect 12-month inflation to slowly come down to 5.5% by the end of the year, above the central bank's target of between 2% and 4%. We will remain observant, however, of additional inflationary pressures derived from the Ukraine-Russia conflict and its effects on commodity prices in the international markets. After keeping the repo rate stable during the first nine months of the year, the central bank, once it became evident that inflation was accelerating, increased the innovation rate 125 basis points between September and December 2021 from 1.75% to 3%. The repo rate is currently at 4% after a 100 basis points hike during the last meeting in January. As the inflationary pressures lingered throughout 2022, an accelerated cycle of increases in the repo rate is foreseeable. In fact, we now anticipate that the repo rate could reach 6% by the first half of 2022 and 7% by the end of the year. Although the labor market has lagged, it has also continued to improve. After an average national unemployment rate of 13.7% at the end of 2021, Down from 16.1% in 2020, it still did not reach the pre-pandemic level of 10.5% achieved in 2019. As the recovery process continues, we expect a further decline in the unemployment rate to an average of 12% in 2022. The current account deficit widened to 5.7% of GDP in 2021. mainly driven by a greater imbalance in the trade balance that reached a deficit of $20.5 billion in 2021, to a much faster growth in imports, reflecting stronger domestic demand, and a more modest growth in exports. The widening of the current account was financed 53% by foreign direct investment and by portfolio inflows, as the appetite by foreigners for domestic public bonds in the local market resumed during the second half of last year. Going forward, external accounts should improve mainly because of oil prices and better crude and coal production levels. However, rising prices of imported goods affected by the Ukraine-Russia conflict could dampen this improvement. Despite the expected surge in oil and coal exports, the current account deficit is expected to hover around 4.8% in 2022. On the fiscal front, the fiscal deficit for 2021 was 7.1% of GDP, lower than the 8.6% expected by the government. This was a result of higher economic growth, better tax collection, and lower execution of the government's spending budget. Even though the government managed to push through a tax reform amid a complex political environment, Colombia's credit rating was downgraded by the rating agencies, which had an adverse effect on the country's risk premium and on the ratings and yields of Colombian issuers. For 2022, the government expects a further decline of the fiscal deficit to 6.2% based on the ongoing economic recovery and additional revenues from the oil sector. We move on to Central America. During 2021, the region benefited mainly from the economic recovery of the United States and the positive implications in trade and remittances. As a result, after a contraction of 7% in 2020, the IMF projects real GDP growth of 6.8% for the region in 2021, with the highest growth in Panama, 12%, in El Salvador, 9%, followed by Guatemala 5.5%, Nicaragua 5%, Honduras 4.9%, and Costa Rica 3.9%. For 2022, GDP growth for the region is expected to be 4.2%, slightly above the annual average of 4% registered between 2010 and 2019. As Central American countries are predominantly oil importers, the increase in oil prices and the disruption in global supply chains have pressured inflation and will most likely continue to pressure inflation in the region. During 2021, Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador were the most affected with inflations of 7.2%, 5.3%, and 6.1%, respectively. Costa Rica and Guatemala registered inflations of 3.3% and 3.1% respectively, while Panama registered 2.6% inflation. As of December, we had 21.6 trillion pesos in active reliefs or under structural agreements, representing approximately 9.5% of our total consolidated loan portfolio. In Colombia, active reliefs amounted to 7.4 trillion pesos, or 5.3 of the Colombian loan portfolio, and in Central America, reliefs amounted to 14.3 trillion pesos, representing 16.1% of the region's portfolio. Panama accounted for approximately 49% of the region's active reliefs. Of all loans that have concluded their relief periods, those currently past due 90 days or more represent approximately 1% of our total consolidated loan portfolio. While those currently passed due 30 days or more, represent 1.6% of our total consolidated loan portfolio. If we move on to digital, these are some numbers that back up the execution of our strategy during 2021. In Colombia, Active digital clients totaled 3.8 million, approximately 44% more than 12 months ago. Our banks sold 1.5 million digital products during 2021, an increase of 59% versus 2020. 60% of all sales of retail products for which a digitalized solution has been developed were conducted digitally. Our recently improved mobile banking apps reached 1 million downloads in both Android and iOS. Transactions conducted through Aval's closed payment gateway, AvalPayCenter, increased 122% versus 2020. Campaigns using advanced analytics developed based on our unified database platform, Augusta, have been able to increase effective disbursements by 40%. Mathilde, our programmatic ad platform, has allowed us to reduce by 41% our cost per thousand impressions. In Central America, digital clients increased 20% during the year, reaching almost 2 million clients at year end. Digital sales increased 41% versus 2020 through 37 digital products. BFM, or Personal Finance Management, a personal finance solutions app that helps our customers understand their finances and make better decisions, was successfully launched. Cash, our transactional app, despite being relatively recent, was one of the most downloaded apps in the region. Let's move on to ESG. In the past decade, ESG has become an integral part of our strategy. Alongside our subsidiaries, we're firmly committed to becoming better at it every year that passes by continually raising our standards of environmental protection, by striving to improve our interactions with all our stakeholders, and by pushing for strong corporate governance. These are a few of our ESG milestones during 2021. On corporate governance and risk management, After having implemented ESRA environmental and social risk analysis systems on Banco de Bogota back in multi-bank, we began its rollout to our other Colombian banks. On the economic performance front, Corfe Colombiana issued a 500 billion pesos social bond. In addition, our banks launched green products and sustainable development credit lines. Among the most important, the Amazonia card in Banco de Bogota, the UNICEF card in Banco de Occidente, sustainable housing and electric vehicle lines, and others. Regarding corporate deficiencies, we adhere to the United Nations Global Compact, reaffirming our commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals. Through ECOBOT machines, we carried on recycling initiatives, recycling approximately half a million plastic bottles. On talent management, we developed our corporate diversity and inclusion policy. Banco de Bogota, Occidente, Popular en Porvenir received the Great Place to Work certifications. We migrated to a hybrid presencial slash remote work scheme that will be our standard going forward, maintaining an exclusively remote work scheme for some positions. Finally, regarding the social and environmental initiatives, Banco de Bogota and Corfe Colombiana became part of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Banco de Bogota is among the top eight most sustainable banks. We implemented through our subsidiaries environmental initiatives, including the reforestation of the Amazon and the use of renewable energies in some of our branches and headquarters. Finally, our subsidiaries, jointly with our controlling shareholder, fully funded the construction of a $500 million state-of-the-art cancer treatment and research center in Colombia, which is currently being staffed and equipped and is scheduled to open its doors to patients in the second quarter of this year. As you recall, during September of 2021, Banco de Bogota informed the markets of its intention to spin off to its shareholders Including Grupo Aval, 75% of the shares the bank currently owns of VAC Holding International Corporation, BHI, the holding company that ultimately owns 100% of the shares of our Central American banking group, VAC Credomatic. Concurrently, Grupo Aval informed the markets of its intention to spin off to its shareholders the shares of BHI received as a result of the mentioned Banco de Bogota spin-off. There are several reasons behind these transactions. On the one hand, as a consequence of BAC's excellent financial performance since we acquired it in 2010, accentuated in most years by the Colombian peso natural devaluation against the US dollar, BAC is currently almost the same size as its owner, Banco de Bogota. In this regard, we do not consider it convenient that Banco de Bogota owns another bank of equal size. Additionally, the transaction will strengthen Aval's and Banco de Bogota's strategic focus on Colombia because, as a result of the spin-up and the deconsolidation of this investment in our numbers, we will simplify our corporate structure, eliminate multi-jurisdictional complexities, and increase our agility and flexibility to respond to the dynamics of the local markets in which we operate. We also expect to gain flexibility in the administration of regulatory capital as we continue to move towards full Basel III principles. This, in turn, should allow us to improve our strategic position to capture future growth. Lastly, we hope, although obviously cannot guarantee, to unlock some value for our shareholders. As anybody that follows our shares knows, The multiples at which our shares trade with respect to the company's earnings are comparatively depressed and have been so for a while when compared to those of our peers. In fact, an independent valuation determined that Aval's share value after the spin-off would have a price similar to the price at which it trades today. Under that scenario, Aval's price multiples to earnings would be fairly comparable to those of our peers. BHI shares will trade in the Colombian Stock Exchange along with the shares of Banco de Bogota and Grupo Aval. BHI will also trade in the Panamanian Stock Exchange. Therefore, we expect that the stock will be marketable and liquid. As of yesterday, this transaction has received all the required regulatory approvals and therefore we will now proceed with the execution stage. Our intention is to close the spin-offs and deliver the BHI shares to the eligible shareholders by the end of March. If that is the case, our financial statements at the end of this quarter will cease to consolidate BHI and any income derived from the 25% investment that Banco de Bogota will retain in BHI will be accounted for via the equity method. Finally, we also expect to book extraordinary net income from the realization of certain OCI accounts at Banco de Bogota as a byproduct of deconsolidation. We will have a better idea of that extraordinary net income among the day of the spin-off. As Diego will explain, the spin-off should boost Banco de Bogota's regulatory capital by approximately 130 basis points. However, to further boost this ratio and to absorb other changes to regulatory capital derived from the progressive adoption of Basel III principles, Banco de Bogota's board will propose to its shareholders to not declare a cash dividend in the upcoming shareholders' meetings. A value will follow suit as it is the company's unwritten custom to declare dividends in the same amount as it receives from its subsidiaries. Regarding our financial results, Diego will refer next in detail to our financial performance during 2021. However, I would highlight the following. Our banking subsidiaries successfully rode the wave of the country's economic rebounds that improved the credit profile of our customers, presented growth opportunities, lowered the cost of risk, and increased recoveries of written off loans. As a result, we achieved net income of 3.3 billion pesos, 40.4% higher than in 2020, and 9% higher than in 2019. marks 2021 as the year with the highest net income in our history. Return on average equity was 15.3%, and return on average assets was 1.65%. At year end, versus 2020, consolidated assets grew by 13.6%, consolidated gross loans grew by 13.2%, 30 and 90-day PDLs indicators improved by 86 and 66 basis points, respectively, versus 2020. Cost of risk improved by 110 basis points. Net income for the year increased by approximately 10%. Our cost to assets improved by 10 basis points, and our funding and liquidity positions remained strong. I thank you for your attention, and now I'll pass on the presentation to Diego, who will explain in detail our business results and provide guidance for 2022. I will add that the guidance that Diego provides for 2022 will be devoid, will not include the extraordinary net income that result as a consequence of the spin-off. I thank you for your attention once again, and Diego, please continue.

Thank you, Luis Carlos. I will now move to the consolidated results of Grupo Aval under IFRS. Starting on page 11, assets grew 13.6% during 2021 and 4.3% during the quarter. Excluding the FX movements of our Central American operation, total assets grew 7.6% during the year and 2.7% during the quarter. Our assets grew 9.3% from the year in Colombia and 4.8% in dollar terms in Central America. A 16% depreciation over the last 12 months resulted in a 21.8% annual growth in Colombian pesos of Central America. Quarterly growth was 2.1% in Colombia and 3.5% in dollar terms in Central America. A 4.9% depreciation during the quarter resulted in an 8.3% growth of Central America in Colombian pesos. The weight of Central America reached 37% of our book with BHI and MFH accounting for 32% and 5% respectively. Moving to page 12, loans grew 13.2% over the year and 4.3% during the quarter. Our Colombian gross loan portfolio grew 6.6% over the year and 2.2% during the quarter. Partly performance in Colombia reflected a strong dynamic in retail lending and still soft one in commercial lending, similar to the trends of the banking system. Demand for consumer loans in Colombia continued to be strong, resulting in a 3.2% growth during the quarter and 11.5% for the full year. 12-month growth remained driven by payroll loans, with a 15.7% increase while our quarterly growth included a strong performance of unsecured products. During the year, automobile loans grew 9.8%, personal loans 6.1%, and credit cards 2.2%. Payroll lending and auto financing, our main consumer secured products, grew 2.3% and 5.2% respectively during the quarter. These products account for 61% and 7% of our Colombian consumer portfolio. Both personal loans and credit cards, which account for 20% and 12% of our Colombian consumer portfolio, grew at 4.3% during the quarter. As other secured retail products, mortgages remained dynamic, expanding 4.7% over the quarter and 15% year-on-year. On the other hand, corporate lending growth in Colombia continued to be weak. Commercial loan portfolio, excluding repos, grew 1.3% over the quarter, taking annual growth to 2.9%. In addition to market trends, our growth is affected by a disciplined pricing approach that focuses on profitable growth. Moving forward, business confidence in Colombia and the positive trends in economic activity support a strong commercial loan growth rate. In addition, we expect that retail lending momentum will persist as employment continues its recovery and household demand consolidates, allowing banks to extend further into higher risk products. We have a positive view on 2022 growth, despite temporary headwinds in confidence during the first half of this year derived from the election cycle and the uncertainty associated with the global geopolitical events. Moving to Central America, our gross loans portfolio increased 8.3% in dollar terms year-on-year and 3.2% over the quarter. Quarterly performance in Central America evidenced a recovery in economic activity that resulted in 3.9% and 3.7% growth in consumer and commercial loans, respectively. Mortgages increased by 1.1% over the quarter. On pages 13 and 14, we present several loan portfolio quality ratios. Cost of risk has returned to recurring pre-pandemic levels. Core receded earlier than expected due to a favorable evolution of the behavior of relief customers returning to regular payment schedules and a fast and strong rebound of the economy. This improvement reflects in a better composition of our loan portfolio measured by loans classified by stages. Relief programs were successful in allowing us to manage the COVID-19 shock with lower impact on our consumers and thus impairment losses than what was expected at the beginning of the pandemic. As of December, 0.8% of our total gross loans remained under payment holidays and 8.7% under structural payment programs, together accounting for 9.5% of our loan portfolio. In Colombia, 5.3% of our loans have some type of relief, only 0.04% of our Colombian gross loans are still under payment holidays. Most reliefs are structural payment programs under the POT, the government-sponsored borrower support program. In Central America, 16.1% of our loans still have some type of relief. This is broken down into 14.1% of gross loans under structural payment programs and 2% under payment holidays. The payment holidays that remain are concentrated in Panama that accounts for 88% of those. The outstanding balance of payment holidays in the region contracted 41% of the quarter down to $443 million. At end of period, 4.3% of our total loans that in the past had benefited either from payment holidays or were restructured and that had returned to active payment schedules were past due more than 90 days. These past due loans continue representing 1% of our total gross loans, and these numbers are 6.9% and 1.6% for loans past due more than 30 days. In Colombia, 6.7% of loans previously relieved that had received active payment in schedules were 90 days past due, representing 1% of gross loans. For 30 days PDLs, these numbers were 9.3% and 1.4%. In Central America, 2.7% of loans previously relieved that had returned to active payment and schedules were 90 days past due, representing 0.9% of gross loans. For 30 days, PDLs, these numbers were 5.3% and 1.8% respectively. So significant development evidencing the recovery after the pandemic, PDL formation has returned to pre-pandemic levels. As reported, In our last call, third quarter PDL formation benefited from over 580 billion pesos of the Avianca TACTA group loans returning to current. Regarding delinquencies, metrics for 30 days and 90 days PDLs continued improving during the quarter. Our allowance coverage of 30-day PDLs and 90-day PDLs also improved over the quarter. The quality of our loan portfolio improved relative to a quarter and a year ago. fell to 404%, a 36 basis points improvement over three months and 86 basis points improvement over 12 months. 90-day PDLs fell to 2.9%, a 20 basis points improvement over three months and 66 basis points improvement over 12 months. Even though not yet to pre-pandemic levels, the breakdown of our loan portfolio by stages continues to improve, with stage one loans gaining 91 basis points in the mix compensated by 72 basis points and 19 basis points decrease in stage two and stage three loans. This improvement was mainly driven by our consumer loan portfolio in both geographies, which recorded 138 basis points increase in share of stage one loans to 83% and 102 basis points decrease in stage two to 12.8%. The higher the normal level of stage two loans will linger for several quarters, but is expected to move to improve as previously relieved customers maintain a healthy payment behavior throughout this year or fully pay their outstanding balances. We expect this behavior to materialize and support our positive view on the evolution of cost of risk during 2022. 2021 cost of risk net of recoveries was 1.9% in line with our previous guidance. This result incorporates a 28 basis points increase in cost of risk of our total portfolio over the quarter, with 64 basis points increase in commercial and 15 basis points improvement in retail. Quarterly cost of risk increased 45 basis points in Colombia driven by commercial loans and remained flat in Central America. Finally, the ratio of charge-offs to average 90-day PLs was 0.7% times for 2021 and for the quarter. On page 15, we present funding and deposit evolution. Funding growth during the quarter reflects a still high liquidity environment. As a result, our deposit to net loans ratio remained high at 106%, while our cash to deposits ended the quarter at 15.6%. Our funding structure remained relatively stable, with deposits accounting for most of our funding at 76%. Deposits increased 10.7% year-on-year and 4.1% during the quarter. Colombia grew 1.5% during the quarter, while Central America grew 3.3% in dollar terms. Over the 12-month period, Colombia grew 2.6% and Central America 7% in dollar terms. On page 16, we present the evolution of our total capitalization, our attributable shareholders' equity, and the capital adequacy ratio of our banks. Both our total equity and attributable equity grew 11.4% over the year, mainly driven by our earnings. Total equity increased 2.8% during the quarter, while attributable equity increased 3%. As of fourth quarter 2021, our banks show appropriate Tier 1 and total solvency ratios. Moving forward, we estimate that the spinoff described by Luis Carlos will have a positive impact of close to 130 basis points in Banco de Bogota's capitalization ratios. Two forces will improve the capitalization of Banco de Bogota. First, the consolidation of $20 billion, or 46% of Banco de Bogota's risk-weighted assets. And second, Banco de Bogota will cease to deduct $1.6 billion in goodwill and intangibles from its core equity tier one. On the other hand, some negative elements result from the spin-off, First, $2.6 billion or 36% of Banco de Bogota's equity will be spun off. Second, the bank will deduct half a billion dollars from its core equity tier one associated with its remaining 25% minority interest in BHI. And third, Banco de Bogota will no longer benefit from the $520 million 81 issued by Bank International Bank in 2020. However, Despite this positive effect, we expect Banco de Bogota's first quarter 2022 capitalization ratios to be similar to those reported for year-end 2021. The depreciation of fixed income markets has led to unrealized losses through our OCI, reducing core equity Tier 1. In addition, the adoption of Basel III, including changes in operational risk during this quarter, is expected to increase risk-weighted assets. To further strengthen Banco de Bogotá's and Grupo Aval's capital bases, their Board of Directors will recommend to their respective shareholders' meetings to be held in the upcoming weeks that neither Banco de Bogotá nor Grupo Aval distribute cash dividends related to 2021's net income. These recommendations seek to, on the one hand, prime Banco de Bogotá's capital base to capture growth potential during the upcoming years, And as far as Grupo Aval is concerned, the recommendation falls largely in line with Aval's custom to not distribute dividends unless it's paid dividends by its affiliates. In recent years, Aval and Banco de Bogota have distributed an average close to 50% of their annual netting. On page 17, we present our yield and loans, cost of funds, spreads, and NIM. 2021 interest rate behavior was driven by a falling average reference rates. Growth focused on lower-risk, low-return products and segments during most of the year and by the increase in price competition on those. The annual average central bank rate in Colombia contracted 95 basis points to 1.92% in 2021, while the average three-month labor contracted 49 basis points to 0.16%, These changes negatively impacted yields in both regions during the year. In this environment, 2021 yield on loans fell 98 basis points down to 8.37%. The spread between average yield on gross loans and the average cost of funds contracted 28 basis points to 5.98%, despite a 71 basis points reduction in cost of funds down to 2.39%. Despite an increase in rates during the quarter, the average yield and loans of 8.46% and the average cost of funds of 2.51% for fourth quarter still were 20 basis points and five basis points lower than a year earlier. As a result of these trends, our annual net interest margin contracted 36 basis points to 4.8%, driven by a 17 basis points decrease in net interest margin on loans to 5.8%, and a 64 basis points decrease in net interest margin on investments to 0.9%. Quarterly NIM fell 12 basis points quarter on quarter, driven by a 37 basis points contraction of NIM on investments and of seven basis points in NIM on loans. NIM on loans remained stable in Colombia during 2021 at 5.6%, and fell 53 basis points to 6.1% in Central America. The variation in Central America resulted from a slight contraction in DHI and the effect of a full year versus seven months in 2020 of MFG. MFG has tighter net interest margins given that it operates in Panama only. We expect that the rising interest rate cycle can provide an upside for higher Neiman loans with an initial temporary downward pressure given the accelerated pace at which it is happening and increasing timing differences between assets and liabilities. Price competition, given the positive macro outlook, could also delay such improvement. Net interest margin on investments will be under pressure in this environment and could be affected by global monetary policies and geopolitical events. On page 18, we present net fees and other income. Gross pay income for the year reflects a pickup in banking services and debit and credit card fees as lockdowns receded and transactional activity recovered to pre-pandemic levels. 2021 consolidated gross fees increased 10.6%, resulting from an 8.7% growth in Colombia, and a 10.9% growth in dollar terms in Central America. Gross fees increased 4.4% quarter-on-quarter in Colombia and 13.1% in dollar terms in Central America. The recovery of consumer activity added to the high seasonal behavior of fourth quarter, yielding this strong result. Income from the non-financial sector was strong during 2021. Our infrastructure sector, that is the largest contributor to our non-financial income, grew 15.7% in 2021. Energy and gas companies decreased their contribution to our non-financial sector by 6.9%, given a high comparison base in 2020 from Promigas' companies in Peru. Finally, although historically a low contributor to our non-financial sector, our hospitality business has a positive result during the second half of the year. as occupancy rates rose. Despite this improvement, its annual result was a 14 billion pesos loss. Finally, on the bottom of the page, other income was lower than a year earlier. Other income included optimization strategies executed in the fourth quarter of 2020, and income from non-consolidated investments increased due to the recovery in equity methods from Promigaz's associates, and a 45 billion pesos extraordinary dividend from Grupo de Energía de Bogotá during third quarter of 2021. On page 19, we present some efficiency ratios. All our business units continue implementing cost and tension initiatives during 2021. Cost to assets for 2021 was 3.3% down from 3.4% in 2020. Cost to income was 47.6% up from 46% a year early earlier and stable relative to 2019. Cost to income was affected by a 36 basis points contraction in NIM and a 10.5% decrease in other income from operations given the high comparison base in 2020. Other expenses increased 7% year-on-year with Colombia growing 5.6% in line with inflation and Central America 6.9% in dollar terms. The latter was impacted by five additional months of consolidation of MFG. Without the effect of MFG, other expenses would have increased 6% for a while and 4.8% in dollar terms in Central America. Personnel expenses grew 2.6% in 2021, with Colombia growing 3.9% and Central America 1% in dollar terms. General and administrative expenses increased 10.1% in 2021, General and administrative expenses increased 4.7% in Colombia and 15.6% in dollar terms in Central America. The increase in Central America is tied to expenses associated with a recovery in fee income and to increased marketing expenses. Depreciation and amortization were 1.5% year-on-year. Depreciation and amortization increased 0.2% in Colombia and 1% in dollar terms in Central America. Finally, on page 20, we present our net income and profitability ratios. Attributable net income for 2021 was $3,298,000,000 or $148,000,000 per share, 40.4% higher than the result for 2020. Attributable net income for the quarter was $777,000,000 or $34.9 per share. Our return on average assets and return on average equity for the year were 1.6% and 15.3% respectively. These ratios were 1.4% and 13.7% for fourth quarter. Before moving into questions and answers, I will now summarize our general guidance for 2022. Given that we expect to complete the spinoff of 75% of PHI shortly, and cease to consolidate PHI starting this call, our guidance will refer to our continued operations. We expect loan growth from our continued operations to be in the 14% area, with commercial loans growing in the 12% area and retail loans in the 16% area. We expect our cost of risk net of recoveries to be in the 1.6% area. We expect full-year NIM to be in the 4.3% to 4.5% range, with new loans between 5.4% and 5.6% benefiting from a slight positive effect from the rising interest rate scenario. We expect cost to assets to be close to the 2.6% area or a 20 basis points improvement versus the comparable metric in 2021. We expect our fee income ratio to be in the 15% to 17% range. We expect our non-financial sector to contract 25% relative to 2021. Finally, we expect our return on average equity of our continued operations to be in the 15% area. Regarding BHI that will no longer be consolidated by Avala after the spinoff, we provide the following guidance in dollar terms. We expect loan growth to be in the 7% area with commercial loans growing in the 10% area and retail in the 6% area. We expect cost of risk net of recoveries to be in the 1.9% area. We expect full year NIM to be in the 5.8 to 6% range with NIM on loans between 6.7 and 6.9%. We expect cost to assets to be in the 4.3% area. We expect the income ratio to be in the 30 to 32% range. Finally, we expect the return on average equity of BHI to be in the 13% area. With this, we are now available to address your questions.