Banco Macro S.A.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Banco Macro's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. We would like to inform you that the first quarter 2026 press release is available to download at the Investor Relations website of Banco Macro, www.macro.com.ar slash Relaciones Dash Inversores. Also, this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company's presentation. After the company's remarks are completed, there will be a question-and-answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. It is now my pleasure to introduce our speakers. Joining us from Argentina are Mr. Jorge Iscarincini, Anti-Financial Officer, and Mr. Nicolas Torres, IR. Now I will turn the conference over to Mr. Nicolas Torres. You may begin your conference.

Good morning and welcome to Banco Macro's First Quarter 2026 conference call. Any comment we may make today may include forwarded statements which are subject to various conditions, and these are outlined in our point yet, which was filed in the SEC, and is available on our website. First Quarter 2026 press release was distributed yesterday, and is available on our website. All deals are in urgent and precious, and have been distributed in terms of the measure in Munich at the end of the reporting period. As of 2020, the Bank began reporting results applying high-grade inflation accounting in accordance with IFRS IAS 29, as established by the Central Bank. For ease of comparison, figures of previous quarters have been restating applying IAS 29 to reflect the accumulated effect of the inflation adjustment for each period from March 31, 2026. I will now briefly comment on the Bank's first quarter of 2026 financial results. From the average net income total of $139.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, 28% for 30.2 billion pesos higher than the result posted in the previous quarter, and 131% for 39.2 billion pesos higher than a year ago. In the first quarter of 2026, the annualized return on average equity and the annualized return on average assets were 10% and 2.4% respectively. Excluding the supplementary expenses, 12.9 billion pesos after tax, The first quarter of 2026 net income would have totaled 152.9 billion pesos, and the analyzed ROE and ROAs would have been 10.9 and 6.6% respectively. In the first quarter of 2026, operating income before general and administrative personal expenses totaled 123 trillion pesos, 3% of 43.6 billion pesos lower than the fourth quarter of 2025, and 16% of 169.2 billion pesos higher than the same period of last year. In the first quarter of 2026, operating income after general and personal expenses was 569.8 billion pesos, and 15% percent 3.8 billion pesos higher than in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 24% for 108.6 billion pesos higher than a year ago. The bank's first quarter of 2026 net interest income totaled 975.2 billion pesos, 7% for 59.7 billion pesos higher than in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 27% or $207.2 million versus higher year-on-year. Futures hold is due to a 5% decrease in interest income and a 21% decrease in interest expense. In the fourth quarter of 2026, interest amounts represent 72% of total interest income. In the first quarter of 2026, the band's strategy to remain short in the US dollar proved successful. The combination of the short power position together with the amount interest position and the allocation of the pesos generated by the sale of U.S. lenders resulted in an NPA. The advance first quarter 2026 interest expense totaled 485.7 billion pesos, decreasing 21% or 152.7 billion pesos compared to the previous quarter, and 27% or 104 billion pesos got higher compared to the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, interest and cost produced 90% of the advance total interest expense, decreasing 22% or 129.1 billion pesos per quarter, due to a 407.1% decrease in the average rate paid on buses, when the average rate paid on buses increased 1%. On a yearly basis, interest on buses increased 24% or 87.1 billion pesos. In the first quarter of 2020, the bank's net interest margin, including FFs, was 25.3%, higher than the 21.7% posted in the fourth quarter of 2020, and than the 23.2% posted in the first quarter of 2020. In the first quarter of 2026, bank matters admitted expenses plus employee benefits totaled $349.8 billion pesos, 22% or $101.5 billion, which is lower than the previous quarter. Each lower employee benefits, which decreased 28%, and lower admitted expenses, which decreased 9%. On a year of wages, admitted expenses plus employee benefits increased 3% or $90.8. Employee benefits decreased 28% or $89.6 billion pesos quarter-on-quarter. Compensation and bonuses decreased 61% or 74.8 billion pesos. In the first quarter of 2006, the bank recorded 19.9 billion pesos restructuring expenses related to early retirement funds and certain payment positions. On a yearly basis, employee earnings increased 3% or 6 billion pesos, and excluding the restructuring expenses, employee benefits would have decreased 8% or 18.7 billion pesos quarter-on-quarter and 6% or 13.9 billion pesos year-on-year. It is worth mentioning That, in the first quarter of 2026, has not reduced its branch network by 24 branches, down to 420 from 444 in December of 2025, and reduced its headcount by 3%. In the first quarter of 2026, the result from the net market position totaled 349.8 million pesos lost, 15% of 46 billion pesos higher than the loss posted in the fourth quarter of 2020, and 1% of 4.4 billion pesos lower than the loss posted one year ago. Higher inflation was observed in the quarter, 158 basis points above the fourth quarter of 2025. The inflation was 9.44% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 7.86% in the fourth quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, mathematics' expected income tax rate was 34.3%. In the first quarter of 2025 to 2026, mathematics totaled a financial decrease of 9% or 1.1 trillion pesos, quarter to quarter, total 10.63 trillion pesos and increased 5% of 458.9 million pesos year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2026, peso financing decreased 9% while US dollar financing decreased 6%. It is important to mention that Bancomat's market share over private sector loans as of March 2026 reached 8.2%, decreasing 40 base points compared to December 2025. On the funding side, Bank of Madro's total deposit decreased 7% from 993.7 million pesos per quarter, and increased 10% from 1.22 trillion pesos year-on-year, totaling 13.99 trillion pesos, and representing 76% of the bank's total liabilities. Private capital deposits decreased 8% from 1.1 trillion pesos per quarter, and in the first quarter of 2026, special deposits decreased 4%, while US dollar deposits decreased 7%. Bank of Madro's market share over private As of March 2026, totaled 7.9% and changed from the previous quarter. In terms of asset quality, the bank's maximum total financial ratio reached 5.4%. In this quarter, the bank's maximum total financial ratio and their trade losses, stage 3, plus 99% loss, deteriorated 84 basis funds during the first quarter of 2026, totaling 3.64%, persisting from 8% in the whole quarter of 2025. The final non-performing ratio is affected by mandatory recalcitration of customers and reserve the bank rules, taking into consideration customers' behavior across the financial system. Bancomat's non-performing over-financial ratio, excluding mandatory recalcitration of customers, increased 109 basis funds, reaching 4.73% in the first quarter of 2026, versus 364% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Consumer portfolio non-performing loans distributed 168 basis funds, up to 6.92% from 523% in the fourth quarter of 2025, while commercial portfolio number of common loans is already 66 basic funds in the first quarter of 2026, up to 134% from 0.68% in the fourth quarter of 2025. The coverage ratio, measured as total loans under expected credit losses over non-performing loans, and the central grant rules, reached 109.79% in the first quarter of 2026, and the coverage ratio being 90%, which is similar to the coverage ratio of other private banks in North Argentina, many of them in the first quarter of 2026 would have totaled 219.7 billion pesos, representing an adjusted ROE of 15.7%. Mahamaker continued showing a strong solvency ratio with an excess capital of 4 trillion pesos, 32.4% capital adequacy ratio, and 32.4% tier 1 ratio. In addition, the balance sheet with assets remained at an adequate level, reaching 78% of its total deposits in the first quarter of 2026. The main thing is to make the best use of this excess capital. Overall, we have accounted for another positive quarter. We continue showing a solid financial position as the quarter remains under control and closing off. We keep on working to improve our artisan standards and we keep a well-atomized deposit base.

At this time, we would like to take the questions you may have.

Okay, at this time, we are going to open it up for questions and answers. If you would like to ask a question, please press the Q&A button at the bottom of the screen, or to ask questions on audio, click on Raise Hand. You will then receive a request to activate your microphone. Our first question comes from Brian Flores with CIGI.

Hi, Tim. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. The first one is the usual one we have. If you have any revision on guidance, we know some of your peers have revised growth a bit in both loans and deposits, so just checking with you if the previous ranges you provided are still valid. And then I wanted to maybe do a double click on asset quality. We saw still, obviously, some NPL deterioration, and we know you kept the coverage ratio at healthy levels. We just wanted to check with you if Going forward, are you already seeing better trends in terms of provision and customer behavior? Thank you.

Hi, Brian.

This is . On your first question about guidance in terms of growth, loans, and deposits, for the moment, we are maintaining the guidance that we gave in the last quarter. what we are seeing basically is that in the first quarter, when you look at growth in loans, there was a decline. There was an increase in real estate when you compare that on a yearly basis. Something to mention here is when you have a look at advances, sorry, overdraft, that is one of the components of our loans. This line is usually used as a way of allocating excess liquidity. As of March 2026, the market share in this line was 14.6%, well below the 18.1% market share that we posted one year ago. So this is quite affecting, and that's why the 5% growth on annual basis. However, when you have a look at other lines like pledges, personal loans, discounted documents or mortgages, they are growing about 20% on a yearly basis. So because of this, and also because of what we've seen in April, credit demand, both in pesos and in dollars, and what is going on in May, that we are seeing a recovery in low demand, That's why that we are maintaining our guidance for loans. Similar trend with the deposits. We are maintaining the guidance on the deposits, even though on a quarterly basis there was a decrease, we are seeing some upward trend in the current quarter onwards. In terms of your second question, asset quality, I think that is worth mentioning here. that even though there was a deterioration that we've seen in the whole portfolio that reached 5.4%, we are still showing the best NPS to total loan ratio among our peers. And also when you look at the coverage ratio that is almost 110%, this is also a ratio that we are showing the highest among our peers. we commented in the press release that if we would be going down to a level of 90% of coverage, and that is the average of our peers, the adjusted ROE for the quarter of course annualized would have been 15.7%. It is also worth mentioning that what we saw between February and March, and also between March and April, there was a positive behavior on the consumer stage three trend. So what we saw is that February apparently was a kind of a peak for the stage three consumer, having March and April showing better trends or positive trends there. And also we saw in terms of commercial that the deterioration speed It was a slowdown in both months. So going forward, we are also maintaining our cost of risk guidance, and we believe that we are close to the peak on this iteration of asset quantity trend that we have seen in the last four months. So that's it, Brian.

Perfect. So 5.2 or approximately 5.2 cost of risk, real ROE close to 8%, right? Just confirming this.

Yeah, well, I mean, in terms of, I mean, what I was talking about, say, guidance for growth in terms of loans and deposits and also in terms of asset quality, cost of risk, yes, it's going to be, I think, more than between 5.5 and 6%. In terms of profitability, it is pretty clear that we posted, I would say, the best quarter among Argentine banks, and it was slightly above the annualized ROV guidance that we gave last quarter. Also, because of what we are seeing in terms of growth in this second quarter, it should be another good quarter for the bank. For the moment, I think that we are going to be maintaining the ROE guidance of area 8% on the adjusted ROE that is without the non-recurring items that we are showing in the quarter. We would like to wait another quarter to see if we are going to increase our ROE guidance. So, for the moment, are we going to see the same 8% area for the exactly .

Thank you, Jorge.

Welcome, Ray.

Our next question comes from Tito Labasta with Goldman Sachs.

Hi. Good morning, Jorge and Nicolás. Thanks for the call and taking my question. I guess following up on the ROE guidance in particular, more, you know, if we look at those trends, right, of cost of risk is likely to come down as asset quality maybe stabilizes. You had some good NIM performance in the quarter, mainly due on lower funding costs. Do you expect that to revert where NIM should come down for the rest of the year? Or, you know, can you sustain this level of NIM, which would then imply perhaps upside risk? to that ROE guidance, just maybe thinking how the NIM should evolve from here and impact profitability.

Thank you. In terms of NIMs, we are seeing going forward, I think, a small contraction. I would say that the NIM for the first queue was slightly above the one that we were expecting. So I would say that the average of the year should be quite similar than the average of last year. So I think that is one of the reasons that could be at some point compensating the level of maintaining the same cost of risk going forward. So that's why we are maintaining this ROE guidance. But again, we want to be here a bit conservative. I'm going one more quarter to see or to crystallize if the bottom line is performing better than expected.

Okay, no, that's clear, Jorge. Thanks for that. Maybe just to follow up there, the pressure on NIM, would it come because you expect funding costs to go up or you think there'll be some pressure on the asset yields as rates have come down? Also, because you're growing loans faster than deposits, could that also put some pressure on NIM? Just to understand where the NIM pressure could come from.

Thank you. Yeah, we are seeing that... Inflation levels should be going slightly down on a monthly basis going forward. That is going to bring nominal interest rates slightly down, but I would say that we could be seeing slightly more pressure from assets yields compared to the funding cost that is also going to go down, but a bit more pressure on the asset side.

Okay. That's clear. Thank you, Jorge.

Our next question comes from Ernesto Gabilondo with Bank of America. Hi.

Hi. Good morning, Juan, Jorge, and Nicolas. Congrats on your results, and thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. My first question will be a follow-up on Brian's questions on asset quality. You mentioned in the press release, you made a recalibration of your model based on the behavior of the customers of the system, and that this was required by the central bank. In Mexico, we follow a similar practice. In the first quarter, the Mexican banks also created higher provisions based on expected losses of the system, and they were considering the asset quality deterioration of the fintechs. Having said that, I asked your peers in your conference calls if this practice is followed in Argentina, and they say no. So, it came to my surprise that you were the only one implementing it during the quarter. So, can you elaborate on why are you implementing it and the other banks don't, and especially as it was required by the regulator? You are the only bank with an adequate research coverage ratio above 100%. The others don't. So I also just want to understand if you are conservative in your ratio or you are just following the international standards. Thank you.

Ernesto, this is Juan. Thanks for your question.

Let me take this one. As you saw in the release, we are putting three metrics of 5.4, 4.7, and 3.6. Okay? 5.4 is the more acid one, which includes the loans that are delinquent with us, plus the loans with us that are not delinquent, plus delinquencies outside of Antwerp. That's the most acid one.

And it's the one that central bank uses for reporting.

There's the second indicator, 4.7, which is the loans that are delinquent with us plus the loans that are current with us on the same customer. So basically what you do is you include in your delinquency ratio assets that are current in your books but that are attracted by assets with the same customer that are delinquent. Stage three is the methodology that we use for provisioning. So the cost of credit that you see in our results is driven by the stage three delinquency calculation. That stage three delinquency calculation is driven by our model, which is in alignment with accounting standards and includes actual delinquencies plus indicators of risk of some loans that might be current but are high risk, for example, because of its score range, okay? So that's the three distinctions, but it's important to define that our cost of credit, the provisions that we book in our results, is driven by the Stage 3 calculation. In our case, for the first quarter, 26, 3.64%. In that metric is where Jorge mentioned that for the consumer book, in Stage 3 metric, we've seen from February to March and from March to April two consequent months of reduction. We have not seen yet reduction on the commercial book in this metric, but we have seen a slowdown in the speed of deterioration. Have I made

a complex topic here, Ernesto?

Super helpful, just wanted to understand that in these plus indicators of risk, you are being more conservative than the other banks, or is just that your loan mix is showing you to recognize higher provisioning? Just wanted to understand this.

Yeah, sorry, we missed that second part of your question. Bottom line, the short answer is yes, we are being more conservative. This does not, in our view, have to do with the outlook. It has to do with how conservative we are in our coverage. And that conservatism is reflected in two ways. One is the model itself. Each bank has its own model. The model needs to comply with standards, but it might vary. That's one thing, the model itself. But the second one is the recalibration. The recalibration is something that by regulation banks need to do at least once a year.

And what you do when you recalibrate is see the last 12 months and recalculate the probabilities of defaults.

So, when you are in an upward cycle of delinquency, every time you recalibrate and you take a look to the last 12 months instead of the last previous 12 months, naturally, the probability of default for each of the clusters of the model increases. What we've done is, because the regulation says that you need to recalibrate at least once a year, But you are free to recalibrate if you want every month. We have been more conservative and done more frequent recalibrations to keep our coverage adequate. Because if not, what happens is by the end of the year, if you don't do the recalibration early on, if you are in an upward cycle of delinquency, you may have a hit. So, bottom line, again, we are being more conservative, both on the model design itself, but also on the periodicity of recalibration versus our peers. The difference is significant. As you've seen, the average of our peers is in the 90%, and we are almost 110. Naturally, we should expect to, as delinquency reduces, to reduce the coverage as the recalibration starts reflecting those improvements. But that's how we see it. Is that clear?

Yes, very clear. Thank you so much. And I just have also a follow-up. Just if you can repeat your guidance for long-growth and deposit growth for this year. I know that you are not changing it, but just to double-check how was it before. And then also another question in terms of your OPEX growth. Can you also remind us How should we think about the recurring OPEX growth for this year, excluding the restructuring costs? And my last question is on your earnings expectations and ROE evolution throughout the year. I know you are right now at 11% and that you mentioned that you will wait for the second quarter to see if you can improve your guidance. But how should we think about the seasonality of the ROE? So the second quarter should be a little bit lower and then should be trending up. I just wanted to understand how should we think about the earnings and the ROE evolution throughout the year to meet your guidance?

In terms of

The guidance for growth, we are still maintaining the long-growth guidance of 42% nominal growth for the year and 34% nominal growth in deposits for the year. That is the guidance that we are maintaining in terms of growth.

In real terms?

It depends on the inflation that you have in your model, but we have an inflation level of 28%. Perfect.

Second question in terms of expenses going forward.

It is pretty clear and we have explicitly commented before that we are in a process of making the bank more efficient, even though we were showing excellent efficiency levels. But we are in the process of becoming more efficient. Honestly, the idea is to continue at least second quarter with the mighty part of the third quarter. It depends on how this evolves, but in the way that we are reducing the number of employees and the number of branches, of course, we do not have exactly the numbers going forward, but a very important proof is that when you look at expenses on a yearly basis, we are in a negative in real terms. So the idea is to continue going forward and then following courses to show a slightly negative net resistance of the evolution of expenses in real terms. And if you allow me, Jorge, this is in line also with the guidance we gave by the end of last year, the fourth quarter last year regarding this matter. then you should continue seeing in our quarterly results restructuring costs and continued reduction in operational costs in real terms. So you're seeing it again in the first quarter, and we expect that trend of investing in creating sustainable sales going forward in the next quarters.

Okay, so just for me to understand, if we exclude the restructuring costs, should we expect OPEX a little bit declining or relatively flat this year?

If you are excluding this going forward, the idea is to keep on showing negative real rate of growth.

Okay, understood.

Perfect. If you take, and this is, I'm just quoting the comments in the release, but if you take out the restructuring costs, our recovery costs would have decreased 6% year-on-year, which Jorge mentioned before. And we expect that trend of reduction in real terms of cost excluding restructuring to be maintained.

This could be a little bit messy because also in the fourth quarter of last year, you created a lot of some non-restructuring costs, no? So, just wanted to understand if we should be thinking on a yearly basis about this 6% decrease or it could be also considering fourth quarter also created some of these

I mean, that is something that we are showing the first quarter and we might be showing the second quarter to continue reducing expenses in real terms. So that's the idea on what Juan was commenting. To be specific, we do not provide guidance to this granularity level. We provide guidance on volume growth and ROE and trends in terms of guidance, but not specifics at this granularity level, but we said that you would continue seeing reductions. You are, and you will.

Perfect. Now, thank you so much. And just the last question on the seasonality of the earnings and the ROE.

Yeah. You are asking me to answer more like an analyst than a CFO, but honestly, I think that's your work. You're the specialist here, but... Going forward, we want to see if the trends that we are seeing in the second quarter materialize in another good second quarter in order to have more elements to be more positive and increase ROE guidance. I think that the decisionality on the ROE, always the fourth quarter is the good one. It will depend on many macroeconomic variables what's happened in the second and third. Let me put it in other words, guys. We've had an encouraging first quarter in comparison with our guidance.

We've said that we are expecting another encouraging quarter for the second quarter. So, what we are saying is we're not changing previous guidance because it may be too early.

But we are optimistic based on what we've seen in the first quarter, which is encouraging. Jorge mentioned slightly above guidance. I think that that was a bit conservative. Actually, 80% guidance was adjusted ROE, and our adjusted ROE for the first quarter is So, it's encouraging. We are seeing encouraging numbers for the second quarter. Of course, we cannot quote or look in specifics.

So, in essence, what we're saying here is we want to be cautious before we update. Okay?

Our next question comes from Yuri Fernandes with JP Morgan.

Hey, guys. Good morning. Hi, Juan, Jorge, Nicolas. I would like to ask more a macro question on how you're seeing Argentina today, right? I think February was bumpy. March, the data was pretty good. So how are you feeling, Juan, Jorge, Nicolas, like the economy, right? Are you seeing a recovery? Are you seeing, I don't know, more demand? And on top of that, I know we already had some questions on asset quality, but if you have any early delinquent indicator, right, how are you seeing like April and May? Because when we go to your new NPL formation, the new bed loans, they are still a little bit up, but you are doing more provisions and they are kind of stable, right? They are growing, but they are growing less. So my question is maybe, I know it's hard to talk about credit peaks in Argentina, and I think you are being good in being conservative on your figures, but I'm just trying to get two colors here. One, if the economy is improving, and you are seeing that, and two, if it is recovering, the economy is also translating to these kind of early delinquents, NPLs, kind of somewhat peaking. And then I can ask a second topic after this question.

Thank you.

Yes, I think that the economy is showing some sign of recovery. When you look at industrial production, they are up on a monthly and yearly basis. What we are seeing is that the harvest at this time of the year is, again, reaching record levels. I would say that the massive consumer demand sectors that were showing bad performance, the negative numbers that they are showing are less negative. So I think that there are some things that the economy is recovering, slowly but recovering. What we are seeing, and again, I think that we commented this before, is that we are seeing some good trend in the consumer stage three between February, March, and April. In terms of the commercial portfolio, it is still deteriorating, but the speed is lower than the one that we saw before. I think that the recovery of the economy is going to have a positive impact in terms of delinquency. The million-dollar question here is when this is going to impact the economy. the delinquency trend. So we still don't know if this is going to happen in May or June, or this will happen in the third quarter, but for sure the recovery economy is going to have a positive impact in terms of the delinquency cycle.

No, super helpful. And if I may, another one, just on deposits, I know there is seasonality in the first quarter, and this explains the quarter-over-quarter drop. But only over a year, checking accounts and savings accounts, what you call the transitional deposits, right, like the cheaper funding, they are growing less. I think they are now 41% of total. They were 48 one year ago of their total private deposits. Why is that? Why deposits, especially the cheaper ones? I know inflation has been coming down, so I would expect those deposits – that have like some kind of cost of opportunity to not decrease. So just checking if you have any color, why the cheap deposits, they were a little bit weaker this quarter.

Thank you. Well, I mean, you said it before, it's holiday season in Argentina. So I think it's quite reasonable and logic that in terms of deposits, there was a growth and in terms of transactional deposits, there was a decline. And that's why we do not keep only the trend that we've seen in the first quarter, because it's usually always the lowest quarter in terms of trend of deposits going forward. We think that this trend is going to turn around, and if we are going to show some increase in pesos and dollar deposits, as I mentioned before, the 34% nominal growth in total deposits for the bank for the year, keeping the guidance.

Okay, no, thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Carlos Gomez with HSBC.

Hello Juan, Jorge, Nicolás, thank you very much for taking my question. Two questions. One is you have a securities gains of 70 billion on your bonds amortized at cost. So that we understand that is a voluntary sale of bonds that are appreciated. It should not in itself be recurrent. It's a normal operation. You have bond gain. I just want to make sure about that. Second, can you tell us about the rest of your amortized bond portfolio and whether you at this point have a gain or a loss in that portfolio? And finally, what do you expect for the currency by the end of the year? Thank you.

Hi, Carlos. How are you?

The first question, the $70 billion or $3 billion gain that we post in the quarter was not a with pricing on the bond portfolio. It was a sale that we made on part of the bonds that are due in June 2027. We sold part of that portfolio and the market price was about the accounting price. So that is reflecting the 70 billion or trillion pesos. And also we bought with those pesos longer duration and higher yield bonds that are doing in September 28 also tied to inflation.

Sorry, second question in terms of, can you repeat me that?

Unrealized gain or loss in your health to maturity securities.

Unrealized gains No, basically are more gains than losses. Honestly, I do not have that number here. I can give it to you later, even though we are not disclosing that as a public information, but I try to get it, Carlos.

Thank you.

The third question was? The third question?

It was the exchange rate. What do you expect for the currency by the end of the year?

Thank you. I mean, basically, we work with two or three different local economies when looking at inflation or FX prices. I think that the consensus for the market is an evaluation of the currency that is below the inflation level. So the range of the devaluation of the currency is between 20-22% for the year, with inflation is between 27-48%. So a number that is ranging between 1,700 to 1,800 by the end of the year. That is what the consensus of the economists that we are working with are.

Very clear. Thank you so much.

Our next question comes from Pedro of Fending with Latin Securities.

Hello, Juan, Jorge, Nicolas. Good morning. I wanted to ask on your loan growth guidance for the year, how should we think it out of the state within pesos and dollar loans? And if so far in the second quarter, you already are seeing some rebound, maybe in any specific product, given the more stable funding raised in this quarter.

Hi, Pedro. How are you? Yeah, I mean, what we are seeing in the second quarter, more recovery in dollar denominated loans than in pesos, even though both are positive. Going forward, we are seeing that in this year, dollar loan growth is going to, in terms of the number is going to upgrade a little bit, the peso, even though the bimonetary portfolio is going to be above 40% nominal as we were commenting on the guidance that we gave before.

Okay, thank you, Jorge.

Welcome.

Our next question comes from Matthias Cataruzzi with ADCAP.

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Hi, Tim. I have a quick follow-up on the loan guidance, loan growth guidance. The prior guidance that you gave us on the four-quarter 2025 earning call was 20% loan growth for the year, and now you told us 42% nominal. Is it with Having in mind 28% inflation, is it lowering on the guidance?

No, the guidance that we gave last quarter was between 15 to 20 real, and now we are now speaking in terms of nominal. So it's pretty the same.

Okay, okay, great. And then a follow-up on regulation. Do you see room for further easing in reserve requirements in coming months? And how do you see the second part of the year for the banks? Will the growth in returns for the sector come with lowering of MPLs, of provisions, an increase in loans or will it come also with tailwind from regulatory environment?

In terms of regulations, I think that part of the increase in the reserve requirements were turned around by the last part of last year. Going forward, I think it's Honestly, it's something that we do not know. It's an instrument that the central bank has in order to inject additional liquidity. But honestly, it's hard to say that we are going to see reductions in the reserve fund scheme going forward. In terms of how we are seeing the rest of the year, I mean, what we have been talking in this, what we are seeing is that the recovery in the economy that we are seeing, and also this is extrapolated on the increase in low demand that we are seeing in the second quarter. We expect at some point this to positively impact on the delinquency trend, so at some point this is going to result in relatively lower provisions going forward. So I think that the rest of the year might be, and of course I want to highlight the might, be good for the industry.

Great. And one last question about dollar-denominated mortgages. Do you have any comments on that? How's the business going? Is it going to be a stronger part of Banco Macro's business, the U.S. dollar-denominated business? business with non-U.S. dollar producing clients?

I mean, the recovery line is basically for ABC1 clients. It's dollar mortgages five years. It is evolving, but the increase that we are seeing there is marginal. It's not impacting on the low portfolio at all. The amounts are small, relatively speaking. So they are evolving, but they are not making big difference in the evolution of the loan portfolio of the bank.

Great. And do you expect dollar loans to gain traction throughout the year besides mortgages?

Besides mortgages, yes, because what we are seeing is that sectors like energy, oil, gas, mining, and business are very strong. and those are the ones that might be demanding U.S. dollar loans, and what we are seeing in February and May is some recovery in loan demands in U.S. dollars. So going forward, we expect this trend to continue.

Great. Thank you so much.

Welcome.

Our next question comes from Agustin Pacheco with Banco Mariva. Sir, you can ask your question.

Sir, hi, can you hear me?

Yes.

Perfect. I would like to ask about deposit performance, which appears to have outpaced both broader system trends and peers, particularly in USD deposits. What were the main drivers behind this outperformance, and as system-wide deposit continue to recover? Do you expect Banco Macro to keep gaining share?

I mean, the idea is that if we want to keep on growing in our loan portfolio and gaining market share going forward, of course, deposits are the main source of funds of the bank. So the idea is to, and depending on domestic rates, depending on loan demands, the idea is to continue growing in deposits in both pesos and dollars going forward. So this is not a straight upward line. It could have some ups and downs depending on market conditions and depending on the quarters, but on a medium-long term basis, yes, the idea is to continue then insuring deposits.

Perfect. Thanks.

Next question from Camila Azevedo with UBS.

Hi, everyone. Thank you for the space for questions. I have two for my side. First on capital and dividends, you have close to 4 trillion pesos in excess capital with a coverage ratio like near three times. Can you please update us on your capital allocation priorities, so M&As, buybacks, or additional dividends beyond what's already been approved? And my second question would be on your recent acquisition of Banco Science. So it is still pending, the central bank approval. What is the expected timeline, and how do you plan to integrate it into the personal pay digital ecosystem operationally? Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Camila.

On your first question on capital, if you have been following Banco Macro trajectory, the bank has always had a strategic strength, keeping a strong capital position, both to manage the bank through the cycles, and as we are doing now, and as you see now, keeping strong results and strong balance sheet despite a delinquency cycle that the system is digesting, but also to be ready to take opportunities of growth, both organic and inorganic. We remain positive. for the outlook of Argentina and the possibility of Argentina materializing loan growth, which in terms of loans to GDP still presents one of the most attractive opportunities in the region. We are still at a level of 11% loan to GDP when you see peer countries in the region above 30, 40, 50% and up to 70%. So, as we remain positive and optimistic on that opportunity, we want to keep a strong capital position to support growth. Also, we believe that there are and there will be or there might be inorganic opportunities to invest. To be specific, we have done that with the Itaú acquisition a couple of years ago, and more recently with investment in our complementary digital business, Personal Pay and Bank of Science, which we expect to succeed and they run capital going forward. And this is despite or irrespective of additional possible opportunities that concentration in the system As you know, also compared with the other countries in the region, the atomization of the system is still there. There's more concentration in other geographies. So I think all in all, we are comfortable with this capital position because of, first, the optimism in the evolution of the economy and the system and the potential for organic growth. to support the recent inorganic investments that we've done, personal payment bank designs, and also to be ready for additional potential opportunities that may arise if the concentration in the system continues. So, that's on capital. The other thing is, as you know, in terms of dividend payment, we have been constrained by the central bank regulation limiting the dividend payments to 60% of the amount resolved for last year. So that's another factor to consider. In terms of personal payment bank assigns, we have percentage defiling for the central bank approval. We are transiting the the process of approval as expected. I will not put specific timelines for the regulator. The regulator has its procedures, its reviews, and these processes typically take some months. Our central scenario is that we will be ready to start operating the integrated business of the personal pay wallet supported by this dedicated bank as a service platform through Bank of Science by the first quarter next year. And this depends on obtaining central bank approval in the remainder of this year. That's our expectation, our central scenario. But again, it will totally depend on the regulator, and we don't want to impose any pressure or timelines to them. In the meantime, we are working in parallel, of course, without entering in any gun-jumping risks, in everything that we can do in parallel so that when we get the central bank approval, we are as advanced as possible and up to speed as possible to integrate the businesses as fast as possible. So we are already working in the technology fronts, in the people fronts, in the risk management fronts, developing the capabilities that we need so that when we have control of the bank, subject to central bank approval, we can integrate it as fast as possible.

That's clear. Thank you.

Next question from Brian Flores with CIGI.

Hi, Tim, and thank you for the opportunity to make a follow-up here. Very quickly here, Jorge, I know, I think it was Carlos' question on the securities at amortized cost. We know this portfolio is still relevant, right? And you were opportunistic based on what you mentioned, the market price was higher than carrying value just wondering if from a strategic perspective we could expect that if market conditions improve you could be opportunistic and see these opportunities as they come along right what i'm trying to say is that this is not like a sacred part of the of the book you could actually deploy or redeploy capital as you see fit, right? You want to check if you have this flexibility, or rather you have a more fixed mandate in your head. Thank you.

Yeah, right.

I mean, we are always, as every bank in Argentina is very on top of the market and trying to find opportunities. I think that's What we are seeing is that if you want to get maybe higher returns, you have to go maybe a longer duration. So, the idea is to continue looking at the market, and if there is another opportunity, we are going to go for it. But again, this is something that we cannot forecast because it's going to depend on market conditions and market prices. But we always try to get advantage of those conditions. I think that in past years, we show that we are very accurate on managing the trend of the markets. So the idea is to continue doing that.

Super clear. Thank you.

You're welcome, Brad.

There are no more questions at this time. This concludes the question and answer session. I will now turn over to Mr. Nicolás Torres for final considerations.

Thank you all for your interest in Banco Macro. We appreciate your time and look forward to speaking with you again. Have a good day.

This concludes today's presentation. You may now disconnect.