Intercorp Financial Services Inc. Common Shares

Good morning and welcome to the Intercorp Financial Services first quarter 2021 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. After the presentation, we will open the floor for questions. At that time, instructions will be given as procedure to follow if you would like to ask a question. Also, you can submit an online question at any time using the window on the webcast, and they will be answered after the presentation during the Q&A session. Simply type your question in the box and click Submit Question. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Rafael Borda of Inspired Group. Sir, you may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. On today's call, Intercor Financial Services will discuss its first quarter 2021 earnings. We are very pleased to have with us Mr. Luis Felipe Castellanos, Chief Executive Officer of Intercor Financial Services. Mrs. Miquela Casasa, Chief Financial Officer of Intercall Financial Services, Mr. Gonzalo Basadre, Chief Executive Officer of Interseguro, and Mr. Bruno Ferrecho, Chief Executive Officer of Intelligo. They will be discussing the results that were distributed by the company on Wednesday, May 12th. There is also a webcast video presentation to accompany the discussion during this call. If you didn't receive a copy of the presentation or the earnings report, they are now available on the company's website, ifs.com.be, to download a copy. Otherwise, for any reason, if you need any assistance today, please call Inspire Group in New York at 212-710-9686. I would like to remind you that today's call is for investors and analysts only. Therefore, questions from the media will not be taken. Please be advised that forward-looking statements may be made during this conference call. These do not account for economic circumstances, industry conditions, the company's future performance, or financial results. As such, statements are based on several assumptions and factors that could change causing actual results to materially differ from the current expectations. For a complete note on forward-looking statements, please refer to the earnings presentation and report issued last Wednesday. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Mr. Luis Felipe Castellanos, Chief Executive Officer of Intercall Financial Services, for his opening remarks. Mr. Castellanos, please go ahead, sir.

Oh, thank you very much. Thank you. Good morning and welcome to our first quarter 2021 Earnings School. First, I want to thank everyone for making the time to attend our call. I hope you and your families remain healthy and safe during these times that in many instances continue to prove to be very challenging. Let me give you a brief overview of the health and macro situation in Peru. On the sanitary front, we continue to face localized lockdown measures across the country. The second wave has hit Peru very hard, with number of cases and deaths going above the first wave. However, the implemented measures were not as strict as the ones implemented one year ago. In the recent days, health alert levels have softened, and it looks like the second wave is starting to decrease. So now, most businesses in Lima and in several regions of the country are allowed to operate at increased capacity. although not yet at normal levels. COVID-19 cases have started to go down, and the vaccination plan is on its early stages. Today, around 5% of the population has been vaccinated so far, or around 1.5 million people. But we are seeing the speed of vaccination increase, which is very positive in our view. Economic activity in the country has continued to recover and will start to show important base effects from this moment onwards. GDP figures for the month of March will be out tomorrow, and growth is estimated to have reached almost 20% on the back of strong public investment, better terms of trade, and higher private consumption. We continue to foresee a low double-digit growth in GDP in 2021. Supporting this view, the central bank held its monthly monetary policy meeting last night and kept its policy rate at an unchanged rate of 0.25% in consideration of the limited underlying inflationary pressures. Since our last call, Congress finally approved the cap-to-interest rates for the financial system. We do not expect a major impact on our banking business from these measures, but do think it will have a negative effect in the financial inclusion and bancarization process of Peruvians. Legal proceedings are in place to declare the anti-constitutional nature of the law. We will follow this process closely. All eyes are focused on the run of presidential elections will take place next June 6th. The most important pollsters agree that the margin between the two candidates has narrowed significantly, which makes it impossible to predict who Peru's next president will be. There will be uncertainty in the days ahead, and the strength of Peru institutions might be tested in different ways depending on the outcome. Under this scenario, IFS's franchise continues to prove resilience. We remain confident that our team has experience and skills to manage through uncertain times, as we have done in the past. Our clear strategic focus and measures taken during last year's crisis has taken IFS to reach record earnings during the first quarter of this year, with solid results in all of our operating segments. Our liquidity, capitalization, and provisioning levels, together with our risk management skills, world-class efficiency level, digital strategy, and a strong presence in the mind of our clients, give us the confidence that our platform is well positioned to continue helping Peruvians with their financial needs in the future. We continue to be focused on helping our customers during these times and to deploy our resources in an efficient way to maintain the path of profitable growth. Now, let me pass it on to Miquela for a detailed review of our results. Thank you again, and please remain safe.