Arion banki hf.

Good morning and welcome all to the presentation of the second quarter results 2026 for Arjenbank. My name is Oliver Huskulsson and I'm the CFO of Arjenbank. Today's agenda is as follows. I will start by working through the key financial highlights for the quarter. And then my colleague, Deputy CEO and Head of Retail Banking, Edard Brouw-Benedict will cover the key operational highlights and outlook going forward. But before I start the presentation, I would like to remind participants online that you can submit questions throughout the presentation through a message board located below the video feed. We will then provide answers to the Q&A after the presentation. So starting as usual with the key highlights for the quarter and the first half of the year. First, another solid quarter with an annualized ROE of 15.5%, which then takes the return on equity for the first half of the year to 14.6%. And the clear milestone for the group is that this quarter, with easy results, we are for the first time exceeding all our financial median term targets. Again, these results are broad-based and with most key business units delivering a solid profitability and supporting diversified and robust results through the cycle. In terms of growth, the positives is that we continue to find solid loan growth opportunities, both in corporates and mortgages. And this growth, again, continues to be supported by very strong growth in stable deposits. We do, however, continue to see increasing signs of the economy being impacted by the prolonged period of high interest rates in Iceland. This is likely to become a headwind for growth should rates remain elevated going forward. And finally, and of course always very importantly, our balance sheet continues to be very strong. We maintain a very robust capital and liquidity position, as well as having proactively and conservatively increased provisioning early in this cycle. And with most of the upcoming bond maturities pre-financed early, we have a very strong and light maturity profile. So now looking more closely at the income statement. Nat profit for the quarter was 8.1 billion compared to 7.3 billion in the first quarter. Core income, namely net interest fees and insurance income, were 21 billion, which is around 1% increase from this quarter last year. Financial income was again negatively impacted by equity markets in Iceland, which impacts, of course, the investment portfolio of Vörður, the insurance business, and our market-making business. We also had a close to 300 million loss from a conservative revaluation of our unlisted equity holdings in this quarter. Because of these losses, again, in equity holdings, the effective tax rate is again somewhat high in this quarter at 28%. Cost of risk is 19 basis points with an impairment of just under 700 million. And now looking at some of the key line items. Starting with net interest income. Net interest income in the quarter was 15.2 billion compared to 14.2 billion for this quarter last year. The annual net interest margin as a percentage of interest-bearing assets was a solid 3.5%, which is similar to the margin for this quarter last year, but somewhat down from, of course, an unusually high margin for the first quarter. I have, of course, covered this in some detail in previous calls, but again, we do expect some continued fluctuations in the margin near term as our inflation-linked loan portfolio is impacted by monthly real policy rates and monthly inflation prints. Again, of course, these products are not priced based on three months real interest rates. And we tend to look through these short term movements when managing these products and are very confident in the resilience of the margin going forward. We continue to guide investors for a margin over the medium term of over 3%. So looking at fees and commissions, a decent quarter in terms of feed generations with total fees of just under 4 billion. In general, our fee-generating businesses are doing well and demonstrating strong stability through the cycle. As discussed, this long period of elevated interest policy rates are, of course, a headwind for some of our transaction-related fee-generating businesses, namely in the CIP and markets areas. But it's good to see that despite this, we are seeing very strong stability in fee generation for the business. But of course, clearly, when there is upside in this area, when we do see policy rates coming down, we are in a very strong position in these areas on the transaction-related fee side going forward, which will increase economic and market activity, of course, when policy rates come down. So moving on to the insurance business, growth momentum continued with insurance revenues going by just under 7% for the first half of the year and growth continuing to be exceeding the market growth, which is of course one of our key financial medium term targets. The combined ratio for the quarter was a solid 87.9% while somewhat higher than what was unusually strong this quarter last year. This then takes the combined ratio for the first half of the year to 94.3%. While we are pleased with the good growth momentum and profitability of the insurance business, the overall earnings from Vörder, of course, continue to be impacted by the challenging market conditions on the investment side. But we continue to anticipate that this business will become a very strong contributor to the overall earnings of the group and profitability when we see normalized earnings on the investment side. So now we're looking at total operating expenses. Including those from the insurance business. Total operating expenses in the quarter were $8.4 billion, which is up by around $860 million between years. But roughly half of this relates to salaries. And out of that half related to salaries, around $200 million relates to a change in accounting for incentive scheme between years, which I actually see as a one-off impact. So excluding these items, salaries increased by around 240 million, or around 5% between years. And for comparison, the number of employees increased by just under 4% between years. And at the start of the year, we had a 3.5% general wage increase related to the union collective wage agreement coming into effect. In terms of other expenses, there was a These were similar to what we saw in the first quarter, but they do increase by 440 million between years, and this mainly relates to IT expenses and investments. So moving on to the balance sheet, and starting with the loan book, which grew by around 66 billion in the quarter to 1,418 billion. Growth in the retail book was just under 2%, while the corporate side, we continue to see good growth opportunities. And the corporate loan group grew by just under 8% in the quarter. While we continue to be generally opportunistic in the way we grow the loan book, we do anticipate that growth will slow in the second half of the year, in the coming quarters, as both the pipe and on the corporate sides was rather sort of seasonally top-heavy for the year. And we, of course, also see some slowdown in the economy, which will impact loan growth. We expect to impact loan growth going forward. The loan book continues to be very well balanced, with 42% mortgages, 5% other loans to individuals, and 53% to corporates. So looking at a provisioning position, as discussed, we have a $679 million impairment in the quarter, or 19 basis points. This takes the total loss allowance at the end of the quarter to $12.4 billion, or 0.9% of the loan book. The increase in provisioning in this quarter was mainly related to an increase in stage one provisions, where we have conservatively worsened some of our macroeconomic assumptions in our modeling. The general story is, however, similar to what I've described in recent quarters. Non-performing loan ratio has, it was relatively stable this quarter, but it has been increasing over recent quarters, which is to be expected in the current rate environment. But credit quality indicators remain, however, very robust. And as discussed, we retain a very conservative provision position and we increase provisions early in the cycle, which we are benefiting from currently. The sector perhaps that we are monitoring most closely these days in the current environment is obviously the construction sector, which is probably seeing the biggest impact of the current rate environment and the slowdown in the housing market. But as discussed, I think we test this portfolio, which is around 120 billion, regularly against very punitive stress tests and macro outlook scenarios and are very confident in our provisioning, which is appropriate and conservative. Deposits continue to grow in the quarter, increasing by 44 billion to 981 billion. As I always say, our strategy in this area has been to compete especially in the more stable categories of deposits. And as highlighted in the top right chart of this page, the growth has continued to be in those categories. As we have discussed previously, the deposit data in Iceland, so the relationship between deposit cost and policy rates, is very high compared to other countries. And this is a headwind for the interest margin currently for the Icelandic banks. But I think it's important to note that when policy rates come down, this also means that there's a lot of room for deposit costs to come down along with it, which will protect the margin in that scenario. So finally, looking at capital, our purchasing continues to be very strong. Common equity ratio at 17.7%, 242 basis points above regulatory requirements. And of course, as discussed, following a very focused effort over the past years to manage our capital towards our optimized capital level, it is a strong milestone for the group to have now reached this level within the target range. The leverage ratio continues to be very strong at 11%, of course, well above most European peers. And in terms of MRL, we also have a very robust position with substantial buffers above requirements. So on that point, I would now like to welcome our Deputy CEO and Head of Retail Banking, Eda Brau-Penetistotti, to go through some of the key operational highlights and the outlook going forward.

EDA BRAU- Thank you, Oliver, and good morning, everyone. As Oliver mentioned, solid first half of the year, all medium-term targets achieved for the first time. Return on equity was 15.5% in the second quarter and 14.6% for the first half of the year, ahead of our medium-term targets of exceeding 13%. The results are driven by strong development in core earnings and continuing cost discipline across business. Core operating income over REA was 7.9% in the second quarter, ahead of our 7.2% target. While the cost to core income ratio was just over 40%, well below our 45% target. Thus, demonstrating a sustained cost discipline, even as the business continues to grow. The combined ratio for Werther was within our 95% target for the first half, or 94.3%. But as Oliver mentioned, this was particularly strong in the second quarter. We see further growth opportunities for Werther through our bank assurance strategy leveraging on Arion's customer base, both in the app as well as with physical presence within our branches to deepen the relationship and increase cost selling. We continue to make strong progress in our capital optimization with set one ratio standing at 242 basis points above regulatory requirements, although within our management buffer. This supported a capital distribution of 23 billion in the first half of the year through dividend and buybacks, and at the same time supported a healthy long growth. Going forward, we will continue to manage profitable balance sheet growth alongside with capital distribution through buybacks and dividends. Now, looking at the few of the key operating highlights in the quarter, Arion Bank was recognized as having the best banking back up in Iceland for the 10th consecutive year, reinforcing our strong customer proposition and digital leadership. On the funding side, we successfully issued 300 million euros of preferred senior debt in May. The issuance was eight times oversubscribed with a very diverse investor participation. So maturities for the 2026 are now fully funded and the funding profile remains well diversified with limited near-term refinancing need. We launched the sale process of Bleikastadir earlier this month, one of the largest development areas in the capital region. The objective of the sale is to attract experienced and well-capitalized investors with knowledge in this field who can lead this development going forward. Across the group, AI adoption progressed in line with our plans. AI implementation is an important strategic priority for the group. During the quarter, we broadened adoption of enterprise AI tools and continue to strengthen our technology foundations needed to capture efficiency gains, improve customer service, and support long-term innovation. And at the same time, we delivered a record number of IT projects during the quarter. In asset management, Stepnir further strengthened its product offering and growth potential with the launch of Katla Government Bond Icelandic Usage Fund. The launch of this fund represents another step in Stepnir's international strategy to attract international capital into the Icelandic financial market by offering a local currency Icelandic sovereign fixed income through Luxembourg fund structure. As only mentioned before, activity in the corporate and investment banking remains strong, supported by continuing strong long growth and solid advisory projects, including Laxey, Controland, Nice Travel and Garry. This shows the diversity of the opportunities across the business that we have and are operating and a strong foothold of our corporate and investment banking. The earning impacts of those activities are not fully reflected in this current quarter. And finally, insurance operations delivered accelerating premium growth and a growing customer base, and we are enjoying high customer satisfaction. Building deeper and longer lasting customer relationship remains a key strategic priority for the group. So I would like to provide you some additional color on what we are doing in this area. During the quarter, we continue to strengthen our ecosystem and our loyalty proposition through Arion Rewards. The program has now more than 60,000 customers and the rewards account, deposit account has achieved strong deposit growth since launched late last year. We also expanded our physical presence by opening a new full service branch in Keflavik, enhancing accessibility and supporting customers in Iceland, one of the fastest growing region. It is worth noting that Vörður had a very strong foothold in this region and we are leveraging on that by opening this joint branch. Our digital proposition remains a key differentiator. As mentioned earlier, once again, Arjon was recognized as having the best banking app in Iceland. But during the quarter, we further enhanced the customer experience through personalized digital services using activity feed in the app to deeper integration and offer personalized loyalty offerings through our app. We launched Arium Future, which we are very proud of. It is an initiative designed to build loyalty among the younger generations by combining financial education, relevant products and tailored benefit across the group. And there we are building on the infrastructure of our loyalty program and the success of Women Invest. This is a group initiative where we, for example, offer new insurance product and the mutual fund tailored directly to this group and which are only sold in the Arion app. We are also seeing strong results from our premium customer proposition. Arion Premium continues to attract affluent clients through specialized service. Overall, Bank Assurance's momentum remains strong. Penetration has increased steadily and is now 43.5% in our retail business. And in premia, we are having 48% bank assurance ratio. And finally, NPS and overall customer satisfaction among both retail and corporate customers are at all time high. So before we go into Q&A, I want to highlight some of the key themes going forward. A solid first half of the year where again the diversity of our business provides support for the overall earnings momentum through the cycle. Furthermore, we see that customer engagement is increasing across all segments, supported by improvements in our services and also the success of our loyalty program. We will continue to be flexible and opportunistic both in pricing and balance sheet management And now, as Ole mentioned, for the first time, we have reached our optimal capital ratios. With capital ratios within optimal range, future loan growth will be supported by organic capital generation. We continue to cautiously anticipate a continuing complicated external environment near term, both in terms of domestic high inflation and rates, development and also in terms of the international geopolitical landscape. Regarding the EU, regarding the referendum at the end of August of reopening EU accession negotiations is still too early to tell the effect or the impact of the economy if yes will be the answer of this referendum. Clearly, this is the first referendum in what will likely be a multi-year process. With regards to impact on our business, there are several uncertainties which we are always evaluating and planning for. As always, the main focus for us is to run an efficient bank and serve our clients well, and to maintain a flexible strategy allowing for us to react to any changes quickly in the external environment. Unfortunately, inflation continues to remain persistent with latest figures of 5.3%, thus contributing to a higher for longer policy rate outlook. But importantly, our balance sheet remains very strong. Capital funding and liquidity ratios are all solid, and we are taking proactively conservative approach to provisioning. We are not making any change to our strategy targets or capital priorities for the time being. So consistency is the message here. We will continue targeted IT investment, particularly in AI and cybersecurity, and our AI implementation strategy is becoming clearer with measurable opportunities now taking shape. We remain selective on value accretive opportunities, ones that benefits our clients, shareholders, and the broader economy. And with that, we will now turn into the Q&A. For those joining online, you can submit your questions through the webcast platform. And I would now like to welcome our Head of Investor Relations, Theodor Freyfesson, on the stage, who will moderate the discussion. Welcome, Theodor.

Thank you, Edda. Good morning, everyone. I think, as usual, we start with questions from the online participants, then we'll move into the auditorium. Starting with questions from Alexander Romaker, number one, four questions from him. OPEX grew 10.9% year-on-year in Q2, and cost core is 40.4% against their 36% to 40% range. How much of the 9% salary growth in the wage review clause versus headcount What is the IT run rate from here? And when specifically does the growth rate decelerate back inside the rents? Maybe, yeah.