Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Piraeus Bank Conference Call and Live Webcast to present and discuss Piraeus' first half 2026 financial results. All participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question- and- answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Piraeus Bank CEO, Mr. Christos Megalou. Mr. Megalou, you may now proceed.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those joining us from the U.S. This is Christos Megalou, Chief Executive Officer of Piraeus. I am joined today by our CFO, Theo Gnardellis, and our Head of Investor Relations, Xenophon Damalas. Thank you all for joining us for our first half 2026 results. The message today is simple. Piraeus is delivering sustainable, profitable growth. We are generating strong returns, expanding customer activity, building a more diversified financial services group, and investing in technology and AI-powered productivity while maintaining capital strength, balance sheet resilience, and a low risk profile. These achievements are interconnected elements of a strategy that is transforming the quality of our earnings and strengthening the long-term value creation potential of the group. The first half of 2026 provides further evidence that this strategy is working, and based on our strong results, we update today our guidance.
Before discussing our performance, let me briefly frame the environment in which we are operating. As you can see on slide four, the Greek economy continues to outperform the Eurozone. Growth remains supported by a credible fiscal framework, continued reform implementation, and sustained investment mobilization. At the same time, Greece continues to benefit from substantial European funding flows, declining debt ratios, and ongoing improvement in economic fundamentals. Nevertheless, uncertainty remains elevated globally. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, geopolitical developments, and energy market volatility continue to influence the outlook for Europe and the global economy. Against this backdrop, strong balance sheets, diversified revenue streams, and disciplined risk management become even more important. This is where Piraeus has positioned itself. Following the recent upgrade by S&P, Piraeus is now recognized as investment grade by all major international rating agencies.
This is an external validation of the transformation we have achieved and of the strength of our financial profile today. Turning now to our performance on slide five. We delivered record net profit of EUR 617 million in the first half, corresponding to EUR 0.47 earnings per share, placing us firmly on track to achieve our full year target of approximately EUR 0.90 earnings per share. We achieved a return on average tangible book value of 16% in the first half, compared to 2026 target of approximately 15%. Importantly, this level of profitability is achieved with improving revenue mix and strong efficiency and asset quality metrics. We continue to deliver leading growth in Europe. Our loan book is up 9% year-over-year, reaching EUR 39 billion. During the first half, credit expansion reached EUR 1.8 billion, maintaining the strong momentum.
Revenues from services grew 42% year-on-year, reaching EUR 462 million in the first half. Shaping at 100 basis points over assets, above the target of approximately 90 basis points over assets for 2026. Importantly, 90% of those fees are coming from investment, insurance, and financing. We are converging to the best in class in Europe in the revenues from services metric. Net interest income rose to EUR 990 million, with net interest margin shaping at 2.2%, exceeding the 2026 target of approximately 2.1%. Net interest income in the second quarter rose by 6% quarter-on-quarter to EUR 509 million, with increasing volumes offsetting the mild spread compression. Overall, core revenues grew 13% year-on-year, with sustainable diversification of revenue mix towards fees, which now account for 32% of total revenues.
Our assets under management increased to EUR 16.3 billion in the first half, up 24% year-on-year, with EUR 1 billion net inflows, already meeting our full year target. Furthermore, deposits rose by 9% annually and now stand at EUR 68 billion with a total cost at 38 basis points. Our cost-to-income ratio stands at 34%, confirming top-tier efficiency and on track to meet the 2026 target of below 35%. Asset quality dynamics remain solid with NPE ratio at 2.2%, organic cost of risk at 45 basis points, and NPE coverage at 67%. Our capital position is strengthening. CET1 ratio increased by 20 basis points quarter-on-quarter at 12.8%, driven by strong organic results. Slide six presents the details of our first half and second quarter operating results.
We achieved historic high earnings per share of EUR 0.26 in the second quarter, while we sustainably grow our tangible book value per share, now at EUR 6.3 per share, up 7% year-on-year. On slide seven, we present the first pillar of our performance, which is customer loans growth. The EUR 1.8 billion net credits expansion during the first half is placing us firmly on track to exceed our aspiration of more than EUR 3 billion for the full year. Importantly, growth remains broad-based. We continue to support investment across all sectors of the Greek economy, like energy, hospitality, infrastructure, and shipping. At the same time, we are also witnessing an encouraging recovery in household lending. Mortgage lending continues to improve, with mortgage balances increasing by approximately EUR 100 million in the first half, while new mortgage production increased by approximately 65% year-on-year. Slide eight demonstrates our pricing discipline.
We compete for business, we support economic growth, but we maintain risk-adjusted return at the core of all our underwriting decisions. Slide nine outlines the second major theme of the first half, which is revenue diversification. This is an area where I believe the group has made significant strategic progress, and Ethniki Insurance is an important driver of this. Fee growth is increasingly supported also by solid financing activity, asset management, and bancassurance. Based on first half performance, we now upgrade the revenue from services target for 2026 to approximately EUR 850 million. Slide 10 depicts Ethniki Insurance highlights in the first half. The business performs ahead of expectations. Gross written premia reached EUR 424 million, 7% higher year-on-year, and with minimal contribution from its banca channel.
The transition of the bancassurance model is now in full implementation mode, with 16 prioritized products currently under development for launch in January 2027. Slide 11 demonstrates the momentum in wealth and asset management. Assets under management reached EUR 16.3 billion, increasing by 24% year-on-year. Net inflows amounted to EUR 1 billion during the first half, already meeting our full year target. Turning to net interest income on slide 12, the key message here is that our NII performance is increasingly supported by volume growth. As the rate environment evolves, our growing balance sheet and customer franchise continue to provide substantial support to income generation. Based on the first half performance and current market dynamics, we are upgrading our full year NII ambition from EUR 1.9 billion to EUR 2 billion. Let me now turn to what is perhaps the most important element of our story, growth with discipline.
Turning to slide 13, our cost-to-income ratio stands at 34%, maintaining one of the strongest efficiency positions in Europe. Importantly, we achieve this while continuing to invest in technology, AI, customer experience, and growth initiatives. Slide 14 provides a summary of our asset quality indicators. The key message here is that asset quality remains strong, and as we continue to expand the loan book, we are maintaining a prudent approach to risk management. Piraeus enjoys a robust liquidity profile presented on slide 15. Our strong deposit franchise, combined with superior liquidity coverage ratio, supports profitable growth with ample funding capacity. Turning to capital on slides 16 and 17. Capital generation remains strong and supports three priorities, growth, shareholder returns, and investing in the future franchise.
The performance in the first half and the dynamics of the second half of the year gives us confidence in the outperformance of the full year CET target of 13%. Moving on, slides 19 and 20 are about our technology and AI journey. Through Newra, our dedicated AI hub established with Accenture, we are accelerating deployment of artificial intelligence across the group. Our objective is to enhance customer experience, employee effectiveness, operating productivity, and long-term profitable growth. AI is now being deployed across customer service, analytics, software development, relationship management, and internal productivity. At the same time, we continue to develop new growth engines beyond traditional banking. These initiatives are presented on slide 21. They extend our reach into new ecosystems, strengthen customer engagement, and create opportunities for future growth.
Snappy, on slide 23, continues to gain momentum, surpassing 210,000 app users and is scaling as a capital light digital growth platform. On slide 24, the strong execution delivered in the first half gives us increased confidence in our outlook. As a result, we are upgrading several of our full year ambitions. We now target net interest margin of approximately 2.2%. Revenues from services above 90 basis points over assets. CET ratio above 13%. These upgrades reflect the momentum we continue to see across the franchise and our confidence in the sustainability of current trends. We also update our cost of risk expectation to approximately 60 basis points for 2026 in order to further fortify our balance sheet and lay foundations for the achievement of even higher targets in the years ahead. Turning to the second section of our presentation for our positioning within the competitive landscape.
Piraeus is in a leading position in Greece in terms of performing loans, deposits, equities brokerage and network, as highlighted on slide 26. In addition, we ranked at par or above average on all major KPIs in the European banking space. In slides 27 to 32, we present the key metrics for Piraeus versus the European bank averages. In slide 27, we continue to deliver best in class loan growth in Europe, outpacing EU peers by a wide margin. Slide 28. Our net interest margin is far above the European average, reflecting our pricing power and effective balance sheet management. Slide 29. Revenues from services over assets is well above the European average and the best in Greece. Slide 30. Our cost-to-income ratio is best in class in Europe, demonstrating our ongoing focus on operational efficiency and cost discipline. Slide 31.
Piraeus return on tangible book value is well above the European average, highlighting our ability to generate superior returns for shareholders. Concluding with slide 32. Despite our strong fundamentals in absolute and relative terms in relation to our European peers, Piraeus trades below EU banks with similar earnings, yet lower growth dynamics. With that, let's now open the floor to your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question- and- answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. For those participating in the questions and answer session, please use your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question is from the line of Andreas Vlachos with Eurobank Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Congratulations on your results, thank you for the presentation. I have two questions from my side. The first question is regarding your updated guidance. It seems that the guidance for NII and fees implies a lower quarterly run rate, in the second half, especially versus the second quarter. Is this simply a reflection of prudent guidance or are you anticipating a specific revenue headwind in the second half? On earnings per share, given the stronger revenue outlook, are there other half to headwinds beyond the cost of risk? Also the unchanged EUR 0.90 targets for earnings per share is simply a conservative way to see? My second question is regarding Ethniki Insurance. I see that in the second quarter contributed around EUR 46 million. Should we consider that run rate as sustainable or this include seasonality or some non-recurring items, s hould normalize in the second half? Thank you.
Andreas, thank you for your question. Let me first cover the first question on the guidance. The guidance we are giving forward is a reflection of, let's say, our conservatism in view of the geopolitical developments and the uncertainties around the broader environment rather than company specific or Greek specific. We feel comfortable in providing this guidance forward, and remain cautious to see how the numbers will be developing in the third quarter before we come up with further forward-looking statements. Overall, the way we have been looking at the guidance was from a stance of trying to be prudent and trying to be conservative in our outlook going forward. Also, we will be upgrading driven by data as we move in the third quarter. On Ethniki Insurance, we had a very good first six months.
We estimate that this is on a run rate of what we expect to see towards the end of the year. Obviously, we are very close to the case and to the management and we monitor the numbers extremely well. We can just say that we are pleased with performance so far, both in terms of gross written premium, where we are on track to achieve the numbers that we had, as well as the profitability, which in the first quarter was also the result of lower costs that are coming in the health book portfolio.
One follow-up in order to clarify it better for me. The run rate will be the first half, not the second quarter. Is that correct?
That is correct. The first half, yes.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Gabor Kemeny with Autonomous Research. Please go ahead.
Hello. A few questions from me, please. Firstly on NII, which was indeed very impressive. Are there any one-offs, any non-recurring items you would like to highlight to us? The second one, I believe we just passed recently the deadline for the RRF applications, and we are pretty close to the deadline for signing the credit agreement. In light of that, are you able to comment on your loan lending pipeline for the coming quarters, please? Just coming back to the guidance for a second and maybe asking this question with a bit more numbers. I believe that your NII guidance upgrade implies an additional about EUR 100 million of PBT. You are also assuming more fees, while the provisions may be up to EUR 50 million more. If you could provide a bit more context on why the EPS outlook of EUR 0.90 has not changed, please. Thank you.
Gabor, thank you for the questions. Let me cover the RRF question, your second question, then Theo Gnardellis will cover the other two. Now on the RRF, the total number of RRF which has been contracted in our bank, in our book is EUR 2 billion. There is EUR 1 billion more to be disbursed. EUR 1 billion has been disbursed already. This we expect to come over the next two quarters, and this will also take into account a few quarters in 2027, depending on deployment. As you see from the numbers, and this was always happening in every quarter in our numbers, the growth is granular and organic and does not actually depend only on the RRF. It was a good kick start when it started post-COVID.
It continues to support with this EUR 1 billion to be disbursed over the next few quarters, the net credit expansion, but is not the main driver. Organic growth across sectors and segments is the main driver for growth. I pass on to Theo for your other two questions.
On NII, Gabor, this is the run rate. This is purely organic. There are no one-offs.
This is the effect of volume growth, both on the lending side and on the bond side. Defense on spreads, and of course, risk-free adjustment, EURIBOR adjustment that we have experienced in the past quarter. Indeed, this is organic. Your question on guidance and the calculation is correct. There are, of course, in the second half, some charges that will come from social responsibility initiatives of about EUR 30 million. Other than that, there is, of course, an upside on the EPS pending to be printed. That is true, and it's calculating about to mid-single digit. We're not ready to print it out yet as guidance. There are two more quarters to evolve or as we have just discussed. We are being a bit prudent and conservative here and keeping the guidance on the profitability and EPS intact. We'll come back on the coming quarters.
Very helpful. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Benjamin Caven-Roberts with Goldman Sachs International. Please go ahead.
Afternoon. Thanks very much for the presentation and taking the questions. Two from me, please. First, on distribution, shall we expect the next capital return announcement is with full-year results early next year? Would an interim distribution later in the year be considered, and if so, when? Secondly, just on cost of risk, could you please run through the moving parts behind the increase to the cost of risk guidance for 2026? I remember in your CMD, you targeted about 40 basis points by 2028. Does this change to the 2026 outlook alter how you think about progressing to the 2028 run rate as well? Thank you.
Hi, Ben. Indeed, we are well on track, and we are accruing in the capital for the distribution out of profits of 2026. The accrual already in the first half has exceeded EUR 350 million. Well on track for the distribution promise of 2026 of EUR 650 million. We are working right now to see how and with what timing we will do this. Most likely, there will be an interim distribution in the upcoming quarters before the full payment that will happen pretty much at the same time as this year's is happening now. On cost of risk, the slight move from 50 basis points to 60 basis points is a reflection of also what we experienced in Q2 with 50 low with macro adjustments. That is there.
I would say we're rather holding on to the 50 basis points guidance that we had before, adjusted for what we experienced in Q2. I would not move on any part of the guidance for the upcoming years to make any changes now. As we always do with the full-year results, with the new budgets and business plans, we will come and tell you what we think the future holds. From this move, I would not infer any moves for the future.
Very clear. Thank you.
The next question is from the line of Noemi Peruch with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hello, thank you for taking my questions. You showed strong deposit growth in Q2, well ahead of targets. I was wondering if you could give us a sense of how much of this is business as usual and how much of this is temporary, from corporate actions in Greece? Then you upgraded your guidance for revenues from services for 2026, not far from 2028 targets. I was wondering if you feel comfortable in upgrading also the 2028 number and not what are your major concerns apart from the trend in the bancassurance fees that we know? Thank you.
Thank you, Noemi, for the questions. On the deposits, there was some equity capital markets activity, corporate activity that obviously then resulted in liquidity in the market, and we were a good recipient of this activity, and also on our deposit side. One broad metric is about 50% was because of this corporate activity, and the other 50% of the growth was organic. That's a broad-based metric for you to have in mind. On the broader guidance for the next few years, as we said, we want to be in a position to provide guidance closer to the end of the year for the year ahead. We will not upgrade any of the future guidance numbers other than what we put forward for 2026.
By the end of the year or with the full year results, of course, we will be coming up with guidance for the years to come.
Thanks.
The next question is from the line of Mehmet Sevim with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks very much for your time. I have just two remaining questions, please. One, could you please comment on the slight uptick in the cost of risk this quarter, as well as the NPE ratio? You've upgraded your cost of risk. You do highlight that this is because of a better revenue performance, but if you could maybe just give a little bit of details on that, I would really appreciate it. The second question was on the Ethniki Insurance and the solvency ratio. It seems like it's decreased a little bit, to 162%. I saw a footnote of an AT1. Was that the reason behind it, or is it just business as usual? I was wondering if you were to replenish that, would the 10 basis point pro forma capital upstream to the group grow?
Would we get a better contribution if you actually upstream the dividends above the 150% solvency ratio? Thanks very much.
Hi, Mehmet. Really, this uptick on cost of risk is as we've said, for Q2, about EUR 20 million, that we took a full charge for the Katseli loan modifications plus macro scenario adjustments that we've done. As a result, the cost of risk increased for the first half to 45 basis points. That delta, I would say, is what we extrapolated to the full year original guidance of 50 basis points, for it being 60 basis points.
Now that we're making some extra money, is the time to also, I would say, keep some money aside to defend the profitability of the future, and we'll see how we deploy that increase performing coverage or some other way. That's basically the driver, nothing more there. On Ethniki solvency, indeed, the reduction was about 17 percentile points that happened from the repayment of AT1, over EUR 50 million AT1 instrument that Ethniki had.
The plan is for this to be reissued in the market in Q3, and that will reinstate these percentile points and more. Just to tell you that in the quarter alone of Q2, the Ethniki profitability added almost 10 percentile points in the solvency. It's a technical temporary delta of reduction on the back of repayment of an AT1. The organic profitability is increasing the solvency every quarter. With the current run rate, the solvency will probably reach almost 200% by the end of the year. The 10 basis points that we're talking about are given the 162%. If we were today to upstream the extra capital above 150% of solvency of Ethniki, which is the target solvency ratio for the company, that would add today 10 basis points on the CET1.
When we look at the CET1 of the group, we will always need to look with a side vision to the solvency ratio of Ethniki, because that extra capital is something that at any point in time, we could upstream.
That's very helpful. Thank you, too. If I may just ask as a follow-up, it seems like there is some good upside if you were to upstream that at some point in the future. Would there be a timeline, or is there a regulatory process, or is there at all any willingness for the timing to do that?
Depending on the performance of the insurance company, this is most likely an annual exercise. We will look at the company closer at year-end, and we will make some upstreaming for sure. I would say the size of it is what matters. The guidance for capital year-end, we're saying if you see above 13, and you have an element of above 0.2. How much above that 0.2 depends on the size of that distribution. Indeed, Ethniki already in its first year of consolidation will add significant CET1 to the overall group.
That's wonderful. Thanks very much.
The next question is from the line of Agapi Mavrogianni with Beta Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Congratulations on the results, thank you for taking my questions. I have two. The first one is on corporate asset quality. Business NPE inflow stepped up to EUR 89 million this quarter versus EUR 47 million in the previous one and EUR 25 million a year ago. Could you give us some color on what drove this? Does it refer to single names, or is it broad-based? My second question is on loan growth. Corporate net credit expansion came in at EUR 347 million, with large corporate contributing EUR 65 million versus EUR 975 million the first quarter, which takes the first half to around EUR 1 billion against EUR 1.7 billion last year. Is that primarily a timing effect on disbursements, or is something shifting in the competitive environment? Thank you.
Agapi, thank you for the question. I'll take the second one on loan growth. It's seasonality and timing differences rather than anything else. We remain focused on achieving the above EUR 3 billion net credit expansions that we came forward. The run rate already is on the higher side. We remain with our above EUR 3 billion projection, and we'll see how it will be spread between the next two quarters. We are very happy with the SME growth. We are very happy with the net credit growth on the mortgage portfolio, which also is something that we strategically wanted to achieve and we have been working on, and now looks like we are achieving. Seasonality and timing rather than anything else. Theo, on the corporate asset quality.
The NPE inflow on the corporate side of Q2, indeed, Agapi, is a single name case. We consider it business as usual. It's something that happens. We will be managing this case as the entire book over the coming quarters to contain and potentially return some of the incurred provisions already. I would say nothing exceptional, nothing macro driven, a single case classification.
Okay. Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Alex Demetriou with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
I had two questions for me, please. If we could go back to capital, going forward, is the way that we should think about it anything above the 150% solvency ratio for Ethniki will be redistributed or kind of repatriated up to the group? Just like a rough estimate, should we think about it basically 20% on the solvency ratio equals about 10 basis points on the CET1? Just my second question on the NIM. Could you break down the trajectory we should expect for the rest of the year? We think about the loan yields, we haven't really seen the repricing yet with loan yields flat quarter-on-quarter. We should see some of that repricing coming through as well as the deposits, maybe a little bit of a tick up there.
We should expect quite a strong expansion into the second half. I'm just wondering if there's anything I'm missing here because you're already at the full year target of 2.2%. I'm just trying to understand the second half NIM trajectory from here. Thank you.
Alex, on Ethniki and the solvency. I think it's a solid assumption to be making the calculation of above 150% upstream. Just to say that this is not automatic. On any given year, we can solve to 170% or 165%. Generally, we like to think of group capital in that way, but we will be approximating, I would say that exercise, printing it in one quarter of the year, depending also on regulatory approvals, as I think was also pointed out. I would say overall, yes, but let's not make it a mathematical, I would say, obligation. In terms of what corresponds to what, it's a little bit less. I would say about 12- 15 points of solvency right now are about 10 basis points overall on CET1.
That's why this 12 percentage points of solvency, as we said, calculates to 10 basis points of CET1. On your question on NIM and overall yields. The repricing is happening. We have seen the increase overall in the portfolio yields. We have some spread erosion that is countered by EURIBOR increase. A lot will depend on what happens with the EURIBOR in the future, I have to say, with whether we have the DFR bump in September and whether EURIBOR will follow. I would say right now, given the macro situation, it is volume that is driving the growth of NII, while spread erosion, I would say, is semi or almost countered by risk-free rates. In this quarter, for example, we had EUR 15 million in the loan book being driven by volumes, while spread reduced and risk-free kind of countered that delta.
Overall, we had about EUR 20 million, EUR 15 million of that came from volumes.
All right. Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Simon Nellis with Citibank. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks very much. Just a few quick ones from me. Three, actually. Firstly, on staff costs, they went up a bit. I think it's driven by variable costs. Is it fair to assume that as long as revenues continue to be quite robust, that staff costs will remain elevated? Second, I was hoping you could unpack the EUR 27 million negative other impairment and associate loss, just what the drivers were. I think EUR 6 million is one-off, and what the nature of that one-off is, and what's the outlook for the second half? I think you said EUR 30 million of further one-offs, which I guess would go in that line item, but interested in knowing what the underlying number would be as well.
Last, just on the Katseli issue, can you tell us how much you actually booked in cost of risk in the second quarter, and if you expect further charges going forward? Thank you.
Hi, Simon. Indeed, the staff cost uptick in Q2 was because of variable compensation actual payment. When share-based compensation gets paid, then it is in that quarter that we book in the P&L. There is no way to actually accrue for that throughout the year. Always Q2, whenever variable compensation happens, there is this uptick. It is not to be annualized, what you saw in Q2. The overall guidance for costs we have given for something under EUR 1 billion for 2026. Nothing else is changing right now for the coming years. As we've said, I think twice already in this call, we will come back with the full year results in Q4 to tell you of any updated trajectory.
The one-off that we pointed out in the associate and other impairment line is a social responsibility charge of EUR 6 million, and similar ones are coming in half two. And you will see those also indeed in those lines. There's also a EUR 15 million loss of a legacy asset sale that we did. Again, as we continue to clean up the balance of any remaining legacy assets, this is where we would be seeing such charges. On the Katseli law, in the cost of risk line, we wrote around EUR 10 million. There's also some charges that have been incorporated in the trading line, depending on the accounting treatment, for rehabilitation of the interest accruing profile after the court decision. There's nothing more to be charged on this book. The adjustment has been made, so we're kind of completely done with it.
Thank you. It's very clear.
The next question is from the line of Alberto Nigro with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, all. Thank you for taking my question. Just one clarification. Insurance fees are still growing nicely. Can you just tell us when we will see the drop in this line due to the previous insurance JVs? Thank you.
Hi, Alberto. Indeed, the franchise is still selling third-party products. We have full upfront booking of the fees. The way you should look at this growth is that the actual GWP is growing and the productivity of the network is growing. The accounting adjustment and the drop will happen in 2027. There will be an equal adjustment, as we have discussed also on the cost line. It will coincide with the introduction of Ethniki as a product factory into our network that is scheduled for January 2027.
Thank you.
We have a follow-up question from Noemi Peruch with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I have a follow-up question on Snappi, which is offering a pretty punchy deposit rate. I was wondering how shall we read it in the context of the group strategy and the deposit competition in Greece? Thank you.
Yeah. Noemi, thank you for the question. This is kind of in line with the competitive environment that is developing the digital banks front. There are other players in the market that are offering similar, let's say, levels of deposit, let's say, returns. Snappi, being a digital attacker, is actually playing a role in this game here. It's a competitive rate that we think will be attracting some of the people that are actually, today, are kind of focusing on other digital players. The strategy is evolving, and it will be developed as we move on. For the time being, we think it's the right return for attracting new customers into the franchise.
Ms. Peruch, are you done with your questions?
Yes. Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Megalou for any closing comments. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for participating in our first half 2026 results conference call. We look forward to discussing with you physically or virtually during our investor outreach program, which will commence as of early September. In the meantime, enjoy some time off in the summer. Thank you all very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling and have a good afternoon.