Good morning, everybody. Welcome to all of you. It is a great pleasure for me to have a front row seat in the oldest bank in the world, and to have the opportunity to present to you Monte Paschi first quarter results. Let me start by saying that in this first three months I have spent in Siena, focusing on understanding the organization, I have to say unnecessarily complex, I have got the belief that Monte Paschi has a strong commercial potential. As you know, currently I'm working together with the team on the review of the previous business plans. The results of this work will be presented on June 23. I believe that our first quarter results should be seen from this perspective. Let's now move on to some highlights. We reported the positive results of EUR 10 million after the loss reported in Q4.
We improved the coverage ratio by 283 basis points in the quarter. The comparison of the profit with the first quarter of last year is influenced by some material items which amount in total around EUR 170 million. I'm referring to the higher gains on securities, the lower provision for risk, and the lower systemic charge reported last year. The bank is showing in the quarter positive signals of commercial resilience, which is reflected in the recurring gross profit that was reported at the level of Q4. In fact, Q1 revenues are offsetting the higher cost base, which level confirms room for efficiencies. Also the comparison with the previous quarter should take into consideration that Q4 included some positive accrual adjustments.
Commercial resilience is confirmed also by the three main drivers of the quarter results, the volume strength, the improvement of the commercial spread, thanks to the decrease of the deposit cost, the positive wealth management net inflow after the negative balance of the previous quarter. On the side of the asset quality, as I mentioned at the beginning, the bank increased in the quarter the NP coverage by 283 basis points. The gross NP ratio amounts to 4.8, with a slight reduction of NP stock. The cost of risk stands at 56 basis points, which is reflecting the prudent approach in managing the risk that we want to use also in the future.
The Tier 1 ratio, fully loaded, is 10.8, up by 32 bps year-over-year and lower by 28 bps compared to the previous quarter, mainly due to negative fair value through OCI's reserve. Let's now move to some results in details. I will guide quickly through this few slides. As I mentioned, net profit, as you can see on the slide, positive by EUR 10 million compared with the loss that we reported in Q4. As I mentioned, comparison year-over-year is impacted by higher gains on securities, lower provision for risk, and lower systemic charge.
The net operating profit is practically reflecting the same dynamic, and the first quarter of this year is as well, influenced by some gain on security that, by the way, was, as I mentioned, much lower than compared to the previous year. Moving on to the gross operating profit, as you can see, quarter-on-quarter, we reported a growth of 23.3%, thanks to the improvement on net interest income, both the TLTRO and commercial, the gain on security. We were capable to offset the increase of cost, that, as I mentioned at the beginning, quarter-on-quarter were impacted by some adjustment of the previous year. The comparison with the previous year, again, is influenced by the higher level of gain on security we reported in Q1 of last year.
As you can see from the slide, we reported an improvement year-on-year of the spread driven by the improvement of the decrease of the funding rate that enable us to offset the decrease of the lending rate. The main reason of the improvement was thanks to the lower funding rate we reported in some term deposit that successfully we radically closed by keeping anyway, especially in retail, the level of volumes on the current account. Moving to the next slide, you can see that we reported an overall growth year-on-year and also quarter-on-quarter. We are pleased with the level of the resilience of the retail loans that, as you know, are strategic for us.
We reported as well a growth in corporate, where our focus is much more oriented to the small and medium-sized companies. On the funding composition side, as you can see, we improve our own mix, thanks to the reduction in term deposits, while maintaining stable retail volumes. The decrease of corporate was part of our strategy, taking into consideration that we kept, at the beginning of last year, some expensive term deposits relating to corporate customers. Looking at the Italian Govies portfolio, we have a slight increase of banking book portfolio. We kept stable the credit spread sensitivity, as well as the lower duration in the fair value through OCI component. The trading part, as you know, is managed by our subsidiary, MPS Capital Services. It is a market specialist in this area.
Looking at the net fee and commission income, as you can see, the banking fee are in line, practically year-on-year, and almost also quarter-on-quarter. Having in mind that the quarterly, the last quarter, as you know, has some seasonality effect. On the side of asset management, we reported a positive growth quarter-by-quarter, driven mainly by the upfront fees. A slight decrease year-on-year, but overall, the level of these fees is kept satisfactory at the level, satisfactory level one. We reported a decrease of the overall indirect funding, both year-on-year, quarter-on-quarter. This is driven by market valuation effect and some single large financial companies outflow in some way also managed by the bank.
As far as asset under management stock, as you can see, we reported a positive increase net of the market effect. In fact, if you're moving on to the next slide, you can see that in this quarter we have a positive net inflow recovering compared with the last quarter where we reported a negative balance. Operating cost. The total cost are slightly below the previous year, while we reported an increase of the cost compared to the last quarter. As I mentioned at the beginning, we have to take into consideration that in the last quarter, the last quarter was positively impacted by some accrual adjustment.
The total cost is one of the area on which the bank and myself are strongly focused, knowing that this is one of the crucial areas on which we have to get significant improvements. Moving on to the gross NPE stock. As you can see, the ratio is slightly down both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. I meant the net NPE ratio. As well, the stock is slightly down, so we are progressing in the way to further reduce the stock of our portfolio, being as well asset quality, one of the key element on which we want to be focused going forward. The coverage and the cost of risk. As you can see on this slide, we improved by almost 300 basis points our coverage. The coverage has been improved both in unlikely to pay and NPL.
At the same time, I think it is worth to mention that our cost of risk in the quarter set at 56 basis points is also reflecting, as I said at the beginning, the prudent approach we want to use also in the future. Capital, fully loaded, Tier 1 at 10.8, slightly up year-over-year, down compared to last quarter, mainly due to the fair value through OCI reserve and some marginal risk-weighted assets increase. This slide, as you can see, we reported a significant reduction year-over-year in our provision related to disclosed financial information. We have a slight increase in the last quarter due to the recent litigation. As usual, conservatively provisioned for. Let me just add some closing remarks about the quarter. Positive net results. Have improved coverage. Room for efficiency.
Positive signals on commercial resilience are reflected in the volume trends in commercial funding optimization. Fully loaded Tier 1 at 10.8. We are progressing with the review of our business plan. We are focused on a few and clear priorities, aiming at supporting the customers, improving our operational efficiency, keeping a low risk profile, and rebuilding the bank's solidity and capability to be profitable in a sustainable way. Thank you very much. We are ready for your questions.
Excuse me. This is the close call conference operator. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press Star and One on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press Star and Two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press Star and One at this time. The first question from the English conference call is from Antonio Reale with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Mr. Lovaglio from my side. I have three questions, please. Two on the quarter and one on the strategy to the extent you can talk about. The first one is on NII. I see on slide 9 of your presentation that you've increased your sovereign book in the quarter. My question is, what should we expect from carry trade going forward in terms of NII contribution? My second question is on capital. We've seen capital down Q on Q. Can you remind us the key drivers from here going forward? I remember, the management team had guided for EUR 5.9 billion of regulatory headwinds to come by the end of 2022. How much of that have you booked? Can you confirm that number?
Do you still expect that to come through this year? That's my second question. Lastly, I realize you touched on it briefly. We've got a date in the calendar, twenty-third of June for the new business plan. I was wondering, to the extent you can share a bit more color on what you think could be an indication of the big picture strategic pillars, and how you plan to extract value from the bank. Thank you.
Okay. I'm starting with the net interest income. As you know, we have an important size of our TLTRO in our balance sheet. It's clear that the funding plan will be part, an important part of our business plan. I would like not to anticipate too much about our plans. I will be much more precise when we are going to present the plan on the date of 23rd. As far as the capital, I think we are still almost EUR 5.5 billion-EUR 5.6 billion of risk-weighted assets inflation. Clearly also the capital is an important part of our business plan because we are particularly looking at the customer segment on which we want to work, we want to be focused on.
It's clear that, by definition, we are going to select the one with the lower density and the higher profitability adjusted by the risk. In some way, I'm already anticipating some points of your last question. I think I already mentioned that the bank has on one side a strong potential on commercial side that we have to explore it the best we can because I strongly believe that we have a strong opportunity to extract additional value from this bank, thanks to the strong presence and distribution, the professional people that we have, and also the solid customer base that we kept throughout this period of time. Clearly, we have to be focused on the areas that can bring us, as I mentioned, additional revenues, consumer, and making the capital more efficient.
This will contribute to make the bank also growing. This is on the side of revenues. I believe the fastest more urgent action we have to put in place is on the side of efficiency. Because we are aware that the structure of the cost of the bank requires some adjustment in relation to the capability we have to generate income. Last but not least, we think that also we have to adjust some aspect of our organization in making the group simpler.
Thank you.
The next question is from Giovanni Razzoli with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning to everybody, and a warm welcome to Luigi and the community. Two questions on my side. The first one, if you can share with us an update of the sensitivity of the NII to zeroing of the Euribor, which seems now a possibility by the second quarter of 2023 or first half of 2023. The second question, if you based on your, you know, long experience, both in Italy and abroad, you know, I would like to know what's your view about what could be the downside risk of the provisioning level on the loans in case of a downturn in the GDP for a bank like Monte Paschi and in general for a retail bank in Italy. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. If I remember well, I read, I think, one of your research mentioning that practically there will be a sort of resilience of quality of the asset in this environment, despite the increase of the cost of energy, given also the low portion of intensive energy companies in total portfolio, right, of the overall banking system. I start from the second question. I believe that if we want to be very, very much conservative, we can say that probably one or two points of GDP can impact overall the cost between EUR 20 million-EUR 40 million.
It depends, of course, of the timing, if GDP decrease is also followed by additional negative aspects of the economy, like growing inflation, and also it depends, how this, the whole European market is involved in this process of, decrease of the overall economy. Anyway, I believe that there will be a different, impact, on retail compared to some small companies or mid-corporate companies. Our in terms of sensitivity, our assumption is that 100 basis points rate increase would result in, more or less, EUR 120 million-EUR 150 million additionally in our income. By the way, I believe that Monte Paschi, just to be. I'm sorry.
I think I read something recently that Monte Paschi is one of the bank with the highest expectation in terms of improvement on net interest income overall among the banking sector.
Thank you. Thank you for the clarity.
The next question is from Hugo Cruz with KBW. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you. A few questions from me, please. First on the business plan, can you give us a bit of context? You set this date of the 23rd of June. Is this going to be a business plan, a management plan that will then be submitted to the ECB, or is it a plan that is already informed by ECB? Now, I'm just trying to understand what happens next after you announce the business plan. Second, could you know, the macro outlook is quite uncertain, so could you give us a bit more color what you're seeing in terms of trends in April and May, you know, loan volumes, fees, asset quality? Third, can you remind us on the management overlays for asset quality?
I seem to remember there was EUR 130 million in Q4. Just wanted to know if this number changed or not? Thank you.
Our aspiration is clearly that at the time we are going to present the plan, having in mind that we have a very constructive and continuous discussion with ECB. I believe that time we are going to present the plan, the significant key elements of the plan in some way are already in line with the ECB expectation. At least what we are trying to reach. As far as the trend over the next two months, I'm not used to give a trend by month, but normally I'm used to give a trend a little bit of midterm.
I mean, what is going to happen up to the end of the year, and maybe also what is going to happen according to us in the following years. I would prefer not to answer this question and just to have a more comprehensive answer and to treat at this point, at the time I'm going to present the plan. I can say that as far as concerns the asset quality, I feel comfortable to say that we want to keep a conservative approach on that, also because we are strongly convinced that asset quality will be one of the pillar of our business plan. We believe we have also room for further improvement in optimizing the structure of our NPL portfolio.
In terms of cost of risk, we don't expect to have a cost of risk higher than what we have been reporting in the first quarter.
The next question is from Riccardo Rovere with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Thanks. I'm not sure I understood correctly just the answer Mr. Lovaglio gave to the last question of Hugo. Not clear to me whether what you will present on the twenty-third is something that is or will be already being discussed with the authorities, or will be the starting point of the discussions with the authorities. I'm not sure I understood it. Thanks.
In fact, I just think that the aspiration is to have our business plan that is well perceived by ECB, and this is the goal. Clearly, I cannot say now that for sure everything will be settled for the date we are going to present the plan. I'm sure that the business plan will reflect also indication of ECB. At that time, hopefully, we are going to present a plan on which we are confident we have also the positive validation of ECB.
Okay, now that's clear. Thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, you may press star and one. The next question is Anna Benassi with Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Good morning. Very good morning to all of you and to Mr. Lovaglio. My question regards the product factories or actually the partnership you have, particularly on insurance, asset management, and consumer finance. On consumer finance, the plan was already implying an internalization of the business. How that is proceeding, what potential you see in this business that I know from the past that you know very well. What about AXA and Anima, do you believe they are working at full speed with you, or actually the bank is at full speed in distributing these products or that could be accelerated. If you give us an update on the Q1 results specifically on these areas. Last question on litigations.
I hear you that the increase is related to a change in the approach on how to deal with this elephant in the room. Can you tell us what is your sense, your first sense and assessment, on the situation in terms of how that could affect the results going forward? Thank you.
Okay. Let's start with consumer finance. Correctly, you mentioned, we started the in-house for our consumer finance. Clearly, we were at the very beginning. I see a strong potential on that. As I mentioned before, I will elaborate a bit more when we are going to present the plan. Asset management insurance, we are a best-in-class player, as you know, in this area, and I strongly believe that we can strike additional value going forward. Also, this area will be particularly considered in our business plan, having in mind that despite our starting point, it is quite strong. The level of the partnership we have, the professional support we are getting, and the strong specialization our people give us room to be quite optimistic about the possibility to further strengthening this business area.
As far as litigation is concerned, I have to say that what I observed in this period, first three months, in Siena, we have a strong monitoring of this activity. Also, we have best-in-class lawyer looking at this particular areas of the bank. I think it's quite obvious that I am aware that this is a critical area for us and we have to give clarity to the market. It is our intention to provide also further information and what is our approach in dealing with this legacy. We will be much more precise during our business plan presentation.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. A final reminder at this time, if you wish to join the question queue, please press star and one now. Mr. Lovaglio, there are no more questions registered at this time. The floor is back to you for any closing remarks.
Thank you. Just to say thank you very much. I'm waiting on the 23rd for the presentation of our business plan.