Banco BTG Pactual S.A. (BVMF:BPAC11)
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May 19, 2026, 5:07 PM GMT-3
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Earnings Call: Q1 2026

May 11, 2026

Operator

Good morning, welcome to the first quarter of 2026 results conference call of Banco BTG Pactual. With us today, we have Roberto Sallouti, Renato Cohn, and Julia Rocha. We would like to inform you that this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the bank's presentation. After Banco BTG Pactual's remarks, there will be a question- and- answer session for investors and analysts when further instructions will be given. Today, we have a simultaneous webcast that may be accessed through the website www.btgpactual.com/ir on the platform. There will be a replay facility for this call from today. Before proceeding, let me mention that this call may contain forward-looking statements relating to the prospects of the business, estimates for operating and financial results, and those related to the growth prospects of Banco BTG Pactual.

These are merely projections, and as such, are based exclusively on the expectations of Banco BTG Pactual's management concerning the future of the business. Such forward-looking statements depend substantially on changes in market conditions, government regulations, competitive pressures, the performance of the Brazilian economy and the industry, among other factors and risks disclosed in Banco BTG Pactual's filed disclosed documents and are, therefore, subject to change without prior notice. I'll turn the floor over to Mr. Roberto Sallouti, who will begin the presentation. Mr. Sallouti, please go ahead.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Good morning. Thank you very much for joining our quarterly call once again . If you could please turn to page three of the presentation, I'll talk about the first quarter highlights. Once again, we're very happy we had record revenues and earnings, reaching a return on equity of 26.6% in the quarter, despite the very challenging macro environment. I mean, we had one market until February 28, and we've had another market since March 1st. And I guess this really reflects the resilience of our diversified business models, where we are usually able to benefit from the different scenarios, varying sometimes which of the business units benefits from each scenario.

In investment banking, we had a very strong quarter with strong performance, highlighting the very strong franchise we have in different products and sectors. Corporate lending continues to show strong momentum, delivering not only record revenues, but also being able to grow the portfolio 22% while keeping a very disciplined underwriting. Here, while investment banking suffered from a weaker DCM market, the reduced competition from capital markets benefited our corporate lending business. Sales and trading, we had another solid quarter, supported primarily with pipeline activity. VAR decreased throughout the quarter as we dynamically managed our risk with the new facts coming to market. Again, a very strong quarter.

Finally, in Asset and Wealth Management, we continue to have very strong net new money, reaching BRL 83 billion of organic net new money in the quarter and reaching BRL 2.6 trillion between the Wealth Management and Asset Management franchises. Turning to page four, we show a bit of the highlights of the numbers. We had revenues of BRL 10 billion in the quarter, a growth of 34% versus the first quarter of last year. Net income of BRL 4.8 billion, 42% growth versus the first quarter of last year. This reflects the operational efficiency, economies of scale, and the network effects of the business model that we're building. Finally, once again, we had a 26.6% return on equity in the quarter.

Turning to page five, we had BRL 83 billion of net new money. This is purely organic. second-best organic net new money compared to the fourth quarter last year, which was BRL 108 billion. In the first quarter of 2025, we had BRL 105 billion, but you have to remember that here, roughly BRL 60 billion came from the Julius Baer acquisition. Our assets and wealth management and assets under management both grew 28% year-over-year, reaching roughly BRL 1.3 trillion in each of the franchises. Turning to page six , our unsecured funding continues to grow significantly, 31% year-over-year, reaching BRL 379 billion.

We continue with a very solid capitalization, 15.9% capital ratio, Basel ratio, and equity of BRL 75 billion at the end of the first quarter, increasing BRL 5 billion from the end of last year. We continue growing our total credit portfolio 24%. 22% the corporate credit portfolio, total portfolio 24%, reaching BRL 355 billion, of which roughly BRL 281 billion is in the corporate and SME segment and BRL 74 billion is in the consumer credit segment. If you turn to page seven, we then show our traditional reporting that we've been doing quarter-over-quarter. Once again, revenues of BRL 10 billion, net income of BRL 4.8 billion. A net income per unit of BRL 1.24.

Cost income, roughly flattish to the combined cost income of pro forma cost income of BTG and Banco Pan that we showed in the last quarter at around 38%. We do expect that over the next few years, we will be able to bring this cost- income to similar levels that we had before the consolidation. We reached total assets of BRL 846 billion in the quarter, equity of BRL 75, a capital ratio of 15.9%, and an average VAR for the quarter of 32 basis points. If you turn to page eight, we are showing the first quarter revenues versus the first quarter revenues of last year. We have been showing this for the last 12 months.

Since we do not have the pro forma for the previous 24 months, we're gonna be showing the first three months, then six months, then nine months, then year-over-year, and then we'll start showing the last 12 months versus the last 12 months. Here, I think we see in investment banking, strong growth reflecting what a weak quarter last year was . Solid growth in corporate lending. Very strong growth in sales and trading, as once again, the first quarter was a weak quarter last year. Good growth in asset management, considering that in the first quarter of last year, we had significant dividends from our investments in the independent platforms. Extremely strong growth in the wealth management franchise, 45%. Also, very strong growth in the consumer credit franchise and in interest and other.

What we see here is a very balanced revenue stream. Corporate lending and business banking, 23%. If you look at corporate and investment banking, 29%. Sales and trading at 19. If you look at sales and trading plus investment banking, that's 25%, we'll say, we'll say linked to markets. 23% in investment management. 11% in consumer finance, which should grow over time. Interest and other, 17%, relatively stable, and this should probably reduce over time as we expect interest rates to come down. With that, I'll pass the floor to Renato Cohn, who will talk about the performance of each of the business units.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

Thank you, Roberto, and good morning, everyone. Going to our specific business lines, we start with our investment bank, where we had a strong performance, supported by our leading franchise across segments and sectors. Revenues came at BRL 628 million, and that's a decrease of 9.3% when we compare to the previous quarter, and it's an increase of 65% when we compare to the first quarter of 2025. Market activity at the beginning of the quarter was very strong, with DCM activity in both local and international markets. We also had good prospects for some ECM transactions with Bovespa reaching new highs and getting close to the 200,000 points mark.

By the end of the quarter, as Roberto mentioned, we saw a different scenario as a consequence of volatility related to geopolitical tensions, and also a deterioration of the credit scenario in Brazil, which affected both DCM and ECM. DCM remained the main revenue contributor with transactions concentrated in January and February, and reduced activity in March as a consequence of increased volatility in the secondary market. M&A continues to provide a solid contribution to our investment banking activities as we continue to execute our diversified pipeline. ECM, as I mentioned, benefited from the increased client activity at the beginning of the quarter and higher Bovespa levels by the end of the quarter.

During this quarter, we are ranked number one in volume, the number of transactions in Brazil, and we are also ranked first in the number of transactions in LatAm. Last Thursday, we priced the first IPO since 2021. We acted as lead and global coordinator for the IPO of Compass in a BRL 3.2 billion transaction, and that was a 100% secondary deal. If we move now to page 11, we see our corporate lending and business banking, where we had consistent performance driven by record revenues and sustained portfolio expansion. Revenues came to BRL 2,332 million. That's a 4.2% increase during the quarter, and a 21% increase when we compare to the first quarter of 2025.

Portfolio grew 7.2% during the quarter and 22% compared to the first quarter of 2025, and reached a total of BRL 281 billion, as we took the opportunity of reduced client activity or reduced activity in capital markets and the widening of credit spreads, more specifically towards the end of the quarter. We took that opportunity to expand our book with high-quality names and at attractive spreads. We continue to expand and diversify our portfolio in different geographies, with our Luxembourg bank gaining traction, and also our U.S. bank starting to operate during this quarter.

We go now to our sales and trading on page 12. We see that we had solid results supported primarily by client activity, with our VAR decreasing as a result of our dynamic risk management approach. Revenues came at BRL 1 billion, 877 million, and that's a 6.6% decrease when we compare to the previous quarter, which was our best quarter ever, but it's a 43% increase when we compare to the first quarter of 2025. Performance was driven mainly by strong client activity in a wide range of products and services that we offer to our clients. While our VAR, as I mentioned, declined somewhat to 32 basis points, reflecting a more conservative approach, especially by the end of the quarter, when geopolitical risks increased market volatility.

The market risk component of our risk-weighted assets reduced to 22% as again, as we took a more conservative approach towards the end of the quarter, and as we continue to expand our credit portfolio and diversify our risk. If we go now to our asset management on page 13, we saw continuing assets under management expansion supported by strong net inflows across segments and our business lines. We recorded revenues of BRL 783 million during the quarter, which is a decline of 8.9% from the very strong previous quarter when we recorded performance fees for the second half of 2025. When we compare to the first quarter of 2025, we see an increase of 6.5 percentage points, with revenues from management and administration fees growing alongside the portfolio.

We saw a lower contribution from dividends received from independent asset managers that we invest in. They were somewhat smaller than what we recorded in the first quarter of 2025. Assets under management and administration increased 5.3% during the quarter and 28% since the first quarter of 2025, reaching a total amount of BRL 1.3 trillion. During the quarter, we managed to bring BRL 48 billion of organic net new money. It's a strong number with inflows being directed towards both our asset servicing and our managed fund business. Moving now to our Wealth Management and personal banking on page 14, we see that we had record revenues driven by higher client activity and strong organic growth.

Revenues reached BRL 1.5 billion, which is a 10% increase when compared to the previous quarter and a 45% increase when compared to the first quarter of 2025. Strong growth during the quarter was driven by increased client activity alongside the consistent expansion of both our private bank and our high- income retail businesses. Wealth under management reached BRL 1.28 trillion, which represents a 4% growth during the quarter and a 28% increase when compared to the first quarter of 2025. Net new money came at BRL 35 billion. Once again, a strong number of purely organic inflows.

During the quarter, BTG Wealth Management was recognized across 11 categories in Euromoney's Private Banking Awards, including Best Private Bank in Latin America and in Brazil for the third year in a row, and Best Private Bank for Family Offices Services in Latin America. Going now to page 15, we look at our new business line, Consumer Finance and Banking. Here, we saw consistent portfolio growth driven by strong payroll loan origination. As we completed the acquisition of the remaining stake at Banco Pan, we started recording now 100% of its revenues and costs in this first quarter of 2026. Credit revenues came at BRL 954 million, somewhat impacted by upfront provisions related to the overall expansion of the portfolio and also higher provisions in our auto loan portfolio.

Total credit portfolio grew to BRL 73.6 billion. That's a 14% increase during the quarter, with the largest contribution coming from private payroll loans origination, which is a 34% portfolio expansion when we compare to the first quarter of 2025. Too Seguros' revenues increased 44% during the quarter as a consequence of one-off impact related to a regulatory change on how to record revenues and commissions, reaching a total amount of BRL 171 million. In April, we successfully concluded the meutudo transaction. If we go now to our expenses and main ratios on page 17, we saw here a consistent operating leverage gain despite the impacts of the consolidation of Banco Pan's minority stake.

Overall, expenses increased by 1.8% with the main impacts coming from adding the costs of the remaining 20% stake of Banco Pan, and also the usual cycle of salary increases and promotions impacts during the first quarter of each year. Salaries and benefits increased by 6% during the quarter, again, reflecting inflation adjustments and promotions, and the addition of Banco Pan's stake. Administrative and others increased 4% with some higher investments in our U.S. operations, and also again, an impact here from the addition of the stake of Banco Pan will increase by 8%, as a result of the acquisition of Banco Pan. Overall, cost income remained flat at 38% with our effective tax rate at 20.3%.

Looking now at our balance sheet on page 19, we see that total assets increased 5%, reaching BRL 845 billion. That's 9.7 x our equity. Our liquidity remains solid with BRL 84 billion of cash and cash equivalents with an LCR ratio of 161%. Coverage ratio remains stable at 136%, including now the consumer finance credit portfolio. Our total credit portfolio, again, including all our corporate, SME, and consumer finance portfolios, now represents 4.8 x our equity. If we go to page 20, we look at our unsecured funding base evolution. We see here that our total funding reached BRL 379 billion, that's a 6% expansion during the quarter, and a 31% increase when we compare to last year.

Most of the growth came from the domestic markets with issuances of time deposits and securities, but we also managed to issue in January a $750 million five-year bond in international markets at a 5.5% yield. In addition, we also issued BRL 3.1 billion of 10-year subordinated notes, further strengthening our capital base. The retail component of our funding remained stable at 29% of total funding. Demand deposits grew in line with total funding expansion, and they represent now 6.5% of our total funding. Looking now at our Basel ratio on page 21, we see our total capital ratio increase to 15.9%, benefiting from the strong profitability achieved during this quarter, and also the issuance of the Tier 2 note I mentioned.

Our core equity increased 10 basis points, and Tier 1 capital also increased 10 basis points and reached 12.4%. As I mentioned before, our VaR reduced to 32 basis points as we took a more conservative approach as a consequence of more volatile markets by the end of the quarter. Once again, Roberto mentioned very good, very strong results in a volatile environment, which reinforces the strength, the resilience of our business, and our ability to navigate in a profitable way through different and challenging scenarios. I think with that, we can go to the questions.

Operator

The floor is now open for questions from investors and analysts. If you have a question, please click Raise Hand at this time. The first question comes from Renato Meloni, as an Autonomous Researcher. Please go ahead.

Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Hey, everyone, Renato from Autonomous Research here. Thanks for the questions, and congrats on the results. To you were mentioning that ECM saw some weakness in March due to the volatility. I'm curious here if you see a pickup starting second Q , and also curious about your perspectives for the rest of the year, and if you can also add comments on ECM, right? I think in general we're seeing, well, some deals, like some companies becoming more positive, if you expect that to happen. Thank you.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Thank you, Renato. It's always very tough to make predictions, right? If you ask me today, I think we will probably see DCM have a weak March and will probably have a weak Q2. We do expect it to start picking up in Q3. We are quite encouraged by what we're seeing in the equity capital markets. We had significant flows to LatAm and to, let's say, emerging markets in general. This did slow down a bit recently, but as Cohn mentioned, we were able to do the first IPO in, I think, five years. We are encouraged by the trends seen in ECM. We think DCM still has a weak Q2 and hopefully picks up after that.

Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

Oh, perfect. If you just allow me for a quick follow-up here. Can you give us the one-off impact on Too Seguros, revenues, and if that comes down in the second Q?

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

Yeah, no, we don't expect to repeat this as a one-off. It would be back , obviously, closer to the average of what we've seen. Obviously, we expect some business development there, but not to the extent of r epeating this amount of revenue.

Renato Meloni
Analyst, Autonomous Research

It's perfect, guys. Thanks very much, and congrats again on the results.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Daniel Vaz with Safra. Please, go ahead.

Daniel Vaz
Analyst, Safra

Hi. Hi, Sallouti. Hi, Cohn, everyone. Congrats on the results. I have two questions about consumer finance. The vertical has a very positive quarter, and I myself have been flagging the retail opportunity in all my interactions with investors, so it's great to see it coming through. Specifically on private payroll lending, we've seen some players report the cost of risk with the product in the first quarter a bit higher, right? I'm curious to hear how your vintages have been performing, and what the level of cost of risk you find okay working with, right?

If these vintages have been giving you more confidence to further accelerate or important to reflect on it a bit and review everything. Second question on meutudo. The acquisition was concluded in April, so I guess this quarter doesn't fully reflect the consolidated economics for this business. Any hint on incremental earnings contribution with meutudo? Is it going to be in the consumer finance vertical? Thank you.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Starting with your second question, the numbers include our participation in the portfolio originated by meut udo, there are no revenues attributed yet, and this will start in the second quarter. We're very happy with the transaction. We think it's a fantastic setup. On the private payroll, I have to say that so far we're quite satisfied. Everything has been quite adherent to our underwriting.

The performance of the different clusters has reflected pretty much what we expected. I think this is probably the difference. When we analyze what's going on in the market, I think some people were not differentiating so much between how we classify the different clusters; we see that's where probably the frustration lies. So far , we've been extremely satisfied with the results. Naturally, there were some operational challenges in the beginning, but as time goes by, we see this product getting better and stronger.

Daniel Vaz
Analyst, Safra

Okay. Maybe if you, a little, a word on the cost of risk, at any level that you work with. I guess the revenues are already net of the cost of risk, right?

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Yes, you're right. We report them net of the cost of risk already, and of the operational expenses directly linked to the transactions.

Daniel Vaz
Analyst, Safra

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Arnon Shirazi with Citi. Please, go ahead.

Arnon Shirazi
Analyst, Citi

Hi, all. Good morning. Congrats on the strong set of results. My question is related to asset quality. We saw the stage two plus stage three increase in this quarter. I wonder what's behind this, if there's anything linked to any acquisition, or if it's a one-off impact. Thank you.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

Sorry, Arno, I'm not sure I understood. You mentioned the stage 2 and stage 3. Can you repeat the question?

Arnon Shirazi
Analyst, Citi

Yes, correct. Stage 2 and Stage 3 as a percentage of the total portfolio. It increased in this first quarter to 7%. I wonder what's behind this increase?

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

I think that it didn't increase significantly because the portfolio increased. In line with that, right. We have the growth of the Banco Pan portfolio, which has a higher component of stage 2 and 3, right impacts the overall. The mix, if we have a larger share of total credit from consumer finance within the total portfolio, which in this case, was from 80.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

100

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

to 100%, right? You have that impact. When you look at the separate parts, right, the sum of the parts, then you won't see an increase, right? We're just adding an additional 20% of consumer finance to the total numbers, and that's the reason why you see this increase.

Arnon Shirazi
Analyst, Citi

Okay. Got it. I believed, sorry, it was in terms of provisions, the increase for this portfolio.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

I think the provisions are aligned with the with also with the types of credits that you have, right? When you take the Banco Pan portfolio, it has a much higher initial .

The journey of provisions, then, the corporate lending part, right? Once we increase by 20% our stake at Banco Pan, that impact happened, right?

Arnon Shirazi
Analyst, Citi

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Guilherme Grespan with J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead.

Guilherme Grespan
Analyst, J.P. Morgan

Good morning. Sallouti, Renato. Thank you so much for the presentation. Congratulations on the print. Just to follow up on the consumer banking optionality here. I just wanted to follow up on two regulatory changes we had recently. The first one was on the private payroll, which kind of implied caps. I'm not sure if you can formally call a cap, but there was a formula that limited the interest rates. How does this affect your appetite to grow the product going forward? Number two was the recent change on payroll that came in with the consignado, which now the payroll margin for cards has reduced a little bit, and then you can eventually compensate this with higher margins for the traditional payroll. Just on the Banco Pan perspective, how you're seeing those movements impacting the loan portfolio and appetite in general? Thank you so much.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Thank you, Guilherme. First, on the private payroll cap, it affects roughly 15% of our production in the higher- risk clusters, which probably means that we will not be doing that. Overall, so far it has not really affected us overall; it's just within the different clusters of risk that are affected. The second, there were quite a few changes with the consignado. The first one was the unification of the limit. We think it's quite healthy. I would say it's neutral to slightly positive for Pan, if you ask me. The second one is that over time, the total amount that can be committed will be reduced. This will probably reduce production of the whole market over time.

This line has not been significant for us in the recent quarters. We do expect it to grow. We'd be affected like the rest of the market. Personally, I do think it's something very healthy for society as a whole and for the macro environment. I think personally, I don't really like caps. I think the market regulates itself. You're pricing out the higher- risk customer, which will probably be paying a higher interest rate somewhere else. On the changes to the INSS, I actually thought that they were quite positive.

Guilherme Grespan
Analyst, J.P. Morgan

That's clear. On the insurance, just to be sure, I imagine also the new caps that are related to how you tie insurance to the product, I imagine, do not affect Banco Pan or the private payroll that you originate, right?

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

No. Nothing significant there. It's all within the parameters.

Guilherme Grespan
Analyst, J.P. Morgan

Okay

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

There's a bit of a difference of the product. We were doing life instead of prestamista, but this will be adapted soon.

Guilherme Grespan
Analyst, J.P. Morgan

Okay, that's clear. Thank you. Sallouti.

Operator

The next question comes from Marcelo Mizrahi with Bradesco BBI. Please go ahead.

Marcelo Mizrahi
Analyst, Bradesco BBI

Hi, guys. Congratulations on the results. Very strong again. My question is also regarding consumer banking. Sallouti has said about you guys were consolidating the portfolio of meut udo , but not the revenue. It seems for me that the pace of profitability or the take rate of consumer banking will improve a lot in the next quarter. My question, the first one , is whether it makes sense to see that the NIMs or the take rates of this line will be higher next quarter and throughout the next quarters also. Also, regarding the adjustments to the accounting on vehicles, my question is how much impact was on the revenues of this adjustment? Thank you.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

Hi, Marcelo. You are correct that we didn't record revenues related to the meut udo transaction during the first quarter, because the transaction was concluded in April, right? In the second quarter, we'll record those transactions.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Those revenues.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

if those revenues, sorry. Difficult to say, the take rate. It's probably gonna be higher, right? Because it also depends on where and how the portfolio will develop during the second quarter, but we expect higher revenues during the second quarter than the first. The second question, I'm not sure I understood. Can you repeat that? I think, Marcelo, I think the second question was related to the auto loan provisions, right? We as usually we do, we revised our models for provisioning, and we increased a little bit the levels of provisioning for the portfolio, now at the beginning of the first quarter. There was a small impact there for that.

Marcelo Mizrahi
Analyst, Bradesco BBI

Was the impact higher than the impact of non-one-off on Too Seguros ?

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

I think it was a similar amount, Marcelo.

Marcelo Mizrahi
Analyst, Bradesco BBI

Thank you. Thank you, guys.

Operator

Thank you. The next question comes from Antonio Ruette with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Antonio Ruette
Analyst, Bank of America

Hi, thank you for your time. My question goes on asset quality. You touched on a little bit across some questions. My question is, we had a pretty eventful first quarter so far, pretty eventful first five months of the year, with higher than expected interest rates perhaps for a year, the war. My question here is, how is asset quality behaving versus what you have been expecting? What do you expect for the upcoming months? Also, how do we evaluate lines for SMEs collateralized by the government? I'm thinking here , especially about the indebtedness and potential concerns on asset quality for the SMEs. How do you balance this risk of high interest rates impacting them with the lines collateralized by the government? Thank you.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Thanks. Actually, we had already been underwriting credit with a more adverse scenario in mind. To be sincere, the performance of the portfolio had been much better than what we had modeled, both on the corporate and on the consumer finance side so far. As you mentioned, this first quarter and the last months, especially on the corporate side, you've had a few events. We have not had any significant exposure to any of these more high- profile situations that have been reported. Also on the SME side, we are still mainly in the supply chain financing and discount of credit card receivables. We do have some exposure to these government lines that have some government-guaranteed coverage, but it's still small and growing. So far so good.

No significant, let's say, issues there. Same thing on the consumer finance side. Probably at some point, you will see a pickup on the provisions on the consumer side, consumer finance side, similar to what you're seeing in, let's say, the more, more corporate events that we're seeing recently. I would probably say that this might be two or three quarters away, given just the recent, the, the recent government interactions, which have which continue to benefit the consumer. We have been underwriting from a conservative scenario, and if anything, the portfolio has been performing better than what we had underwritten for.

Antonio Ruette
Analyst, Bank of America

This is clear. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Tiago Binsfeld with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Tiago Binsfeld
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Hi. Sallouti, Cohn, everyone. My question is on efficiency. We now see that you have 11,000 employees post the Banco Pan consolidation. We'd like to understand what you see as the right size for running the bank from now on. I think Sallouti mentioned during the presentation that efficiency could come back to levels preceding the Pan consolidation. If you could elaborate a little bit more on that idea, discuss the timeline for efficiency gains. When do you expect operating leverage and synergies to come through? Thank you.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

We probably expect them to start showing themselves more towards the next year. This year , we're still operating under two core banking systems. We will probably be operating under one core banking system towards the beginning of next year. At the same time, you have to remember that we've been adding new business lines and new geographies. If you look at our total headcount, it's actually been more or less stable since December 2024, when you do the pro forma.

Basically, we have been able to gain some efficiency, unifying back office and controls, with the buying of BTG, while at the same time expanding headcount in new businesses and new geographies. For example, in the middle market in Brazil, or the bank in the U.S., or the bank in Luxembourg. We do expect to the cost income to start trickling down hopefully towards the second half of this year, and hopefully by the beginning of next year, that pace picks up. We don't have any hard guidance to give here. This is more of a soft guidance, just based on expectations, not on any mathematical exercises.

Tiago Binsfeld
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

That's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

The next question comes from Henrique Navarro. Please, with Santander. I am sorry. Please go ahead.

Henrique Navarro
Analyst, Santander

Hi, good morning. Congratulations on the results. Two questions. First, on the net new money, it was, you know, a minor drop compared to the last quarter. How do you see the sustainable level of net new money looking forward? That's question number one. Question number two, if I'm not mistaken, in the 4Q, you mentioned that you believe that in the future, Banco Pan has the potential to run at the same ROE as BTG. Yeah, my question is, if this is still valid, when do you see that number being achieved? Thank you.

Renato Cohn
CFO and Investor Relations Officer, Banco BTG Pactual

Hi, Navarro. I think the net new money was very strong once again, because it was purely organic, right? First, the fourth quarter was higher than that, BRL 108 billion. Third quarter, the total net new money was BRL 82.7, and we added, if I'm not mistaken, BRL 18 in the acquisition of JGP business, right? Second quarter, the combined net new money was BRL 58.6. First quarter, the combined net new money was BRL 104.7; there was the acquisition of Julius Baer with BRL 62 billion, right? This is a very strong number of purely organic net new money, which is only smaller than the third quarter. We're very happy with the net new money. Right.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Regarding your question on Banco Pan, we probably expect ROE to increase quarter-over-quarter. We'll probably reach a similar ROE to BTG as a whole, probably in 2028, towards the middle of 2028.

Henrique Navarro
Analyst, Santander

That's great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. That brings us to the end of the question- and- answer session. I will now return the floor to Mr. Roberto Sallouti for his closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.

Roberto Sallouti
CEO, Banco BTG Pactual

Thank you all very much once again for participating in our quarterly call. We look forward to talking to you again in around three months. Thank you. Have a great week.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's presentation. You may disconnect your line at this moment. Have a nice day.

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