Good morning, everyone. We will be waiting a few minutes in order to getting in all the people who's in the waiting room. Just one minute. Thank you. All right. Okay. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2026 conference call. I am Andrés Atala, Head of Investor Relations at BCI. It is good to see you all here today to review our progress during the first month of this year. Joining me today are José Luis Ibaibarriaga Martínez, BCI CFO, Sergio Lehmann, Chief Economist, and joining us remotely, Mr. Jose Marina, City National Bank's CFO. We look forward to sharing our quarterly results and strategic advancements. In this slide, let me briefly walk you through today's agenda. We will begin with a macroeconomic overview of the key markets where we operate.
We will then move on to review our financial results for the quarter, both at the consolidated and local levels, including asset quality, trends, and risk indicators. We will provide an update on City National Bank of Florida to conclude with our closing remarks before opening the floor for Q&A. Please save your questions until the end of the presentation. I will pass the word to Sergio, who will elaborate on the outlook where BCI operates.
Thank you, Andrés, and welcome, everybody. Good morning. As you know, the global economy entered 2026 facing a renewed volatility stemming by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. This has put upward pressure on energy prices and led to a slight downward revision in growth projection. We expect this shock to be transitory. The U.S., the economy closed 2025 with an average growth of 2%, and would have initiated this year at a similar rhythm. The 2025 figure reflects an interplay between two major forces: investment and productivity gains by, or driven by AI, and the headwinds from the longest government shutdown in history in the second half of the year. The labor market remains subdued.
While the unemployment rate appears stable, this is primarily due to a decline in the participation rate over the last five months rather than job creation. Now that we have covered growth trends, let's discuss inflation and the evolution of U.S. monetary policy. U.S. CPI on rate regarding inflation, while headline CPI remained well above 3% due to energy cost, core inflation continued to moderate, providing some relief amid uncertainty. The Federal Reserve currently faces a policy crossroads with conflicting signals. At Bci estudios or research, we contend that the recent spike is mostly energy-related and unlikely to slip into core inflation to a significant extent. We anticipate the Fed will pause its ease cycle and adopt cautious wait-and-see approach in the near term. We don't rule out potential rate hikes triggered by a more prolonged inflationary shock as a consequence of higher geopolitical tensions.
Now let's transition to key economic indicators for Peru on the next slide. The Peruvian economy delivered a solid performance in 2025 with an expansion of 3.4%. While it represent a moderation from previous year due to a high base of comparison and political uncertainty, the overall balance remains positive. During the first quarter of 2026, activity has been hampered by disruption in energy sector, international conflicts, and adverse weather conditions. This factor pushed inflation up to 3.8%. However, we anticipate this to be transitory spike. Consequently, the central bank has maintained the reference rate at 4.25%, a level consistent with the neutral monetary stance. Now let's move to the Chilean economy view. Chile closed 2025 with GDP growth of 2.5%, supported by resilient investment and private consumption. However, we have observed a softening in momentum over recent months.
For 2026, we anticipate a slower growth pace contingent on a significant fiscal adjustment and a very weak first quarter, mainly due to supply constraints in primary sectors. Despite this, the domestic demand performance continued to grow near its potential. The labor market remains a key variable to watch as the economy recalibrates to these new fiscal conditions. Now let's consider how these factors are influencing inflation and interest rates. Inflation, which has previously converged to the target, which is 2%, is facing renewed pressure from rising oil prices. We expect inflation to remain above 4% for much of this year. Given this backdrop, the Central Bank of Chile remain cautious, holding the policy rate at 4.5%. We do not anticipate further cuts until geopolitical uncertainty abates and inflationary pressure stabilize.
In the current market, the Chilean peso closed the quarter at CLP 911 per dollar, pesos per dollar. Global upward pressures were largely cautioned by copper prices, which are once again approaching to historical heights. We expect inflation to converge back to the target by the early next year. That mean 2027. Market focus will be on the government structural reform proposal currently under debate in the Congress. With that, I will now hand over to José Luis, who will continue with this presentation. Please, José Luis.
Thank you, Sergio. Let's now move to our first quarter 2026 performance. In this first three months, we delivered strong fundamentals, highlighted by the consistent execution of our strategy. This quarter, net income reached $311 million, up 5.34% year-over-year, making us the leading bank in Chile in this period. Total assets stood at $92.3 billion, positioning us as the 10th largest bank in Latin America and the Caribbean. Regarding our financial performance, it's important to know that while our net interest margin was impacted by a lower inflation environment, we successfully mitigate these headwinds through robust growth in net fees. Our efficiency ratio improved by 480 basis points. Simultaneously, our risk model and credit performance continued to deliver strong results, with credit losses, expenses dropping 24.6%, underscoring our good asset quality and prudent risk management.
Moving to the balance sheet, our loan book was supported by a commercial portfolio and accelerating momentum in the consumer segment. On the funding side, we maintained a healthy liquidity position, ensuring we are well positioned to support future growth. In terms of our strategic progress, we continue to strengthen both our local and international footprints. As you are aware, we have taken the transformative step in our corporate structure by creating the new holding company, BCI Group. The entity has been already legally constituted, and we are moving forward as planned, working closely with the regulator approval process. Our international strategy is also delivering solid results. At City National Bank of Florida, we continue to make significant progress with Project Win, diversifying our portfolio while improving our results.
More broadly, the integrated value proposition across Bci Miami, Bci Securities, and Bci Perú provides a unique competitive advantage towards our clients. We continue to deepen our retail ecosystem through strategic loyalty partnerships. At the same time, that MACHBANK successfully escalate to 1.3 million current accounts, and Lider Bci grew its loan portfolio, maintaining risk levels. Let's take a closer look to our consolidated financial result for the first quarter 2026, compared to the same period last year. Net interest income reached $612.7 million, a 7.5% year-over-year contraction, primarily driven by lower inflation, 0.29%. Our net fee income grew positively to $140 million.
This 14.3% increase was fueled by higher transaction volumes, the expansion of our trade and car business, and the strong performance of Bci Asset Management. Additionally, we achieved a significant reduction in loyalty program cost following by the successful integration of our benefit programs. Our operating expenses decreased totally $376.8 million. We will address the details later in this presentation. Regarding trade loss expenses, we recorded a 24.6% year-over-year reduction to $75.9 million. This improvement reflects higher quality loan portfolio. Our tax expenses increased, driven by the lower impact of CPI on tax equity monetary correction. Finally, I would like to highlight the 7.1% growth in our total equity, reflecting our continued commitment to maintain a robust capital base. Let's start re-reviewing our operations in Chile.
During the first quarter of 2026, total loans in our local operation grew 6.2% year-over-year. Our commercial portfolio continued to be the primary driver in this expansion, reaching $25.7 billion, up 7% compared to the first quarter of 2025. This growth reinforces our strategic focus and consolidate our leadership position in this segment. We highlight our continued market share gain and leadership across key indicators, including serving as a primary treasury bank for our clients and for steering long-term relationships. As of February, the bank achieved a 17% market share in commercial loans. We are also pleased to see a strong traction returning to our consumer segment, which grew to $3.6 billion.
This 8.3% increase was driven by double-digit expansion in Lider Bci and our solid retail banking base, allowing us to outpace the system's growth while maintaining a healthy risk profile aligned with our appetite. Finally, our mortgage portfolio delivered 3.9% year-over-year growth, in line with current macroeconomic conditions. As shown in the left of the slide, our local NIM was 3.62% in the first quarter of 2026. While we experienced compression compared to the same period last year, primarily influenced by lower inflation during the first month of the year, we expect this trend to normalize in the coming month, as Sergio mentioned. This impact was positively offset by a fee generation, a key pillar of our strategy, which increased 16.4% year-over-year. This expansion was driven by three primary factors.
First, we saw higher transaction volumes and solid expansion across our retail base. Second, our core product lines, including credit cards, insurance, and account management, delivered a sound performance. Finally, it was boosted by our wealth management division and Bci Asset Management subsidiary, where our unique value proposition continued to capture market share. At the close of the quarter, we had an improvement in our local efficiency ratio, reaching 47.61%. This represents a 400 basis point improvement from the 51.61% we reported in the first quarter of last year. This efficiency gain is directly supported by the following. Our local operating expenses decreased by 17.4% year-over-year, benefiting mainly from the normalization of other expenses. Excluding this effect, our cost base still declined 1.5 nominal base, aligning with our efficiency efforts.
This is a result of a more efficient and simplified organizational structure and ongoing integration of major technological and core system projects. This performance validate the front-loading strategy we discussed in previous quarter by proactively accelerating key investment and restructuring our cost base last year. We are now capturing operating leverage. Moving to the next slide, we can see our local liquidity and capital ratios. Our 7.7% year-over-year growth in local deposits reflects a strategic focus on both retail and wholesale value propositions, strengthening our funding base across all segments.
This expansion was primarily led by time deposits, which increased by 9.1% to reach $18.5 billion, while demand deposit rose by 5.6% to $11.8 billion. Our local liquidity coverage ratio remained strong at 228.8%, maintaining a significant buffer over regulatory requirement. Moving to our capital ratios, our consolidated CET1 ratio stood at 10.81% as of March 2026. The 22 basis point year-over-year adjustment is mainly driven by robust loan growth and the final phase in the Basel III. While we face a transitory pressure from the market risk-weighted asset and interest rate volatility, we remain committed to our target of CET1 level of 11%. Finally, despite these transitional effects, total equity increased, as we mentioned earlier.
This performance effectively offset higher regulatory reduction, bringing our total capital ratio to 14.81%. This confirms BCI's solid capital position and sound balance sheet enable us to support our strategy. We will move to the risk indicator trends. At the close of March 2026, the total loan portfolio in Chile continued to grow in healthy way, supported by a proactive risk management. Our local 90-day NPL ratio for the total portfolio stood at 1.92%. The total stock of provisions over loans reached 1.83% as March, and 2.47% when we include additional voluntary provisions. This conservative strategy allowed us to maintain robust coverage levels, ensuring we are well-positioned to withstand potential volatility. The total consolidated portfolio present stable risk indicators, confirming the high quality of our credit underwriting and the strength of our balance sheet.
Moving to commercial loans, the non-performing loans ratio for this segment stood at 1.72%. It is important to note that our risk indicator showed improved performance, while we also recorded 2.6% quarter-over-quarter and 6% year-over-year growth. This reflects our conservative risk policy, focusing on client with strong credit profiles. The total provision ratio for the commercial portfolio stood at 2.23%. This position is backed by higher levels of collateralization, which protects us from future unseen risk. The non-performing loan ratio for the mortgages portfolio closed at 2.3%, reflecting a broader industry-wide trend. This derives from the interest rate that still remains above 2019 levels, which alongside a macroeconomic environment still on path to fully recover, has impacted on activity and appetite.
BCI's performance stand out relative to the system as an effect of our proactive risk management and prudent origination policies. Our portfolio maintain sound loan-to-value ratios, and we continue to monitor this segment closely looking ahead. Moving to the consumer segment, the 90-day non-performing loans ratio stood at 2.59%. This portfolio also showed a relative improvement compared to previous quarter, supported by healthy portfolio growth. Breaking down the portfolio as of March, the non-performing loan ratio for Lider Bci is 3.87%, down 42 basis point quarter-over-quarter, while the BCI consumer portfolio remained in 2.37%. At BCI, we are targeting affluent segment, while at Lider Bci, we are leveraging the new origination model we have implemented.
Given the nature of the business, we maintain our most conservative provisioning levels, with a total provision to loan ratio of 10% and a non-performing loans coverage ratio of 284%. This prudent coverage policy provides us with a solid foundation to continue our retail growth program. Also, I would like to quickly address the favorable evolution of our international corridor we have built and the progress we have made. Bci Miami remains as a key enabler between Latin America clients, and the U.S. asset reached $7 billion, up 21% year-over-year, while asset under management grew 31%.
Bci Perú, our operation here are scaling rapidly across the corporate and large businesses segment, with asset growth growing to $1.5 billion. Bci Securities, our broker-dealer, now manage over $2.4 billions in assets, delivering positive results driven by a strong performance in the institutional and wealth management segment. Together, this integrated platform allow us to support our corporate, institutional, and high net worth clients across borders, consolidating a unique value proposition in the region. I will now hand it to Jose Marina, City National Bank's CFO, to detail the performance of our U.S. subsidiary.
Thank you, José Luis. Good morning, everyone. My name is Jose Marina, and I am the CFO of City National Bank. I am pleased to be here this morning to share highlights of our strong first quarter performance. As I will discuss in more detail, our earnings continue their upward trajectory, reflecting disciplined execution of our strategy, including solid loan growth, fully funded by robust deposit growth. In particular, I would like to point out the following highlights. Our loan balances increased by $522 million or 3% quarter-over-quarter, and by $1.4 billion or 8% year-over-year. We continue to focus on high quality loans with strong spreads and solid depository relationships.
Our client deposits grew by $710 million or 4% quarter-over-quarter, and by $842 million or 4% year-over-year, including DDAs growing by $501 million or 10% compared to the previous quarter. It is important to highlight that deposit growth outpaced loan growth this quarter, reinforcing our strategy to position City National as a leading deposit gathering bank in the state of Florida. Our net interest income and margin continued to expand for the ninth consecutive quarter. NIM increased by 42 basis points year-over-year and 8 basis points quarter-over-quarter, and is at the highest level in nearly four years. Our earnings continue their strong trend, growing $29 million or 52% year-over-year, and by $13 million or nearly 18% quarter-over-quarter.
Our ROE, excluding goodwill amortization, improved to 11.84% in Q1. These results demonstrate our market reputation built over the last 80 years, our relationship-centric model, strong culture, and continued success in executing our key strategic vision. Our client deposits increased by $710 million or 4% in the first quarter, including a $501 million or 10% increase in DDA balances. It is important to highlight that deposit growth surpassed the loan growth. Additionally, our client deposit growth outperformed the banking industry by nearly 2 x. I would like to highlight that $250 million, or about half of our DDA growth for the quarter, was due to a temporary inflow at the very end of the quarter that will substantially exit during the second quarter in the ordinary course of business.
Our DDA growth, excluding this inflow, is still robust at about $250 million or 5% quarter-over-quarter. Our strong client deposit growth enabled us to reduce broker deposits by $581 million in the quarter, reducing reliance on wholesale funding sources. Furthermore, our quarterly cost of client deposits decreased by 15 basis points compared to the previous quarter. Non-interest-bearing deposits represent a healthy 24% of our total deposit base. Our assets exceed the $28 billion mark at the end of the first quarter, with a strong loan-to-deposit ratio of 91%. We remain very well capitalized as evidenced by our total risk-based capital ratio and Tier 1 leverage ratio, which were 15.5% and 11.2% as of March 31st, respectively. Additionally, the unrealized losses in our investment portfolio remained flat quarter-over-quarter.
Total loans increased by $ 522 million or 3% quarter-over-quarter, as shown on the right-hand side of the slide. We have been highly selective when it comes to lending, not only from a credit risk and spread perspective, but also prioritizing deals with full relationships, which enhances long-term client value and earning sustainability. This quarter, our NPA ratio slightly increased by 8 basis points, reaching 79 basis points, but overall remains well below 1%. The NPL ratio decreased by 8 basis points, also well below 1% of total loans. More importantly, our strong credit culture and low risk appetite are reflected in our minimal net charge-offs of only 8 basis points for the quarter, significantly lower than the 20 basis point average among peers. ACL coverage remained virtually flat, representing 1.1% of total loans.
Turning now to our profitability, I would like to emphasize a positive trend in our net interest income after taxes, which increased by $ 12.6 million or about 17.6% quarter-over-quarter, and $ 28.9 million or 52% year-over-year. This growth was driven primarily by an expansion in net interest margin, which increased by 8 basis points quarter-over-quarter to 2.97% in the quarter and increased by 42 basis points year-over-year. As a result, net interest income increased by $ 36.1 million or 22% year-over-year. Fee income also increased by $ 3.9 million or 13.7% year-over-year, reflecting continued progress in our efforts to diversify and enhance our fee base. These factors contributed to operating income increasing by $40 million or 21% year-over-year.
This resulted in an ROA, excluding goodwill amortization of 1.25% for the quarter, an improvement of 38 basis points year-over-year, and an ROE excluding goodwill amortization of 11.8%, which is 267 basis points higher year-over-year. We have shared with you over the last few calls we have implemented several strategic actions through Project Win to further strengthen our balance sheet and accelerate earnings growth. Additionally, we are focused on expanding our product offering to increase cross-sell and augment our fee generation. Lastly, we continue to drive organic net interest margin expansion through disciplined pricing across both loans and deposits. On the left side of this slide, you can see our net income increased by $13 million or 18% quarter-over-quarter.
This improvement was primarily driven by a $2 million increase in net interest income, reflecting an 8 basis point expansion in our net interest margin as we continue to maintain discipline on both loan pricing and deposit costs. Fee income increased by $3 million quarter-over-quarter, reflecting continued progress in our fee strategy, which we will discuss further shortly. Additionally, non-interest expense declined by $7 million, mainly driven by higher professional fees incurred in the prior quarter. Last quarter, we recorded a $5 million loss on the sale of securities associated due to a small repositioning of our investment portfolio. This was offset by $5 million of higher loan loss provisions, primarily reflecting strong loan growth in Q1. On the right side, we show our net income improved by $29 million or 52% year-over-year.
This increase was primarily driven by $36 million of additional net interest income as our margin expanded by 42 basis points. Fee income also contributed positively, increasing by $4 million. Loan loss provisions were $6 million lower year-over-year, reflecting the continued strong performance of our loan portfolio. This was partially offset by $4 million of additional expenses, particularly driven by investment in personnel as we execute Project Win. This slide illustrates the expansion of our net interest income and margin for the last nine quarters. Our net interest income increased by $2 million or 1% quarter-over-quarter, with our NIM expanding by 8 basis points to 2.97%. This growth was driven by a decline in our cost of funds of 13 basis points, partially offset by 6 basis points decline in the yield on earning assets.
This NIM expansion is a result of several strategies executed during the last couple of years, which includes obtaining strong spreads on new loan originations and on renewals, with the commercial spreads on new loan originations averaging around 300 basis points the last couple of years. It is also the result of our strong deposit growth, coupled with prudent deposit cost management in this uncertain rate environment. This strong core deposit growth enabled us to reduce our wholesale funding ratio to 18% at the end of the quarter as compared to 19% at the end of the year. One of our key strategic priorities is the expansion and diversification of fee income. This slide demonstrates the strong results we have already delivered in this regard.
Non-Treasury management fees have grown meaningfully as a share of total fee income, increasing from 41% in 2022 to 52% in 2026, reducing reliance on any single category. Non-Treasury management fees include services recently launched or currently being implemented, such as insurance commissions, our Treasury distribution desk, capital markets capabilities, wealth management, and the sale of residential and SBA loans. This improved mix is further evidenced by fees as a percentage of average assets rising from 41 basis points to 46 basis points during this period. Overall, these trends demonstrate the successful execution of our strategy to build a larger and more diversified fee income base. As a reminder, Project Win is our five-year strategic plan designed to deliver profitable, scalable, and diversified growth.
As this slide highlights, we are now in year two of execution, and our results demonstrate strong progress across all five strategic objectives. Starting with moderate growth and diversification, we continue to make deposits the centerpiece of our relationship-based strategy. In the first quarter, client deposits grew 15% on an annualized basis, outpacing the industry growth rate of 9%. This performance continues to position us as the leading deposit gathering bank in the state of Florida. Loans are growing at an annualized rate of 11%, fully funded by client deposit growth with improved portfolio diversification as C&I loans now represent 31% of total loans, compared to 30% a year ago. Turning to enhanced profitability, our performance reflects meaningful progress. ROE nearly reached 12%, supported by an 8 basis points expansion in net interest margin during the quarter.
Strong DDA growth, continued discipline on strong deposit pricing, and execution of new fee initiatives have further enhanced earnings diversification and overall profitability. From a scalability and digital experience standpoint, we are working on our enterprise-wide AI strategy. This includes credit delivery optimization, process automation, deployment of agent-enabled solutions to support pre- and post-client engagement meetings, enhancements of our client concierge center, and continued investment in data and analytics. Culture remains a core strength as we exercise and execute Project Win. We are seeing high levels of engagement and disciplined execution across the bank. Supported by strong leadership. Finally, as we grow, we continue to strengthen our regulatory and risk management framework. Our three lines of defense ensure robust internal control that supports sustainable growth.
In summary, these results demonstrate the continued momentum and scalability of Project Win in its second year of execution, with our first quarter performance reinforcing confidence in our ability to deliver sustainable, profitable, and diversified growth in 2026 and beyond. With that, I will turn it back to the BCI team for additional remarks. Thank you for joining this morning.
Thank you, Jose. This first quarter 2026 has been a period of strong performance for BCI. We delivered a net income of $310 million, solidifying our position as the leading bank in Chile's banking system. Furthermore, with total assets of $92.3 billion, we have achieved a major milestone by becoming the 10th largest bank in the region. Our balance sheet saw broad loan and deposit growth, reflecting strong momentum across all our business lines. This diversified model, our retail, wholesale, finance division, along with City National Bank ensures we deliver diversified revenue streams and effectively mitigate market volatility. A clear reflection of our strategy is expansion of our fee income to $140 million while maintaining sound risk indicators.
Alongside these efforts, we demonstrate our commitment to efficiency by reducing operating expenses amid 2.8% inflation, ending the quarter with a consolidated efficiency ratio of 46.52%. Ultimately, these financial results are a product of our core strategic pillars, customer experience, product growth, and solid corporate culture. This focus is yielding tangible results, highlighted this quarter by the Net Promoter Score of 25 points. Lastly, I would like to emphasize how the market has been recognizing the value of our long-term strategy. Our market capitalization has increased to $14.7 billion, up 75.1% when compared to the same period of last year. Just before passing to a question and answer session, I would like to take a brief moment to announce that this will be my last conference call.
After 15 wonderful years at CFO of BCI, I'm glad to share that I will be retiring next June 30th. In BCI, we have a strong succession planning process, and I'm proud to announce that as the result of this process within our organization, Roberto Pulido, our current Corporate Financial Control Manager, will be taking over my responsibilities. Roberto has been with BCI since 2007 and brings valuable experience leading teams in accounting process, operational transformation, and financial controlling. He possess a broad integrated strategic vision, and I have no doubt that this deep knowledge of the business will continue to drive BCI's success. It has been a true privilege to interact with all of you through these calls, one-to-one meetings, conference and more.
I look forward to this new stage of my life where I will be able to enjoy more time with my family. Thank you very much. I will now pass to Andrés to proceed with the Q&A session.
Thank you, José Luis, and that concludes our prepared presentation. We are now ready to take your questions. Please, Ernesto, go ahead with the first one.
Thank you, Andrés. Hi, good morning, José Luis, Jose, Cristián. Good morning to all your team. José Luis, what a news. I wish you the best. We will miss you. Roberto, welcome. I hope you the best in your new role, and I hope to see you soon. My first question will be on asset quality. We have seen a good evolution of the cost of risk during the first quarter. How should we think about this ratio evolving during the next quarters, especially within a context of high inflation and the fiscal adjustment in the country? My second question is on the tax reform. Can you remind us of your current expectation for the effective tax rate, and how should we think about it if the tax reform is implemented?
When do you expect the reform to be approved and to take place? My last question is on your net income growth guidance. If we annualize the CLP 288 billion of the first quarter, I'm getting to around CLP 1.1 trillion. This is around 16% year-over-year growth. It's above your guidance of 10%-12%, so you are starting the first quarter with strong earnings. Just wondering if that could imply upside risk to your guidance, or you feel comfortable getting to the high end of your guidance and maybe you can do an update in the next quarters. Just wanted to touch on that. What will be the key variables behind it?
I don't know if it's the outstanding numbers you did in asset quality or the cost control discipline. Any color on that would also be helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Ernesto, and for me it has been great to work with you too, so thank you very much. The tax question will be answered by Sergio.
Let me address the other two that you mentioned. Regarding asset quality, we feel very comfortable with the levels that we are seeing today. We are not seeing any major changes except that in the event that the consumer segment catch and growth faster than expected, we could have more provisions, but it's a good expense or so. In commercial mortgages in retail segment, we feel very comfortable with the models that we have been implementing, with the re-origination process that we have implemented, and we are seeing the impact of that strategy that have had for a couple of years.
Regarding the net income, yes, we are seeing that the fundamentals of the bank, the execution of our strategy is paying a lot of dividend. We are having a first quarter with strong fundamentals, and we believe that it will continue in the next three quarters. Having said that, Ernesto, we are having a lot of volatility. Everyone is aware, and Sergio mentioned what's going on today. We believe that it's too early to change our guidelines for the net income for the future. We are seeing strong margin. We have four clear divisions.
We have diversified our revenue stream, our risk stream, with retail being one, wholesale, and the international division with City National Bank, and wealth management and the finance division. We have four divisions that are creating a lot of value, and I think that Roberto will have the responsibility to give you the guidelines in June. Thank you, Ernesto.
Thank you, José Luis.
Hi, Ernesto. Regarding to the tax reform, it's important to say, first of all, that it's part of a package that probably, in our estimation, it gonna increase the potential growth of the Chilean economy from 2%, which is the current estimation, to between 3% and 3.5%. Probably it gonna be a very rude discussion in the Congress. As you know, we have today a very polarized Congress. Anyway, we think that probably we're gonna have some political floor to be approved. It could be in the second part of this year. As I said, it gonna be a very rude discussion. Regarding to the tax reform, it include basically two main elements. First of all, a reduction of the corporate tax from 27% to 23% in a gradual way.
That means that probably just in 2029 we're gonna have this new corporate tax rate, which is similar to the average of OECD countries. The other plan is to reintegrate the tax system in Chile, which could produce some important incentive for new investment. Today, the investment rate compared to GDP is close to 22%, 23%, but if we reintegrate the system, we could go to probably 25%, 26%. This is the main probably driver for having a higher potential growth in the near future. As I said, there's gonna be a rude discussion. It's just starting.
We hope, and this is the estimation of the government also, that in the second part of the year it could be implemented, but I insist, it's gonna be implemented in a gradual way.
Thank you very much, Sergio. Very helpful.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Ernesto. Next question comes from Neha Agarwala from HSBC. Hi, Neha. How are you?
Can you hear me now?
Yep
Yeah.
Yes.
Well, thank you, team. Congratulations on the earnings, and José Luis, we'll really be sad to see you go. You'll really be missed. As I go to my question, I wanted to understand how you see growth in the country for this year and for next year. It's more in terms of the second half of this year and next year. What kind of growth numbers can we expect for the consolidated entity and for the Chilean operations themselves? We talked a lot about at the end of last year, early this year, about costs, and you have been delivering on improving the efficiency ratio. What are the other initiatives that you have in the pipeline for this year, next year?
Where could the efficiency ratio go in your view? What is realistically possible for the bank to deliver in the next year or two years? Thank you so much.
Thank you, Neha. Sergio, do you want to make some guidance on what we see for the growth in Chile and the loan portfolios?
Sure. For this year, we're expecting growth rate from the economic perspective, I mean GDP, close to 2%, probably a little bit below that, 1.8%. We started the year with a low growth rate, even some reduction, but that has been mainly related to primary sectors, I mean mining and agriculture. Domestic demand is growing around 2%, which is our current estimation for the potential growth, and we're expecting a more dynamic economy in the second part of this year. That means more positive view for the second part and closing the year with, as I said, 1.8% growth rate. For the next year, we're expecting 2.5%.
We are expecting that probably, given the expectation of approval of this reform that we mentioned before, tax reform and other elements that could produce more solid institutionality for Chile. We are expecting 2.5%, and even for the coming years, 3%, if their reform is approved, as the government presented to the Congress. In terms of loans, given the elasticity and given the view that we have for the coming quarters, it's gonna be close to 4%-5% for the whole system, and as you have heard, the dynamic from BCI perspective has been a little bit higher than that. We're expecting an estimation for this year close to for total loans, around 6%.
Thank you, Sergio. Having said that, Neha, we are estimating that in Chile the loan portfolio will be growing around 6%-7%, in the U.S., 8%-9%, and in Chile the commercial portfolio is growing around 9%, mortgages around 6%, and the consumer, as we mentioned, that is taking traction, is going to be around 8%. Overall, 6%-7% in Chile, 8%-9% in City National Bank. Regarding the efficiency ratio, as we have been talking in the last conference call, one of the key initiatives, one of the main focus that we are working in BCI is to improve this ratio.
We are working basically in every single investment and expenses that they already have, we are reviewing it. We are simplifying our operations. We are simplifying our structure. We are working on reviewing all the opportunities that we do have in IT and in operations. Actually, we have a complete and detailed plan of each of the different opportunities that we are having. You are seeing now the quick wins of decisions that we took in 2025 that we are capturing now, but you will continue seeing a lot of initiatives that we will continue capturing during this year, and it will continue in 2027 and 2028. As you are aware, we have a goal of 40% in 2028.
The trend that we are having is good. We are in good path, and we continue delivering that, and hopefully we will go better than that ratio. Thank you very much, Neha, for being always so active and participating in these calls.
Okay. Next question comes from Daniel Mora from Credicorp. Hi, Daniel. How are you?
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for the presentation, and thank you, José Luis, for everything these years. I wish you the best in your retirement, and also for Roberto, welcome, good luck, and I hope to see you soon. I have just two questions. The first one is regarding NIM expectations in Chile, considering the new inflation scenario. What do you expect to be the ROE for the second quarter, especially considering that it will be the quarter in which we'll concentrate all the highest impact of inflation? And if you could provide the impact on the 2026 net income and profitability coming from this inflation, new inflation scenario. That will be the first one. The second one is regarding loan growth.
You already mentioned the guidance for 2026, but I would like to know if you expect any deceleration or implementing stricter loan origination policies given the inflation scenario, especially, for example, on Líder Bci. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Daniel. The return on equity, we maintain the same guidelines. I will give you the same answer that I give before to Ernesto. It's too soon to change any guidelines. There's a lot of things going on. We will maintain the guidelines that we do have for this year for return on equity. Regarding the loan growth for the next couple of years, we do have a strategic plan for 2027, 2028. We are expecting loan growth in Chile between 6%-7%.
That could change, and it could change regarding the impact and the speed of the reforms that Sergio mentioned that could in some way accelerate the consumer loan portfolio. If that is the case, we will give you a new guidelines as soon as we have some specific of that. Again, it's too soon. We have to go through the reforms, otherwise the country will be growing at a potential of 2%, and that give us the growth potential that we have been mentioning. The expectation of NIM that we do have is that it will continue with a positive trend. We have some specific guidelines that it could be higher than what we have today.
We are having a good traction in our fundamentals. Again, we are seeing that it's going to be what we have told to the market with a positive view. Again, Daniel, who knows what's going on. We wake up every single day with different news. Too soon to tell you, but we are seeing a positive trend for the next three quarters.
Thank you, Daniel, for that. Next question today is coming from Lindsay Sharma from Goldman Sachs. Hi, Lindsay.
Hi, Andrés. Thank you for taking my question. Good morning, everyone. Also, just echoing the sentiments that José Luis, you will be missed, and welcome, Roberto. Looking forward to getting to know you over the next couple of years. Just one quick question for me, trying to understand the movements in capital. First, do you still expect that around 100 basis points impact after the restructuring when you spin off CNB? And then how quickly do you expect to recoup that? And then second, what is your internal target? I believe last time it was around 11%. So if you do expect the 100 basis points, how do you expect to get back up there? Thank you.
Thank you, Lindsay, and thank you for your words, and we will make a round with Roberto as soon as possible. The internal target will remain at 11%. As soon as we split City National Bank from BCI, it is going to have a small decrease in that target. The plan that we do have for the next couple of years, the growth of assets in Chile, the net income that we are projecting, says that we are going to be generating much more capital than the growth that we are expecting for Chile. The target will maintain at 11%. We will recover very soon, as soon as one year after this split is done.
The only thing that could change, Lindsay, is that as soon as we split, the Basel III implementation could have some effect as we will not be as big from a systemic point of view as, or as complex as the, et cetera. We could have some positive effect, but we are not taking anything of that in consideration, and we believe that by one year after the split is done, we will come back with 11% CET1 ratio. We in Peru, we in Chile and in the U.S. So capital is not an issue. We are not seeing any issue at all for the next couple of years.
Thank you, Lindsay and José Luis. Next question today is coming from Jorge Pérez from Itaú BBA. Hi, Jorge.
Hi. Hi, everyone, and congratulations, José Luis, on your time at BCI and the successful track record you have built over the years. We will miss you. Roberto, congratulations on the new position. I have two questions. The first one is in Chile, specifically in the commercial portfolio, because when we look at the data, we see BCI that continue to gain market share in the commercial segment. I just want to understand what is the reason behind that you keep outpacing the system. Are you growing more in corporate, SMEs? How are the margin of these new credits? My second question is on CNB, in margins, because the first quarter was already at 3%.
How much upside do you see for the coming quarters? On fees, because we're seeing a good acceleration in fees. How much is because of the Project Win? How much is organically or the pre-Project Win, I would say? That's all from my side. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Jorge, for your words. I really appreciate it. In the commercial loan portfolio, first of all, yes, we are leading. We have a 17% market share, and we continue growing. This is basically a result of a strategy that has been being executed in a very specific way, where we have been making a lot of investment, and we today, we have the, according to us and according to some analysts, the best website where we do have a strategic view implemented with CFO up, CFO down, delivering value proposition for those two kind of customers, clients.
The basic thing that we are doing is that in the commercial, in wholesale as a whole, they make a strategic plan starting by Sergio's microeconomic view, where the industries are growing, what kind of region they are growing, and they go in a specific customer by customers, and in order to deliver a strong value proposition that meets the. This is something really normal. What you are hearing is basically the same thing that anyone can tell you, but the detail and the deepness of the execution of this strategy has create that customers are preferring us, and that is allowing us to lead the wholesale, the commercial industry and continue growing.
We feel very proud of the achievement. We are working heavily to maintain that leadership, trying to be really close and deliver all the customer needs. I don't know if that is the secret thing, but that is what the commercial team is doing. It's, we feel very proud about that. Sergio, you want to address the other one? No? Or Jose. Excuse me, Jose?
Yes. Good morning, Jorge. Regarding the margin, you saw that we had a 7 basis point increase quarter-over-quarter. We finished the first quarter at 2.97%. I think for 2026, we expect to be right around 3%, a little bit above 3%, a few basis points. We expect to continue to have margin expand, not at the same rate that we've seen the last several quarters, especially with, you know, rates not expected to come down the rest of the year. We'll, we will continue to see some modest margin expansion. As I said, we expect to be in the low 3% range, right around 3% this year.
As far as fees, a lot of the fee growth is as a result of Project Win and cross-selling. Obviously we've been doing very well in Treasury management. Whenever we bring in a new client, talk about a new loan, we wanna make sure we have a full relationship, and we cross-sell Treasury management. We've been doing very well with our loan growth in terms of swap fees as well. We brought in a new person about a year ago in order to lead our sales efforts for back-to-back loan swaps, and that has resulted in additional swap fee income we've been able to recognize. We've also been very active in wealth management.
Our wealth management fees continue to increase. It's no one thing, it's a several items that we've been focused on that we've deployed last year or a couple of years ago, such as the origination and sale of SBA loans, that has also been very successful for us. We've also restructured our bank-owned life insurance, as you may recall, back in 2024, and that has also helped increase our non-interest income. It's been a several things that we've been working on in order to expand our fee income and we're expect fee income to increase roughly 9%-10% year-over-year.
Thank you, Jose. Jorge, are we done? I hope so.
Yes. Thank you.
All right. Perfect. Thank you very much. We have time for Thank you, Jorge. We have time for The last question is coming from Yuri Fernandes from JPMorgan. Yuri, go ahead, please.
Hey, guys. I was able to unmute myself now. Thank you. I just going to say thank you to José Luis. It has been a great partnership in those many years. José Luis will be missed. Thank you for all the road shows, we're taking cabs in San Francisco. Many good stories in New York, taking drinks. Thank you a lot. Also Andrés, good luck to Roberto for this. I have a questions on ingresos por intereses, the UF gap for banks. When I look to BCI here on the CMF, there is a one outlier here, another peer that had, like, a very good strong results on UF, but you are doing almost three times some of your peers on the large bank side.
My question is, what should we expect now that inflation is moving higher in Chile, if the bank is widening the gap for UF? When we try to estimate just the delta of UF versus the results, it implies that your gap is getting wider. If you can comment on how should we expect the second Q, the third Q, what is the strategy of the company to likely benefit from higher inflation in Chile? Thank you.
Thank you, Yuri. I will miss the drinks too. Yuri, we have a gap that basically 100 basis point inflation impact around $50 million in the profit and loss statement, the unexpected inflation. We are seeing that the next couple of especially this quarter that is coming will have a significant impact in our margin and I mean the financial margin and the net income. That is basically what's going on, is 100 basis point unexpected inflation has $ 50 million in net income. That is basically what we are seeing. April has a lot of inflation, May too, so April and May will be reflected in the net income.
Thank you, José Luis. With that, we conclude this conference call. Again, José Luis, thank you very much for everything. You know, we know. Guys, next conference call will be with Roberto Pulido here. Again, thank you very much. Have a good one, and see you next time.
Thank you very much.