Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Banco Itaú Chile fourth quarter 2025 financial results conference call. This presentation and the first Q 2025 earnings release are available on our investor relations website. During the company's presentation, all microphones will be disabled. Later, we'll begin the Q&A section. To ask questions on audio, click on Raise Hand and state your name and company. You will then receive a request to activate your microphone. Please activate your microphone to ask your question. For questions in written form, just cue the question in the Q&A button. Please be aware that your company name should be visible for your question to be taken. I would now like to turn the conference over to Matías Valenzuela, Head of Planning and Corporate Strategy. Please, Mr. Matías, you may proceed.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our first quarter 2025 conference call. My name is Matías Valenzuela, Head of Planning and Corporate Strategy at Itaú Chile. I'm here today with our CEO, André Gailey, our CFO, Emiliano Muratore, and our Chief Economist, Andrés Pérez. We are pleased to present our results for the first quarter of 2025. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this presentation may include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those discussed. I would also like to draw your attention to the financial information presented in the management discussion and analysis, which is based on our managerial model. This model adjusts for non-recurring events and applies internal criteria to present our income statement in a way that reflects how we manage the business.
Since the second quarter of 2019, we have been presenting our income statement in the same format we use internally. This approach allow us to analyze and discuss our performance across four key dimensions, commercial performance, financial risk management, credit risk management, and cost efficiency. We believe this model offers a clearer and more consistent view of our financial performance. For more details, please refer to pages 14 to 17 of our report. With that, I will now turn it over to our CEO, André Gailey, to continue the presentation. Good morning, André.
Hi, everyone. Good morning, and thank you for joining us. As you can see on the slide, the message this quarter is simple. First, our people focus culture continues to power the franchise. Ipsos once again ranked us number one in corporate segment customer satisfaction, complementing our leading position with individual clients. During the quarter, Great Place to Work also named us the top two workplace in Chile. When our teams feel engaged, our clients feel it too, and that connection underpins everything we do. Second, risk is under tight control. We have fully adopted Itaú Unibanco's portfolio management model in our consumer book, giving us sharper data and earlier warning signals. The result, our consolidated cost of risk held at just 1% for the quarter, a level that clearly differentiates us in today's market.
Third, the market's rewarding our discipline in risk and capital management on top of our consistent profitability. Feller Rate upgraded us. ICR shifted its outlook to positive. Our latest wholesale funding transactions are already pricing at yields in line with our top local peers. Lower funding costs is strengthening our balance sheet and our capability to support clients. Finally, profitability is gaining momentum. Return on tangible equities reached 14.8% in Chile and 12.4% at the group level. Our first quarter 2025 marks our highest recurring net income in the last 10 quarters. In Colombia, we posted a fourth consecutive quarter of positive ROE, confirming that the turnaround there is firmly on track. A strong culture, disciplined risk management, better market perception, and consistent earnings position us well for the rest of the year.
With that, I will hand the call to Andrés Pérez to discuss the macro outlook for Chile and Colombia. Thank you, everyone. Obrigado. [Foreign language]
Good morning, everyone. In this slide, first, I will provide some very brief remarks on the recent macro dynamics in Chile and also the outlook. The recent surge in global policy uncertainty following abrupt and widespread tariffs in the United States poses challenges for a small, open, and financially integrated economy such as Chile. With the situation remaining fluid, even if trade tensions dissipate, elevated policy uncertainty may dent domestic private sentiment, investment, and activity dynamics in Chile. Even though activity surprised somewhat to the upside in the first quarter of this year, we reduced our GDP growth forecast for this year and next to 2.2% and 1.8% respectively, due to slower growth in Chile's major trading partners and the expected effects of policy uncertainty. We also expect a somewhat faster disinflation path, mainly driven by lower oil prices.
In this context, we now expect the Central Bank of Chile to resume its easing cycle in the third quarter of this year, ending the year at 4.5% and further down to 4% by early next year. This is the center of the central bank's nominal neutral range. Moving on to the next slide. In the first quarter of this year, inflation remained high, yet has been in line with expectations while the central bank kept the policy rate unchanged at 5% in nominal terms, along with a neutral bias in its forward guidance. By the end of March, the financial industry's loans posted a 12-month growth of 2.7%, demand deposits grew by 2.6%, and time deposits grew by 0.3%. Now moving on to the next slide, discussing Colombia.
Despite favorable domestic demand dynamics at the start of the year, we revised our 2025 GDP growth forecast down slightly to 2% and to 2.3% for 2026, mainly driven by changes in our global scenario, including lower oil prices, reduced growth in the U.S., and tighter than expected domestic monetary policy. In the context of elevated global policy uncertainty, high inflation, and above target inflation expectations, the policy rate is expected to remain well above neutral throughout the course of this year. We expect Banrep, the Central Bank of Colombia, to take the policy rate to 8.25% by year-end and 7.5% by the end of 2026. Moving on to the next slide, the macro outlook in Colombia. Now for a quick overview of the scenario in Colombia in the first quarter of 2025.
High-frequency data suggests economic activity during the first few months of the quarter has been picking up slightly, roughly at a 2% annual pace. Inflation remained high and resumed a gradual decline. In this context, the Central Bank of Colombia kept the policy rate at 9.5% in the quarter, well above the central bank's nominal neutral estimate. Now, Emiliano Muratore, our CFO, will continue the presentation. Good morning, Emiliano.
Thank you, Andrés. Good morning, everyone. Before I begin, I'd like to let you know that my voice in this presentation has been generated using artificial intelligence. We hope this enhances clarity and also gives you a small glimpse into how we are incorporating AI across different areas and activities within our bank. Let me begin with an overview of our loan portfolio for the quarter. This quarter, the industry continues to see a slow 12-month loans growth of 2.7%. In this context, our total loans decreased by 0.9% in 12 months on the back of a 5.3% decrease in the commercial portfolio, 0.8% decrease in consumer portfolio, and 7.6% increase in mortgages. In terms of our loans this quarter, I would like to draw attention to our consumer portfolio.
Consumer share in our mix of loans increased by 2.6 percentage points year-over-year, with a healthier profile as a result of our risk management strategy. In the last quarter of the year, consumer NPLs decreased by 0.1 percentage points, while cost of risk rate decreased more than 5 percentage points in the quarter. We can say that the portfolio is also healthier, with a 12-month to March increase of 2.9% in new loans with a better risk profile and a decrease in refinanced and renegotiated loans by 15.7% and 23.0% respectively. This is a result of our risk management model, which is actively contributing to improving our portfolio's risk profile. I would now like to highlight the strength of our risk management.
In January this year, the regulatory standard model for consumer provisions issued by the CMF went into effect. We saw readjustments in consumer provisions across the board in the industry in order to comply with the new standard. At Itaú, we are proud to say that the implementation of the new standard did not affect the amount of consumer provisions we had. This shows that our internal risk matrix is aligned with the regulatory framework, and ultimately that at Itaú Chile, one of our differentiating factors is our strong risk management. Now moving on. By March, we continued to show an outstanding 12-month growth in demand deposits and in assets under management compared to the banking industry. Our assets under management grew 1.8 x faster than the banking industry, implying an 82 basis points increase in our market share.
Our demand deposits grew 3.3% faster than the industry in the last 12 months, a 35 basis points increase in our market share. This growth shows that our strategy to deepen the relationship with our clients continues paying off. Our time deposits decreased by 12.1% in the last 12 months, which is consistent to the rates movements in the period. Turning now to our key highlights for the quarter. In the first quarter of 2025, we once again showcased a sustained positive trend in our margin with clients, despite the decline in the average MPR in the period. We also highlight the improvement in our cost of credit in the quarter. If we sum up both indicators, we will see a net margin with clients growing by 0.8 percentage points since the first quarter of 2024.
We also highlight the higher level of income from commissions and fees year- over- year, with a 20.3% growth compared to the first quarter of 2024, positively affected by the results of the deployment of our principal strategy. Without the impact of inorganic effects such as the FCIC, we see our return on tangible equity returning to more normalized levels in 2025, showing an improvement of 300 basis points compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 and reaching 14.8%. On the next slide, we highlight several developments from the quarter that reflect the progress we're making across key dimensions of our strategy. We're pleased to share that our local credit risk rating was recently upgraded to AAA by Feller Rate, and that ICR Chile improved the outlook of our rating from stable to positive.
These upgrades reflect the sustainability of our results, the strength of our capital management, and the consistency in our execution. We also made important strides in our sustainability agenda. This quarter, we financed an $80 million loan to CAP for the acquisition of a desalination plant powered by renewable energy. This transaction marks the first blue-labeled loan in Chile linked to specific commitments to marine biodiversity preservation. Additionally, we were included in the 2025 Sustainability Yearbook by S&P Global, ranking among the top 15% in our industry. Lastly, in terms of client experience, we were once again recognized as the number one bank in Net Promoter Score for the corporate segment according to Servitest by Ipsos for the second consecutive year, a clear endorsement of our focus on delivering value to our clients.
For a summary of our main consolidated indicators in the quarter, we can see in the following slide that. Our consolidated recurring net income reached CLP 108.9 billion, totaling a return on tangible equity of 12.4%. Our financial margin with clients reached CLP 333 billion. Our commissions and fees totaled CLP 51 billion. Cost of credit reached CLP 75.2 billion. In terms of credit portfolio, it reached 22.9 trillion Chilean pesos in Chile and 4.4 trillion Chilean pesos in Colombia. Let's now move to the next slide, where we see that our financial margin with clients posted a decrease of 1.4% quarter-over-quarter and an increase of 1.6% year-over-year.
This quarter, the main variables impacting the financial margin with clients were the lower dynamism in loan growth, mainly in the commercial portfolio activity, the lower number of accrual days in the quarter, the lower value of the average monetary policy rate, and positive results in derivatives management and client foreign exchange transactions, primarily related to Itaú corporate operations. In the yearly comparison, it is worth mentioning that the increase in the margin with clients was supported by the enhancement in self-financing through the growth in the deposits portfolio, which goes in line with our strategy.
On the next slide, we can see that in the first quarter of the year, the financial margin with the market showed an improvement of 408% compared to the previous quarter, driven by higher results in the management of rates and FX from the trading desk, lower financing costs through term deposits, and positive results in the management of the fixed income portfolio. The financial margin with the market decreased in the year-on-year comparison. We highlight that in the first and second quarters of 2024, we still had the impact of the FCIC. I would also like to mention that we have a low sensitivity to inflation due to the high level of match between our funding and our loans in line with our robust risk management.
In the next slide, we show that our commissions and fees had an increase of 20.3% year-over-year, mainly due to higher income from non-credit commissions, driven by the 43.5% growth in our assets under management, which represents 16.5% of our total commissions. We also see better results in credit cards and cash management levered by our commercial focus on growing in transactional products. Likewise, the results of credit and contingent operations as well as advisory services continue to grow despite the slowdown in loan growth driven by our commercial efforts. In the quarterly comparison, we see a 2.2% decrease, mainly due to a decrease of 28.9% in credit card fees.
This movement is a result of one-off results recorded in the previous quarter that are related to the bank's commercial strategy regarding the new value offer of this product. This is offset by a 118.9% increase in contingent operations activity and cash management. This performance reflects the success of our principal strategy and our focus on delivering value-added services to our clients. In the following slide, we can see that our risk management strategy is paying off. Our cost of credit decreased by 14.2% quarter-over-quarter and 27.2% year-over-year, reaching a cost of credit to loans ratio of 1%. That means we are now at the lower range of our guidance for cost of credit in 2025.
This improvement is mainly due to the stability and the quality of the commercial loan portfolio and to the better performance of the consumer portfolio, which shows an NPL reduction of 4.7% compared to last quarter. In the charts at the bottom of the page, we once again show that we have a strong risk management with consumer NPLs decreasing faster than our peers in the banking industry since the second half of 2024 and with a lower risk ratio in the consumer portfolio compared to the banking industry. We had no impacts by the implementation in January of the regulatory standard model for consumer provisions, which affected the market across the board as our internal model was already aligned with the regulatory model, which shows the soundness and stability resulting from our risk management.
By the end of the quarter, our coverage ratio reached 145%. This is a reduction of 8 percentage points quarter-over-quarter, driven mainly by a decrease in commercial loans provisions and a reduction of 8 percentage points year-over-year, driven mainly by the reduction in the NPL portfolio. Now moving on to operational expenses. In the next slide, we show that our operational expenses growth continues to grow less than the inflation. Also, in comparison with the previous quarter, we show a reduction in all lines of operational expenses.
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, we see a 9.9% growth in operational expenses, which is mainly due to a 6.6% increase in personnel expenses, which was driven by inflation, by a 0.6% growth in headcount, and by seasonality, and a 15.5% increase in administrative expenses driven by higher expenses in marketing and IT and losses due to external fraud. Let's now move on to the next slide to have an overview of the performance of our operation in Colombia this quarter. In the context of general decline in credit demand, restrictive monetary policy factors, and fiscal challenges in Colombia, we see a decreasing trend of credit activity, and we are deploying a targeted and selective approach to sustainable growth and maintenance of portfolio quality.
In Colombia, we see that the financial margin with clients decreased by 2.1% quarter-over-quarter and 15.3% year-over-year. This decline is mainly due to the effect of the lower growth of the loan portfolio. However, the performance of the rate of financial margin with clients remains stable and consistent with the trend in interest rates. Cost of credit in Itaú Colombia increased by 68.3% quarter-over-quarter as a result of lower recoveries and 20.4% year-over-year, considering one-off recoveries in the first quarter of 2024. The cost of credit measured as a rate registered an increase in first quarter 2025. However, it is below the 2024 average, isolating the effects of extraordinary recoveries in the previous periods.
The efficiency ratio in Colombia reached 71.8%, an 11.7 percentage points decrease in the year-over-year comparison, driven by an overall decrease in expenses and a 2.4% improvement in operating revenues. In the quarter-over-quarter comparison, efficiency ratio increased by 2.8 percentage points. All this considered, the return on equity in Colombia in the first quarter of 2025 reached 2.9%, a 2.4 percentage points decrease compared to the previous quarter, and an increase of 4.4 percentage points year-over-year. In the next slide, we show that Itaú Colombia maintains robust capital and liquidity ratios in comparison to its peers and the banking industry. Moving on to the next slide, we show that we reached the top two position in solvency levels among peers with the largest organic capital generation in the peer group.
Our transitional CET1 ratio has increased during the last quarter by 40 basis points, achieving 11.3%, while our peer group decreased by 23 basis points. In February, we have issued an additional $100 million AT1 bond. The impact of this AT1 in our Tier 1 ratio is of approximately 32 basis points. Our liquidity ratios are also well-positioned among peers and significantly above regulatory limits in line with our risk appetite and funding strategy. The following slide illustrates the performance of Itaú Chile's stock adjusted for dividends since January 2024 compared to our main peers. We can see that the price of our stock has been trending positively during the period, being one of the stocks with the most outstanding growth. However, it is still trading with a lower price to book value compared to our peers.
Moving on to the next slide to refer to our guidance. In the first quarter of the year, we saw a loan growth that is below the guidance for the year. Regardless, we still see recovery in the second half of the year. Financial margin with clients stood above the guidance in the quarter. Commissions, non-interest expenses, and ROTE are on track. With respect to cost of credit, we can see that in the first quarter, we stayed in the lower bound of the guidance. Based on this, we are updating our guidance for cost of credit, narrowing the range to 1%-1.2% from a previous range of 1%-1.3% due to the better expected performance of our portfolio and our selective growth. With that, we conclude the presentation that we have for you today.
Thank you for your attention and continued trust in Itaú Chile. We will now gladly take any questions that you might have.
Thank you. We are now open for questions. To ask questions on audio, click on Raise Hand and state your name and company. You will then receive a request to activate your microphone. To ask questions in written form, just queue your question in the Q&A button. Please be aware that your company name should be visible for a question to be taken. Wait while we pull for questions. Our first question comes from Alonso Aramburú. Please, Mr. Aramburú, your microphone is open.
Yes. Hi, good morning, and thank you for the call. A couple of questions on my end. First, if you can give us some color about your tax rate. It's been fairly low the last couple of quarters. What should we expect the rest of the year, and what's driving this low effective tax rate? Whether you consider this level of taxes for your return on equity expectations. Second, I mean, you mentioned expectations of ROE or ROTE, I believe for Chile. What are your expectations for ROE in Colombia for this year? Thank you.
Hi, Alonso. Thank you for your question. Regarding tax rate, yes, as you can see, we have been, let's say, paying a lower tax rate, mainly for two reasons. First, inflation, which is the more structural part that inflation has been slowing down slower than expected, and that has created a lower tax rate. Also, part of the treatment, the tax treatment for the bonds portfolio that according to the Chilean regulation has the tax benefits that it's implying some kind of lower tax rate. That it's, let's say, a more structural part of the tax rate going forward.
Having said that, we still hope b ecause remember that also we have the structural part, which is our equity investment in Colombia, that for tax purposes is in dollar terms, and so that's in terms of translation to pesos, give us a higher equity for tax purposes, and that creates higher tax shield than competitors. Having said that, we expect tax rate to trail back to the high teens area in the near future, maybe closer to the 15 to 16 and in the long term, trailing back to the 18%-20% tax rate, effective tax rate. I give it to André Gailey to comment on our way forward for Colombia.
Hi. Good morning. In Colombia, we are doing some efficiency initiatives, and we expect, as I mentioned in the last call, some extraordinary expenses related to such efficiency initiatives.
Expecting ROE without those efficiencies between 3% and 5%, and with those efficiencies it might be a negative ROE, but with a very positive outlook looking forward.
Thank you. Just as a reminder, once again, if you wish to ask a question, please click on Raise Hand button, or if you want to ask written questions, use the Q&A button. We will pull for questions. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, use the Raise Hand button or type it down on the Q&A field. Since there are no further questions, this does conclude the Q&A section. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back to Emiliano Muratore for any closing remarks. Please, Mr. Emiliano, you may proceed.
Thank you again, everyone, for joining us today, and we look forward to speaking to you again soon.
Thank you. This does conclude today's presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.