Ladies and gentlemen, may I welcome everyone cordially. My name is Dominik Prokop. I represent the Investor Relations Department. This is a conference devoted to results of the fourth quarter, as well as the whole of 2025. The first part of the meeting will be devoted to the results of the bank, as well as the trends, and this will be headed by the President, Piotr Żabski, who will sum up the most important trends and will tell us about the results in the business area. We will have also Marcin Ciszewski, who will present the risk, and Deputy President, Zdzisław Wojtera, who will tell us about finance. After the presentations, we will then have a Q&A session.
Before I hand over to President Żabski, let me encourage all of you who are listening to us to ask questions already in the first part of the presentation, which will enable us to smoothly continue with the Q&A. That is all from me. I hand over to President Żabski.
Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. May I welcome everyone cordially at the results publication. The Supervisory Board approved our financial statement yesterday, so we can tell you about what has happened in the fourth quarter of 2025, but also in the whole of 2025. There will be a lot of figures devoted both to the fourth quarter and the whole of the year.
It is a special moment for us because this is the first full year when we can present the results which we had forecast and delivered, which you will see in a moment. It's also a very good stage for our development. We are in the new headquarters of our bank. There was a move to the new headquarters in September, this is the first conference in this new, beautiful headquarters, Warsaw Tower. Moving on to the bank results, let me point to some important aspects. In the fourth quarter, as far as revenues are concerned, we had a very good result, almost PLN 1.5 billion revenues. PLN 1.26 billion is an interest income, which is by 4% less year-on-year. If you compare the quarters...
The commission income is very good, PLN 240 million, which is by 9% higher than the fourth quarter of the previous year. The revenues of the whole year reached PLN 6 billion for 2025, which was focused in our strategy. There was a great contribution in the new sales. The interest income is PLN 5.13 billion, a 1% drop year-on-year. Obviously, there was a drop in interest rates, and that translates into this decreased results. The commission income for 2025 is by 4% higher and translates into PLN 900 million.
Net profit in the fourth quarter is PLN 688 million, by 12% higher than the previous quarter, the previous year's quarter, so quarter-on-quarter, and PLN 2.35 billion net profit for 2025, which is a decrease by 3%, which we consider a good result, considering the interest rate drops. This was delivered in very high ROE ratios, 21.7% in the fourth quarter and 19.6% for the whole of 2025. We forecast 18%, if you may remember. In the lower left-hand corner, a number of good details. We continue the drop trajectory in our cost of risk ratios and the drop in our NPL ratio. The cost of risk, quarter-on-quarter, is below 1 percentage point.
0.30 percent points drop for 2025. Another good year when we improved the ratios there. The NPL ratio today is a very important element of our dividend decision. That is 5.64%. Our promise in the strategy is therefore continued. We plan to go down below 5% of the NPL ratio. We will hear later about the significance of that particular drop. As far as customer relations are concerned, we keep growing. The relational customers are now 1.7 million. We kept selling more, but we had a considerable churn, which will later be commented upon. There were individual promotional activities finished, and some of the customers moved to other banks. We put a lot of stress on relational customers, and we grew there by 107 thousand customers.
As for mobile app users, there was a considerable growth, the fastest growth in the sector, 17%. There was an improvement in our application, we were able to offer it as a product to the customers at a more professional level. The sales, which were considerable and improved our results, was PLN 8 billion in the fourth quarter 2025, which was an increase of 12% year-on-year. In the whole of 2025, there was a growth of 17%. Together with the leasing sales, it was about 20%, which is very good because our promise of growth is therefore materializing. What is also crucial is how to deal with the churn, but that is the task for this current year.
There's been a growth in the deposit portfolio, grew alongside the market at the level of about 7% year-on-year. The value of our portfolio at the end of the year was PLN 82.6 billion. What is worth noting is that it's been a very good quarter in early leasing, the fourth quarter. The whole of the year was good as far as the leasing activity is concerned. For the business customer, the leasing product is our flagship product, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. PLN 7.2 billion is the portfolio, which is 9% growth year-on-year. In the fourth quarter, we had 14% growth year-on-year. We are not present in all the segments, mind you, so this is especially good in that context.
Now, a few bits of information which may be new to you. What is of paramount importance? We are now part of the top tier as far as finances are concerned. We are above PLN 100 billion, which is a growth of 9% of our assets year-on-year. The working loans translates into 5.5% growth and a 7% growth in deposits, which is PLN 82.6 billion. As I already mentioned, PLN 1.1 billion in assets. As for our other figures, we show you in the first line, the fourth quarter, compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year. Cost-income ratio, around 38% annually and quarterly, the costs have grown. Zdzisław will refer to that later.
As for the NIM ratio, in the fourth quarter, the lower interest rate translates into this result. We have 5.38% level. As for ROE, we already mentioned a very good result above our strategic forecast. As for cost of risk, 0.29% and 0.49% for the whole of the year. There's been an improvement in each of these indices. As for the capital, we are at the level where we can be confident in developing our scale and the NPL, 5.64%, so our promise has been delivered. We want to be a dividend bank. We want to be able to pay even more than 50% of our income, but we would have to go below 5%. Marcin will tell you about that later.
Now, a few words about the customer side. 107,000 new customers, 240,000 mobile app new users. About 5% of the mobile app users are banking with us. We are catching up on the slightly worse results in the previous stages in a very dynamic way. Now, a few words about what is happening on the deposit side. This is top left-hand corner. The structure of our assets of retail customers is presented there. There's been a growth of 13% across the year in all the constituent parts of this portfolio, which makes us very happy. We're happy to see the investment funds growth, because this is a considerable part of our commission revenue. Investments, as you can see, are also going up.
On the right-hand side, you can see the gross loans to retail customers divided into the consumer loans and the real estate loans, both the guaranteed and non-guaranteed ones. In the fourth quarter, you can see that there was almost a parity as regards both the guaranteed and non-guaranteed loans, with an increase on the side of the real estate loans, the longer tenor, guaranteed loans, but with lower risk and greater markup. We are slightly changing the product mix in our portfolio in the direction of the better products with the lower levels of risk. At the bottom, you can see the loans which are shown in the dark red color on the top slide. There's been a growth of 40% in the non-mortgage loans to retail customers.
That is the growth of sales, not of the portfolio. The both parts, the cash loans and the consumer finance, behave according to our forecasts. What I would like to comment on is the right-hand side bottom corner, the growth in the mortgage loans, 36% growth of sales year-over-year. If you consider that 2024 saw 1/4, as far as I remember, of the sales under BK 2, if we decrease that, then the increase would be almost twofold. We increased the sales by 100% and we keep growing it quarter-on-quarter. Our share is higher than it would seem from the analysis of our share in the whole of the loans balance in the sector. What I mentioned previously is the importance of the mobile customer. We have a new application, which is going very smoothly.
It does not crash, there is easy access to all the features. There's been a great improvement there. The assessment of the customers is very positive, as you can see, so we are improving the as far as the application is concerned. As regards the business customer, let me focus on this. Now, in the top left-hand corner, you can see that there's been a drop by 5% in the portfolio size, but a few words of explanation are in order. In this particular portfolio, we have the micro segment and small, medium-sized, and large companies. As for the micro sector, this will keep growing because we have the largest NPL ratio there, and we have to get rid of that portfolio, which we are doing step by step. This part is decreasing, definitely.
The difference, as regards the sales, is about 32% drop year-on-year. At the same time, we keep improving in the segments where we are a good player, where we are confident and competent in the medium, small and medium-sized enterprise. There's been a growth of 32% there. If you consider that we are getting rid of what's in the top right-hand corner of the non-working, non-performing portfolio, then if you put all these together, plus the new sales, which has grown by 14%, has not yet translated into the growth of the whole portfolio. In the middle of that portfolio, there are all kinds of things happening, sometimes contradictory.
In different segments, different things are happening, but we hope that the trend will reverse, and the small and medium-sized companies is not the segment where we will see the huge increases, which in previous stages saw an increased level of risk. This time has passed.
For our business customers, they've got their deposits here, a 3% increase year on year. We are especially happy about the fact that the new system that we have launched, as far as our IT is concerned, very much focused on our mobile app, has been taken advantage of vastly by our customers. Our customers do their banking online in digital channels, which is something that make us very content. Now, leasing is our response to the needs of micro customers. Also, given the fact that the banking sector may also ensure funding to micro companies that have been there for over two years, leasing is a very nice response, 9% increase year on year. As far as the sales go, 13%, quarter four, four to three and 14%.
This portfolio has increased by 9 percentage points. We do not play on all the segments. We only service, we have a promising sector, that is, the light vehicles is not our specialization. Machinery and heavy-duty vehicles is where we have most competence. This is where we keep growing, and this is our response, manifesting how we can securely grow in the business sector. Much for a very short commentary to rather general results of our bank. Now, Marcin will tell you more about the risks.
Piotr, thank you very much indeed. I welcome you all. What is our capital standing of the bank? It is very safe and sound. In T1 and TCR, the ratios are 17.73%, which makes us having a nice buffer, the regulatory minimums. This gets translated in PLN into PLN 4.8 billion. We are very consistent in our under rations. We issue further installments of bonds. The year was closed at 21.43%, 257 basis points higher compared to the regulatory minimum that is imposed on the Alior Bank Group. For the liquidity indicators, long-term and short-term liquidity ratios are equally safe and sound, exceeding regulatory minimums at a safe level, 245% and 49% for the other ratio.
As Piotr has already told you, our assessment is this: We very much comply with the requirements that enable to have a distribution of 50%, but dividend, and we are awaiting other orders, no decisions that regard have been taken as of now. To make a reference to what Piotr has said already, this slide comes to reflect the way we manage risk, both with regard to CoR as well as NPL ratio. CoR was standing at 0.49%. This is yet another period, consecutive period, we have been dropping this particular index. Please pay attention, this index is very much impacted by the sales of other portfolios, like not performing loans. This is one of constituents that is taken advantage of as far as cleaning the portfolio is concerned.
We do clean it in terms of sales, at the same time, we have managed to maintain our directional CoR, that we have otherwise shaped the level not exceeding 0.8%. As I have already said, we are very much pursuing our strategy, our operations, which targets at non-performing ratio at a level below 5% threshold. Our strategy says this particular ratio towards the end of the year will get below the 5% level. We keep pursuing this path, and we will manage to decrease the said index below the level of 5% beyond the by the end of this year. Gradual improvement of the quality of the loan portfolio, PLN 3.6 billion, that's the final value of the year.
As we discussed at our previous conference, towards the end of Q3, we had one substantial default in our sector of business customers. But in spite of, in spite of all that factor, there's been a further decrease of normal performing loans. NPL ratio for retail customers, well, it stands at a very, very confident level, especially when it comes to business customers are concerned. Still, there is a lot of work to be done in the micro segment because that respective index is still two-digit. On your right-hand side, top of the page, we can see what was happening Q3 and Q4. NPLs sale affected significantly the level in Q3 and Q4, respectively.
You may want to see the level of CoR, which has been generated on our end without one-offs. That would be relevant to mention. Now, Zdzisław will take the floor.
Thanks a lot. Now, it is my turn to discuss the financial results. Let us first look at our revenue side. Between 2024 and 2023, 1% drop, PLN 49 million. We have managed to do very well in the environment of decreasing interest rates and significant costs. Very well indeed, because the revenues are well comparable between 2024 as well as 2025. A commentary from Piotr on the development of our business volumes made us capable of compensating the decrease of interest rates by the growth of business.
Let us now have a look at our growth. There is a drop of 3%, yet these quantities are well comparable between 2024 and 2025. We must consider three factors indeed. One of them being interest rates cuts. Secondly, PFG cost decreasing, and third of all, a one-off event. That is, tax asset. The impact of the revaluation of the net tax asset, I will discuss it further. quarter four, 2024, 2025. If we put them all together, in 2024, we accounted the costs from the whole 2024, whereas as regards 2025, I will show it to you in the next slides, we cared that there is a linear growth materializing. This basically explains the difference of 13% between quarter four, 2024, when compared to quarter four of 2025.
Let me discuss in detail our income statement. The first column that you see marked in yellow, these are quarterly results, which have already been well commented by Piotr. Please bear in mind a stable interest result. There's been a stability, because in quarter three already, we had reflected all the impact of the interest rate cuts. Two reserve positions that I would like to comment on. One, concerning free of charge credit sanctions. There's been a reserve in quarter three. The difference is the outcome of the change of the quantity of cases that come in, and also a model approach is taken into consideration. This isn't troubling by any means. Another position, PLN 50 million.
Costs of risk of mortgages in foreign currencies, that is in Euro. EUR 50,151,000 in the whole of 2025. We are straining every senior for all both these positions. That is the sanctions and mortgages in foreign currencies to be manifesting a conservative stance, so that the whole of the risk gets reflected in the relevant manner. We had 110 more court cases. That's been a growth in this respect. This isn't significant, however. I wouldn't expect any increase in current year. I suspect we should talk about the quantities that will be lower when compared to 2025 as regards the reserve. Tax assets, that is income tax, there's been a substantial difference, especially if you pay attention to in Q3 and Q4.
Here, there's been a plus, paradoxically enough. There's been a discussion on that by other colleagues of mine. There's been the introduction of a Bank Tax as of January this year. Therefore, we must do other estimates based on another interest rate, PLN 9.5 million on the plus side, that was accounted for in quarter three. Yearly results are pretty solid on the interest rates side and loans side. Marcin was already speaking about that. Net, PLN 2.337 billion is a very solid closing of the year, including all the factors that Piotr was speaking at length about. Now, let me move on to yet another look at our costs and interest cost.
This comes as no surprise, especially if you consider the medium part of the graph. Our quarterly statements manifest a decrease of 10%, stemming from lower interest rates, 22% on the side of the interest costs. By and large, it gets reflected in the increase of our margin, interest rate margin. It used to be 6%, now it got lower to 5.38%. Please note the impact of the lowest interest rates. That is one factor. There is also another factor that is a changing structure of our statement, which is the product of us selling other products, that is, mortgages.
If we get back in time, mortgages, given interest rates, reality, well, the margin was pretty high, but the mortgages are being sold more dynamically. They've got other profit characteristics, and therefore, the margin has been a little bit more sluggish. The margin is very impactful as regards the margin that you will get to see in Q4 2025, on the one hand. On the other hand, if you have a long-term perspective, we are building up a very stable portfolio for revenues in the longer time horizon for the bank. The whole banking industry has been learning lessons around the issue of mortgages. This has been included in our contracts and all the clauses which are relevant.
This is precisely how we wanted to mirror also the guidelines of the Polish Financial Supervisory Authority. Our portfolio is this. It is looking into a longer time horizon. My take is, it is a very positive trend. The very interest rate, the very interest rate profit, it has dropped by 2%. Also, take into consideration the credit allocation that happened in 2024. It is by no way surprising, because this is clearly our response to the result of interest rates, given that dropping of the interest rates.
Now, about commission, as you look at the first quarter and results concerning the first quarter, there were questions about whether this would not be our Achilles heel and whether we will manage in the subsequent quarters. We said, "Yes, we will want to improve it." Here you can see the result of our activities. If you take year-on-year results, you see that there's been an improvement by 9% in the commission income. The source of that income is also important. It stems from the activity of retail customers and the activity of customers who use different products of Alior Bank, also the brokerage commission, which stems from the activity of our customers, the development of our TFI participation in investment funds, the individual advisory services to customers.
All this has translated into these improvements. These activities will certainly be continued. There's been a stabilization of operating expenses in 2025. We are quite happy that we've managed to optimize the operating costs of the bank. If we deduct the BFG costs and focus on the Alior Bank internal costs, the costs have grown by 5%, which is below what I had communicated a few quarters before. We talked about 6%-7%. We've managed to keep it at the level of 5%, so that's a very good result. Another important element, which I want to draw your attention to, and which was also forecast by us, we wanted the growth to be foreseeable and comparable, and we've delivered that aspect. If you look at the first quarter, we see a one-off BFG cost there.
There was a one-off event which affected the raise, but other positions are quite well comparable, and we will keep maintaining the cost discipline so that they can be compared quarter to quarter. I am convinced that we'll be able to continue with that in 2026, and we want to have the rise of costs even below the 5%. The cost-income ratio is very good, 37.9%, and the quarterly ratio and 39% in the annual result. That is also a good indicator for the development and for the cost structure of Alior Bank. I hand over to Piotr.
Thank you, gentlemen. Just to sum it up, I would like to say that our business agenda, the one that we've addressed in our strategy, is working according to our expectations. We announced three pillars in our strategy, and that we want to focus on, and they are connected strongly to the development of the bank. The first one is the growth of scale, entering the top tier, PLN 100 billion. A leader in consumer finance. We are definitely a leader there. No one is ahead of us as yet. We keep growing in relationship customers. That's our focus, 107,000 new customers. There's been a certain level of churn, which we are struggling with, but the rise in the transactional RORs, a record growth in sales by 17%. If we divide the BFG, it's almost 20% of growth, especially driven by the consumer, by the mortgage loans. Deposits are growing, so the scale is materializing, and the figures speak for themselves.
The second pillar is the high resilience. I want to focus on the change of structure of our balance sheet. We go toward long-term loans, which are guaranteed, rather than the non-guaranteed, at a lower margin level, they bring a lot of stability to our portfolio. We are not slowing down as far as consumer finance is concerned. We are a leader there. We are experiencing very good sales, high margins, low risks. As far as the business customer is concerned, we keep growing in the segments in which we are confident and competent as far as micro-enterprises are concerned and where we are not able to finance the loans. We have a leasing offer, which is also growing in a very stable way. Coming back to the resilience, the commission result is very good. It keeps growing.
There's also a growth in terms of income from investments, which is seen in the market in general after a certain period of stagnation. We are also more resilient technologically. Our systems have considerably improved compared to the previous periods. The mobile app is very stable. The accessibility of the service remains at a very high level. The third pillar that we mentioned in the strategy is the operational excellence. What I want to stress in this regard, is that we are changing in terms of technologies. We are becoming an advanced, you know, business. We're introducing a new app both on the retail and the business customer side.
We are also developing the Agile model, AI coded, and the whole organization, all the employees of our headquarters, are now able to work in the Agile system, which we have scaled up this year, and we work in the system, which brings concrete results. A very strong cost discipline. After the BFG deduction, the 5% cost growth compared to the whole of the sector, places us in a very good position. The costs are well managed by us in a foreseeable way, even in the quarter-on-quarter results. We don't have the volatility, the ups and downs that we used to have. The risk and the figures that Marcin mentioned speak for themselves. All the graphs and the results show a very good trajectory. There are very good results. We improved the risk situation.
We want to get below the 5% ratio in the NPL, which will allow us to pay out a 75% dividend. We improved the KNF ratios. We are waiting for the individual decision regarding the dividend for 2025. That will take some more time. All this has brought us to the results that we have. The revenue above PLN 6 billion, and net profits, PLN 2.5 billion. Very good indexes of cost to income and cost of risk, and NPL 5.6%. That is all a very good result in the environment of low or definitely lower interest rates. They went down at a faster rate than we forecast.
It means that our business strategy is working, and I want to take this opportunity to thank all the employees for this, for this excellent result, and thank you for the dedication, for the effort, and for working together to develop the Alior value, which we have described to you. That is all as far as the formal side is concerned. I believe we can now move on to the Q&A session.
Thank you very much. We can now start with questions. The first question: What was the impact of the NPL sale on the fourth quarter, 2025?
In the fourth quarter, we recognized a sale of the second important portfolio that was sold in the previous year. In the fourth quarter, the income from that sale was PLN 110 million.
Thank you. The next question to Marcin: What sensitivity to interest rate changes can be expected after 2025? What is the current SOT ratio and the NII sensitivity to a rate cut by 100 points?
Well, as you realize, when interest rates are going down, there is a greater pressure to manage that particular ratio. We assume in our plans, that this particular ratio will be maintained at the regulatory level. At the end of the year, we assume that it will be at the level of 4.5% in T1. As regards the sensitivity, which was mentioned in the question, 100 basis points should have an impact of PLN 120 million.
Thank you very much. The next question about the dynamics of the loan portfolio in 2026. What do you expect, and is there a possibility of an increase in the business sector?
Let me start with the retail customer. We expect a positive dynamic as concerns consumer loans. The increase that we forecast, not necessarily in the installment loans, because there's a trend that we need to grapple with. As far as mortgage loans are concerned, there'll be a definite increase. As far as the corporate sector is concerned, we have sold more year-on-year, but we need to see what's happening within the corporate sector portfolio. I already mentioned that in the micro enterprises, we have a considerable debt to be paid off. In the small and medium-sized companies, we are growing. As far as the leasing sector is concerned, there's a considerable growth of 16% year-on-year.
In the corporate sector, yes, there will be growth, the growth in the sectors where we are a good player. We want to grow in the micro sector as well, but in a safe way, so that we don't experience the kind of crisis that we have as regards risk, and the debt that we keep having paying off, still today. The large deals that are more and more present in the Polish market will certainly see our presence, but considering our scale, this is not our core activity.
Thank you. The question about the free loan sanction, what trends can be expected in the SKD sector? Can we expect that the target reserve level will represent 100%?
Well, I think Zdzisław can comment on that. SKD is a problem of all the sector, including us, of course. We recognize the dynamic and want to reflect it in our reserve structure. Will it be 100%? Well, I don't think that SKD goes the same way that the Swiss franc loans because the regulatory authorities have taken this seriously on board. I believe that the new law, which is being worked on in the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, will not translate into a modus operandi for all kinds of cowboy companies, you know, or legal firms, which are really the real beneficiary for this solution. As far as the reserves are concerned, we want to reflect them in our books.
Indeed, for the model, it is impacted by two factors, and that is the incoming launches and the number of cases that will get lost. The majority of cases, as, is where we are on the winning side. If we look from that perspective, we don't see the need to create any further reserves or to increase thereof in 2026. Our point of assumption is much is going to be determined by the European Court of Justice. We believe that the trends we have spotted already are rather positive, and they have only gotten confirmed in the court adjudications.
Is the bank expecting more the sustaining trend in the currency portfolio?
In 2025, we had a very rather conservative stance, but we don't think, given the number of cases which are coming in, and the recent trends, that we would have to create the same level of reserve. It will be smaller compared to 2025 in the currency.
The question on the value of NPL portfolio, how much of that are balanced positions and non-balanced positions?
As said beforehand, this is one of major components as far as the whole management of NPL goes. I do not have it at hand, however, such details, we do not disclose this kind of data.
Question. The churn of Alior Bank customers, is it in any way different to the market average? If so, what does the difference stem from, and how is the bank planning to manage, to cope with the churn?
Our difference is by no means different to the market average. Our customers, by and large, are not only loyal to one bank only. Most of our customers, except for the youngest ones, have other accounts in other banks, so the churn stays stands where it does. It is by no means satisfactory to us. What I stressed was a certain marketing campaigns that we launched in 2024. They have already been brought to a close, resulting in the outflux of customers. The activity, as I said, was already concluded. What we did in 2025 does not come with this particular risk. The impact was eventually seen in 2024.
Thank you. We will ask another question on the value of the current mortgage currency portfolio. Towards the end of 2024 and 2025, respectively. What are the statistics of the legal action scheme?
Towards the end of 2024, we had CHF 39 million gross value of Swiss franc. Later, a year after, it was only CHF 7 million. The account statement towards 2024 was equivalent to PLN 1.4 billion, whereas towards the end of 2024, it was equivalent to PLN 1.3 billion. Euro mortgages is about PLN 1 billion Polish zlotys. 3% thereof is within a certain legal action. To estimate the reserve, the way we described in our financial statement, our assumption was that the target here for legal disputes, as concerns the Euro mortgages, will be equivalent to 9%.
Thank you very much for that. Another question. On the expected dynamics of the result of the interest rate from commissions, as well as operating costs in the current year.
For the interest rate result, it is quite a challenge to face to make it stable at the level it used to be. We would need to employ a more holistic view in that. Our ambition is to shape the revenue stream in 2026 in a manner to enable us to have amounts that would be very much aligned with what we had in 2025. We assume that the growth of the new business will be enough to compensate for the effect of cut interest rates. That's our stance. This is our working strategy for 2026. For the costs, our ambition is to make them stay at where they were in 2025, well beyond the 5% level, including the average cost. I assume that we'll manage to curb them below the 5% level.
Thank you very much. Another question: After a 4 percentage point growth of credit in 2025, can we expect a 30% increase in the strategy perspective? An increase of strategy in 2026, is it going to surpass what we saw in 2025?
Possibly, this 4 percentage point increase does give us a straightforward answer. Nevertheless, this concerns the way we sell. Well, the sales have increased of without BK2 , it is accounted for 20%, BK2 , 17%. What we grappled with was churn.
Essentially, it was pretty unique, so the portfolio could not stay on sales only. Being mindful of the strategy for mortgage sales, well, they stand depending on a segment between 12% or 10%, 15%, 16%. In some areas, especially the ones that we feel particularly confident at. We intend to grow. Are we going to achieve a 30% increase? Well, we are firm believers we will.
Another question: To what a degree the growth of mortgage portfolio is the result of the refinancing of credits, and to what extent does it stem from new credits, new loans?
Most of the sales are made up by new loans, yet the market trend is this: The majority of increase of sales on the market, in the whole banking sector, is very much the outcome of refinancing. In our case, however, it is mostly determined by the new loans as such.
Another question: What is the expected dynamics of the number of employees in 2026, after the drop of 5% in the course of 2025?
Well, we don't have these figures at hand. The employment we maintain, well, it is managed on an everyday basis, and it largely depends on the solutions we adopt. Obviously, with a view of automation, we'll adjust our processes, taking advantage of the benefits of artificial intelligence. The odds are we might want to reduce the size of employment, which doesn't preclude new jobs from popping up somewhere else. I won't give you any straightforward answer to that question, because we are here in a very dynamic environment.
The question on the costs of IT investments that are forecast for 2026 when compared to the level of 2025.
If I remember correctly, on a year-on-year basis, we've been stable. We have kept the level intact. However, the principles, we don't disclose of this particular data. Technology, by and large, is the last resort where we wouldn't want to invest. The Bank badly wants improvements. In spite of the fact, it's 17 years old. By mergers and acquisitions, some systems date back to 10 years ago. The growth of technology, making it more sophisticated, is a priority to us. Savings may be allocated somewhere else, wherever we can, but we'll also invest.
We have exhausted the list of questions. Thank you very much to the board for the presentation, for your questions. We'll see each other on the occasion of another quarterly meeting. Thank you.