Grupo Supervielle Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Returned to profitability in Q2, with attributable net income of ARS 13 billion versus an ARS 18 billion loss in Q1. Adjusted net income was ARS 36 billion, while structural ROE reached 14.4% after reflecting the full benefit of cost reductions.
  • Positive Sentiment: The rightsizing program reduced headcount by 553 employees and is expected to generate approximately ARS 42 billion in annualized personnel savings, with the full quarterly benefit beginning in Q3. Management said the leaner cost base should support improved efficiency and profitability into 2027.
  • Positive Sentiment: Asset quality improved for a second consecutive quarter, with the NPL ratio falling to 5.5%, NPL formation down roughly 20% from its Q4 peak, and cost of risk easing to 5.6%. Management expects further gradual improvement from collections, refinancing, and tighter underwriting, although credit costs remain high.
  • Negative Sentiment: Loan growth remains constrained by subdued peso credit demand and elevated system delinquencies, prompting the company to lower its 2026 real loan-growth guidance to 10%-15% from above 20%. Net fee income is now expected to decline 5%-8% in real terms, while second-half asset repricing is likely to pressure net interest margins.
  • Neutral Sentiment: The company raised 2026 NIM guidance to 17%-19% and CET1 guidance to 12%-14%, but expects margins to be below the Q2 level as funding-cost benefits normalize. Management is targeting adjusted ROE of 8%-10% for 2026 and indicated that ROE could approach 15% in 2027 if loan growth, lower credit costs, and the full cost savings materialize.
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Earnings Conference Call
Grupo Supervielle Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

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Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Good morning, and welcome to Grupo Supervielle's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I am Ana Bartesaghi, Treasurer and IRO. Today's conference call is being recorded. For the Q&A session, please ensure your full name appears on Zoom. You can ask questions by voice or through the Q&A chat box. Speaking today are Patricio Supervielle, our Chairman and CEO, Gustavo Paco Manriquez, CEO of Banco Supervielle, and Mariano Biglia, our CFO. Diego Pizzulli, CEO of Invertir Online, will also be available during the Q&A session. Before we begin, please note this call may include forward-looking statements. Please refer to our earnings release and SEC filings for further details. Patricio, please go ahead.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Ana. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. The second quarter marked our return to profitability and further progress in transforming Supervielle. Most importantly, the changes to our operating model are beginning to translate into a structurally lower cost to serve. The rightsizing program is now largely implemented and aligned to our current operating model, reflecting the full quarterly salary savings already secured. Structural return on average equity would have reached 14.4%, illustrating the earnings support provided by our leaner operating model. Our core earnings also improved. Margin benefited from funding costs declining faster than asset yields. Asset quality indicators continued to move in the right direction, with NPL formation declining for a second consecutive quarter and cost of risk improving sequentially.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

While credit costs remain elevated, these trends reinforce our view that the peak is behind us and our collection, refinancing, and underwriting initiatives are beginning to produce results. With ARS credit demand still subdued, we continue to prioritize risk-adjusted returns over volume, while actively managing our funding mix and maintaining a strong liquidity position. We also made further progress across our ecosystem. The partnership with Aerolíneas Argentinas is one example of how we are strengthening the value proposition for Identité customers. At IOL invertironline, assets under custody reached $3 billion, reflecting continued traction with higher-value clients and deeper investment relationships. Overall, we enter the second half with a structurally leaner platform, improving credit trends, and a stronger foundation for disciplined, profitable growth. Paco and Mariano will expand on this shortly. Let me turn briefly to the macro backdrop to put our second quarter performance in context.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Conditions became more stable during the quarter, with sustained FX purchases since the start of the year moving net reserves into positive territory. Interest rates remain broadly stable, contributing to lower funding costs and margin recovery, while monthly inflation declined for three consecutive months. However, greater stability has not yet translated into a broad-based recovery, and peso credit demand remains subdued. Policy momentum is improving visibility, with structural reform supporting a more predictable macro environment and reserve accumulation reinforcing FX stability. Argentina is undergoing a transition toward an export and investment-led growth model. 21 RIGI projects have been approved, representing approximately $47 billion of planned investment, primarily in energy, mining, and infrastructure. This should create attractive financing opportunities across the broader value chain.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Greater visibility of the government's financial plan for sovereign debt maturities in 2026 and 2027 has also reduced near-term refinancing uncertainty. Nevertheless, the recovery remains uneven. Looking ahead, continued progress will depend on consistent policy execution and further strengthening the institutional framework. Maintaining fiscal discipline, advancing monetary normalization, and gradually removing remaining FX restrictions will be essential to reinforce confidence and contain volatility. Overall, the direction is constructive and should gradually support credit demand and asset quality. Supervielle enters this phase with gradually improving credit trends, a structurally leaner platform, and solid capital formation. Paco will now discuss how the bank is positioning itself to capture this opportunity through disciplined, profitable growth. Paco, please go ahead.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Patricio, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide five, I will focus on how we are managing the bank today and where we see attractive growth opportunities for the second half. On the balance sheet, prudence remains our priority. Peso loan demands were soft, and with system delinquencies still elevated, we choose not to chase volume. We maintain selective origination, grew transactional deposits across retail and corporate clients, and actively manage the funding mix. As margin normalizes, every new loan must continue to meet our risk-adjusted return thresholds. On asset quality, delinquency and cost of risks improved sequentially, although both remain elevated. The collection, refinancing, and customer outreach initiative launched in December are producing early results, while recent origination cohorts are performing meaningfully better. We will maintain this discipline as we gradually rebuild lending. On structural efficiency, the rightsizing plan is largely completed.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

It reflects the work we have been doing for some time to redesign the service model without compromising service quality. Annualized personnel savings are approximately ARS 42 billion, with the full quarterly run rate benefits starting in this third quarter. Turning to growth, our focus is on expanding the loan portfolio profitability through a targeted rather than broad-based approach. In retail, we are focused on expanding and deepening relationships across three priority segments: payroll, Identité, our premium offer, and senior citizens. Our enhanced scoring capabilities allow us to identify the stronger customer and serve more of their transactional saving and credit needs through tailored products. In corporate banking, the strongest opportunities are in Vaca Muerta mining and selected regional economies, where activity in more dynamic and US dollar loan demand remains strong.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

On partnerships, we recently reached an agreement with Flash Argentina, a company that originated within the Mercado Libre ecosystem, through which we will finance person-to-person vehicle transactions listed on Mercado Libre starting in the fourth quarter of the year. In short, we are combining a learner operating model, disciplined balance sheet management, and sharper customer selection to resume growth where we see good credit behavior and compelling economics. With that, I will hand the call over to Mariano, who will discuss our financial results and updated guidance. Thanks.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Paco, and good day to everyone. Turning to slide six. Attributable net income turned positive, reaching ARS 13 billion in the second quarter, a swing of more than ARS 31 billion when compared with the loss of ARS 18 billion in the first quarter. Excluding ARS 23 billion in after-tax extraordinary severance charges, adjusted net income reached ARS 36 billion, with adjusted ROE of 12.4%. The sequential recovery was driven mainly by stronger net financial income, lower inflation adjustment, and improving credit costs. Together, these factors more than offset softer fee income and modestly higher adjusted operating expenses. Slide seven takes this analysis one step further by illustrating the earnings capacity of our streamlined cost base.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

After incorporating a full quarter of salary savings from the rightsizing actions of the second quarter, structural net income would have reached ARS 42 billion, equivalent to a structural ROE of 14.4%. Applying the same framework, structural net income for the first half would have totaled ARS 53 billion. The program reduced our workforce by 553 employees during the first half, including 262 in the second quarter. With these actions now completed, the structurally lower cost base should support continued improvement in efficiency and profitability. Turning to slide eight. Total loans declined just over 1% sequentially and increased nearly 9% year-on-year. Commercial lending edged higher, supported by US dollar loans, which grew 6% in original currency. Retail loans, in turn, declined 2%, reflecting still soft demand and our selective approach to origination.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

As Paco discussed earlier, we expect retail growth to rebuild gradually as inflation declines, while maintaining disciplined credit criteria and a balanced, profitable portfolio mix. Turning to asset quality on slide nine. Our NPL ratio improved 10 basis points sequentially to 5.5%. Meanwhile, the financial system ratio deteriorated 60 basis points to 7.6%, placing our ratio 210 basis points below the industry. Quarterly NPL formation declined for the second consecutive quarter and was approximately 20% below the fourth quarter peak, with retail formation down 21%. Net cost of risk eased to 5.6% from 6% in the first quarter, reflecting the early benefits of our collections and refinancing initiatives, together with disciplined risk-adjusted origination. Importantly, recent origination cohorts continue to perform meaningfully better. Together, these trends reinforce our view that asset quality has entered a gradual improvement phase. Turning to slide 11.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Net financial income reached ARS 295 billion, increasing 8% sequentially. Net interest margin expanded sequentially by 250 basis points to 20.3%, above our full year guidance, as funding costs declined faster than yields on interest earning assets. Now, moving on to the outlook for 2026. We are updating our expectations to reflect first half performance and normalizing operating conditions. On loans, we are lowering real growth expectations to between 10% and 15%. This, however, is a pickup from the 7% decline experienced in the first half, driven by the initiatives Paco outlined. The mix remains skewed toward corporate lending, with retail growth expected to resume as activity, employment, and disposable income improve. We are also raising our NIM guidance to a range of 17%-19%. First half NIM of 19.7% benefited from the declining in funding costs, while lag asset repricing could weigh on margin in the second half.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

As shown on the next slide, we now anticipate net fee income to decline between 5% and 8% in real terms, as softer activity weighs on banking fees. Adjusted operating expenses are now expected to decline between 6% and 4%, a greater reduction than anticipated, reflecting our successful headcount rightsizing plan. We are now tightening our reported ROE expectation to between 2% and 4%, consistent with the larger-than-originally anticipated headcount rightsizing. Excluding extraordinary severance charges related to the efficiency program, adjusted ROE is now anticipated to range between 8% and 10%. Importantly, this range does not yet reflect the full benefit of the ARS 42 billion in annualized salary savings, which will support the underlying cost structure into 2027. Finally, we are raising the CET1 guidance to a range of 12%-14%, following softer loan growth. All other outlook metrics remain unchanged.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

This concludes our prepared remarks. We are now opening the floor for Q&A.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Mariano. At this time, we will be conducting the Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you need to be connected to a Zoom platform. To ask a question, please press the Raise Your Hand button, and press it again to withdraw your question. You can also send your questions in written form via the Q&A box. We will ask you to limit yourself to one question, a follow-up, and then you can raise your hand again. The first questions come from Camila Severo with UBS. Camila, please go ahead. Sorry. Sorry, we are having issue. Sorry, because we are not able to allow some of the micros.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

No.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Check. Sorry, because we are not able to allow some of the micros.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

No.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Sorry [Non-English content]

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

No.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Check.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Hi, Camila, can you hear us?

Camila Severo
Camila Severo
Equity Research Analyst at UBS

Yes. Can you hear me?

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes. I am so sorry, all of you.

Camila Severo
Camila Severo
Equity Research Analyst at UBS

No problem.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Some IT issues. Thank you, Camila, again. Please go ahead.

Camila Severo
Camila Severo
Equity Research Analyst at UBS

No problem. Thanks, everyone, for the space for question. I have a question on the profitability and efficiency. The efficiency ratio improved to 63%, but would have been close to 52%, excluding extraordinary severance charges. When does the company expect the full run rate benefit of the ARS 42 billion in annualized personnel savings to be fully reflected in the reported efficiency metrics? In profitability, given that the structural ROE reached 14%, how does management expect this trend to continue throughout the year? What specific milestones should be met to sustain this recovery? Thanks.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Mariano, do you want to answer this? Maybe a compliment afterwards.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Sure, Patricio. Hello, Camila. Thank you for your question. First, regarding efficiency and the capitalization of the saving cost from the retirement plan, we will start capturing the full benefits of this plan on the third quarter, as we largely finished the plan as of the end of the second quarter. So those savings that we quantified as if they were captured on the first half of the year, they will be already captured in the reported HCNA and the reported net income in the third and fourth quarter of this year. So the reported adjusted efficiency for following quarters will be the same or almost the same. Of course, it will be much lower than on the first and second quarters of the year.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Regarding ROE, as you said, and we showed on the presentation, the adjusted ROE when we exclude severance costs, but we also account for the savings, as if we had made the efficiencies from the beginning of the year or beginning of the quarter, the adjusted ROE would be 14.4%. For following quarters, as I mentioned, we will continue capturing the benefits of this head count reduction. But also, on the other side, we think margins will be more pressured on following quarters, because on the second quarter, we saw a decline in the funding cost, which we capture very well to increase the NIM on our loan portfolio and also on the investment portfolio.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Going forward, we will also see pressure on the asset side of interest and in assets. So the NIM we saw in the second quarter, maybe will be lower, going ahead. So that will partially offset the benefits of cost savings, and ROE for the second part of the year will be maybe higher than on the first half, but lower if you only take the annualized second quarter. So that is why we gave a guidance of an ROE closer to 10% for the full year, adjusted.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Just to complement and to give some context on the operational side and looking into the future, we conducted a very successful efficiency program, this voluntary retirement program. This didn't produce any type of disruption. NPS continues to improve. Productivity is becoming higher. Basically, the efficiency agenda is permanent for us. We will continue to look in the future for opportunities to improve our cost to serve. But you should not expect another step change of the magnitude we delivered in the first half of this year.

Camila Severo
Camila Severo
Equity Research Analyst at UBS

That is super clear. Thanks very much.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Camila. Our next question comes from Ernesto Gabilondo with Bank of America. Good morning, Ernesto, please go ahead.

Ernesto Gabilondo
Ernesto Gabilondo
Director of Latam Financials at Bank of America

Thank you, Ana. Hi, good morning, Patricio, Paco, and Mariano. Congrats on your results, and thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. My question is related to your loan growth expectations, but for next year. This year is expected to be between 10%-15%. You were expecting above 20% before. I believe this is not specific for Grupo Supervielle, this is more for the industry. How should we think about loan growth next year? I do not know if you have started to participate in the financing of the RIGI projects. Are you already perceiving the announcements of the RIGI projects taking place? You mentioned these 21 projects, so are they already taking place? If you think this will be more tangible after the presidential elections next year. Again, all to understand loan growth trends for next year. Thank you.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

I will give you first the more short-term answer. Yes, the guidance is 10%-15% for the full year. At this stage, we are coming off from a minus 7%. This implies a meaningful growth in the second half. This is not a forecast. That depends on broad macro pickup. We are counting on fourth quarter surge in demand across a series of initiatives that we control. First one is, we completed a disciplining asset quality work in the first half, so we know who are the good clients, and which are healthy. That allow us to conduct targeted campaigns on our better-performing retail segments. Second, we continue, and this is also maybe an answer to your ready question.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

We continue to focus on the dynamic sectors of the economy, including export industries, mining, energy, and all the value chains around them, where dollar loan is real and growing. Third, we also have specific initiatives that we are launching in this quarter. Particularly, Paco mentioned Flash. Flash is a new company that was born in the Mercado Libre ecosystem, which is a P2P financing auto loans. On the retail side, more broadly, demand, we will need inflation to continue declining and disposable income to continue improving. That happening, and gradually we expect retail growth to build progressively rather than surge. Our guidance for this year is what we can reasonably see and where we can act upon.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Regarding next year, I think the business climate will definitely, on the agenda, of the RIGI agenda, it is going to be a major change in. We already, the country has record export this year. I think next year, the trend will continue in this sense. So there will be lots of opportunities to finance the value chain of these dynamic industries. I am hopeful and, I am optimistic that this will also reflect on the retail side, with more, let us say, a better appetite for credit demand on the retail side. Of course, we will be entering an electoral year and, this will also probably affect everything. But, we are optimistic. I think 2027 will be a very good year.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

Can I say something, Patricio?

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Yeah.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

[Non-English content] Ernesto good morning. How are you? All we know about the situation that we had in the first semester in term of delinquency, in term of loan growth. Looking forward, the growth we are targeting in the second half and for the new year comes from our better performing retail segments. Also, we made significant adjustment in our credit scoring models. We are believing that we have in place a very good score. Also, the organic growth will come from strategic sectors, energy, oil and gas, mining. As you mentioned about RIGI, basically we support all the value chain for the main region projects. It's basically our targeting, it's our size for the bank.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

We are entering a new semester with the confidence that we have in place a new credit score, and also the customer knows better their own payments and behavior. We are looking forward very well.

Ernesto Gabilondo
Ernesto Gabilondo
Director of Latam Financials at Bank of America

This is super helpful. Thank you very much, Patricio and Paco. Just, all of the RIGI projects that are taking place, Supervielle will look to finance all the value chains. Do you think this will be more visible in 2027, maybe after the presidential-

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

Yes.

Ernesto Gabilondo
Ernesto Gabilondo
Director of Latam Financials at Bank of America

-election, removing the uncertainty, and that is when we will see more tangible all these projects.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

Yes. 2027, we will see something. Then of course, due to the election during October.

Ernesto Gabilondo
Ernesto Gabilondo
Director of Latam Financials at Bank of America

Perfect.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

But yes, Ernesto, our target is the value chain of those RIGI projects. Basically, it is our target and our business proposition goes there.

Ernesto Gabilondo
Ernesto Gabilondo
Director of Latam Financials at Bank of America

Perfect. Thank you very much, Paco.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

No more.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Ernesto. Our next question comes from Pedro Leduc with Itaú. Good morning, Pedro. How are you? Please go ahead.

Pedro Leduc
Equity Research of Brazil Financials at Itaú BBA

Hi, Ana. Hi, everybody. Thank you very much for the call. Congrats on the numbers. I would like to discuss a little bit about your NIMs, now at 24% this quarter. Very nice improvement. We know there were some unusual aspects about this quarter, but anyway, would like to pick your brains a little bit on, how do you see this level going forward? And trying to puzzle it together as well, looking at it from a funding cost perspective, it was a nice improvement, but your mix in funding seems to have shifted a lot with institutional time deposits gaining a lot of share. I would imagine that they are not cheaper than the retail deposits, but maybe more duration. So help us reconcile a little bit, this funding mix shift with the better NIMs and, how we should model it in the second half. Thank you.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

At a high level, what you saw in the Q2 was active funding optimization, where we adjusted both mix and the tenure of our funding to take advantage of relative pricing, while our strategic focus is always on growing franchise deposits that remain unchanged. Mariano, maybe you can take us through the details of this funding strategy, and then how this also translates and how do you reconcile also into ROE and sustaining the needs.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Sure, Patricio. Hello, Pedro. Regarding the deposits mix, as Patricio said, we see a shift, but it is mainly from corporate, institutional deposits, not from retail. This is mainly tactical, as we want to be more efficient on the cost of fundings. If we go to institutional, it is because we see the lower cost of funding. Maybe compared to the largest corporates. This is not a reduction in SMEs balances, deposits, or retail, as I said before. The same way we transition, which is tactical, we may transition back corporates, and we don't change our strategy of gaining deposits from our core customers, both retails and corporates. How this translates into NIMs and what we see going forward, we saw a very good NIM in the second quarter, which translated into good figures of ROE when adjusted for severance costs.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

This level of NIM was achieved by capturing the lowering the cost of funds. This also relates to the deposit NIMs and tactical movements. That allowed us to increase spreads for the loans and our investment, our bonds portfolio. Seeing into the third quarter and the second half of the year, we see that interest rates will remain stable, and now we have a repricing on the asset side, too. NIMs will be more pressured, as I also explained before, in the second half of the year. Maybe the NIM for the second half will be a bit higher than the first half of the year, but lower if we only see the second quarter on annualized terms.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

To complement, if you look at our balance sheet, on the loan balance sheet, almost 65% today is corporate, and 35% is retail. Clearly, this has to do with the macro context and the subdued demand on the retail side. As I mentioned before, we know now with all the procedures we have in place, strong underwriting standards and the history of our own clients, we know where to target. We are conscious that we want to grow on the retail side, but very responsibly, in order to help NIM looking forward.

Pedro Leduc
Equity Research of Brazil Financials at Itaú BBA

Great answer, both. Thank you.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Pedro. We have a question now from Yuri Fernandes with JPMorgan. Good morning, Yuri.

Yuri Fernandes
Yuri Fernandes
Managing Director at JPMorgan

Hey, Ana. Good to see you. Hello, everyone. Also congrats on the quarter. I have a follow-up on the NIMs, because I got the impression from the Leduc answer that maybe second half could be better, but your guidance points to 17%-19%, the consolidated margins. If we were to assume the run rate you had in the first half, closer to 20%, that would indicate a major drop on margins. So what are we missing here on the NIMs? Should it go down in the second half, or should it remain, should be more resilient? Just trying to understand, because I think the guidance indicates 17%-19% on the margins, so this implies in this drop. Then I can follow up. Thank you.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes. Hello, Yuri. Yes, that is right. Our guidance for NIM from 17%-19%. This implies a lowering the NIM in the following quarters when compared to the second quarter. If we look the first six months of the year, maybe we will see different dynamics for the second half, because on the first half, we started with very high interest rates and a lot of volatility, which negatively impacted the NIM. We are not expecting that scenario to repeat on the second half of the year. Maybe it will be higher than that first quarter and lower than the second quarter. Not necessarily, I will correct that, and not necessarily higher than the first half of the year, but it will have different dynamics. We do not expect that high volatility and a significant reduce in the funding costs.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

It will be more stable, but on the average of the semester, in a similar level.

Yuri Fernandes
Yuri Fernandes
Managing Director at JPMorgan

Okay. No, clear. If I may, just similar exercise, but with cost of risk and asset quality. Congrats, I think NPLs are improving. The new NPL formation is improving. I have just a follow-up on coverage, if you can provide any kind of color. Similar exercise as margins on cost of risk, because if you take the guidance of cost of risk of 5.3% and 5.8%, and we plot the run rate of the first half, it implies a very broad range on the second half. It should run between 4.8% cost of risk and 5.8% cost of risk, right? This quarter has been tracking around 5.6%. Where should cost of risk be?

Yuri Fernandes
Yuri Fernandes
Managing Director at JPMorgan

Should it be closer to the low end of this kind of soft guidance, or should we see maybe still a challenging outlook for asset quality and cost of risk be a little bit higher? Thank you.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Well, the cost of risk, we also saw there an improvement in the second quarter. We expect to see further improvements for the third and fourth quarter. We still are in an environment where we saw a peak in the NPLs, and that translates also into lower loss provisions and lower cost of risk. But we are still in a period where mainly the SMEs, who are the ones who suffer on the first half of the year. Individuals was the last part of last year, and that's when we changed our credit policies and reviewed our credit models.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

SMEs who are more impacted. For the second half of the year, we expect that to improve gradually and also to resume growth, as Patricio explained before. That will also help to lower the cost of risk. But we expect to see those dynamics, not much lower than 5%, although it might be helped by growing on the corporate side. But when we resume growth also on the retail side, it will be more impacted. So on the average, we expect it to be within the range of 5.3% and 5.8%. Of course, we expect it to be on the lower part of that range. But still, with the visibility that we have, it's the range that we can give guidance.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes. I'm sorry, maybe if I may add, we decided not to change the guidance for these two metrics this quarter, Yuri, mainly because NPLs and cost of risk is still high. But yes, maybe we could be expecting something to be more close to the lower end, but still very high levels. So that's why this is maybe one of the only metrics we have not changed this quarter to be a bit more conservative.

Yuri Fernandes
Yuri Fernandes
Managing Director at JPMorgan

No, thank you, Ana. Thank you, Mariano. So basically, just summarizing the two things for risk-adjusted margins, maybe not as strong as this quarter, but you're very confident on the level of margins. They will not be as low as the first quarter, so something in between or maybe closer here. Then cost of risk, didn't revise the guidance, still challenging outlook, but things are slightly improving, so maybe the low end of the guidance of the 5.3. Does this summary make sense? Did I get the message correct, Mariano?

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

It makes sense. Maybe we should have changed to be more optimistic. This is what the management thinks, but I am more optimistic. We will see in the next quarter. We expect that it will improve the cost of risk.

Yuri Fernandes
Yuri Fernandes
Managing Director at JPMorgan

No, thank you, Patricio. It's Latin America, right? Argentina. Sometimes being conservative is the right approach. Thank you very much, everyone.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Yuri, for being here. Our next question comes from Pedro Offenhenden from Latin Securities. Hello. Good morning, Pedro.

Pedro Offenhenden
Equity Research Analyst at Latin Securities

Hello, Ana. Hello, everyone. Thank you for taking this call. I wanted to ask on dollar lending, it's kind of 20% up here today. I wanted to ask how much runway do you see in this segment, and maybe to link it with recent news that you see maybe in the press saying the governments want to attempt to change some regulations to allow banks to channel more of this dollar liquidity into credit. What do you think about that? Is there room to do it?

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Certainly for individuals, this will not happen. Dollar loans for individuals, it will not happen because I think even the president of the central bank was clear on that. There has been very bad precedent or examples, I think, in the Peruvian economy, when they tried. On corporations, I think that there is a possibility that some corporations that even though they are not exporters or suppliers to exporters, but they have strong business models, many of which also are linked to or they are valued by dollars, the way they manage the business, then certainly there could be more demand on these new companies for banking system. We will consider it also. Definitely, we will consider it. Because the landscape of the country is improving. We are, at this stage, in a record, never seen this type of exports in the country.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Dollars will be flowing, and next year, I think it's going to be even better. On this side, you also see the current account of the economy is in good shape. I think there's a possibility. It's certainly in the agenda to start to lend to more companies dollars. I don't know.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

Give me one.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Yeah.

Gustavo Paco Manriquez
Gustavo Paco Manriquez
CEO of Banco Supervielle at Grupo Supervielle

Give me one minute. Hola, Pedro. Thank you for your paper this morning. For me, if Argentina continue with the focus on the strategic projects supported by strategic resources, I believe there is no limit for US dollar loans. We have a big space for that, and as you know, we have a huge initiatives going forward. For me, in order to dig in the strategic projects, I don't see a limit in the near future. The opportunity and the room is very big.

Pedro Offenhenden
Equity Research Analyst at Latin Securities

Perfect. Super clear. Thank you, Paco. Thank you, Patricio.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

[Non-English content] Pedro.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Pedro. We have a question now from Carlos Gomez-Lopez with HSBC. Hello, good morning, Carlos.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Head of Latam Financial Institutions at HSBC

Hello and good morning, and congratulations, among other things, on your deposit growth, 8%. That was quite good. Two questions. One is regarding the margin. You expect the assets to reprice in the second half following the repricing of the liabilities. Does that apply to individual loans or mostly to corporate loans? Have you already seen by now, the end of the middle of August, a decline in spreads, either for corporates or for individuals? Second, I would like to touch on IOL invertironline. I was looking at the numbers on page 10 of your report. I see that the number of accounts has actually declined slightly, and the income has actually halved until quarters ago. We understand this is cyclical, but we would like to know what your prospects are for this business to grow in the future. Thank you.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

All right. Do you want to answer the first part?

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Sure. Hello, Carlos. Thank you for your comments and your questions. Regarding the first part of your question, margins or the NIM is starting to be more pressured because of asset repricing, mainly on the corporate side. On the retail side, we have longer-term loans, such as personal loans, car loans, and we were more restrictive on origination. Due to the increase in delinquency, interest rates haven't been reduced as much as the cost of funding reduced. On the corporate side, which are more short-term loans, and it's almost two-thirds of our loan book, that's where we see the effect of this repricing. Yes, we are seeing it since the end of the second quarter. We see it on a month-to-month basis and into the third quarter. The spreads on originations haven't been reduced. They are still the same.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

They are good spreads, adjusted for risk, both for corporates and individuals. From a balance sheet point of view, the repricing is faster on the corporate side. The second part of the question.

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

Yes. Hi, Carlos. Regarding invertironline, something we experienced is that the decrease in activity in MAUs, monthly active users, in the 90 days active users, is due to a normalization in Argentina. In our business, when there is some volatility and economic volatility, and it can affect volatility, some high inflation or even volatility in the interest rates, we see a sharp increase in the activity and opening accounts in IOL. We are comparing second quarter to first quarter. In the first quarter, especially in January and part of February, we have some volatility in the interest rates market, and that drove an unusual activity. What we think or we see is that the underlying trend is a more stable macroeconomic environment.

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

The numbers or the growth or the activity we see in the customers, especially during the second quarter, it's more like the normal situation in Argentina, where interest rates is lower than it was in the past and with less volatility, the inflation is going down, and also the effect is under control. We think what we see in our platform is customers are staying in the platform are less active, and they are shifting the behavior in the platform. They are, from capturing short-term opportunities like this one I mentioned with the interest rates, they are starting to shift to a more investor-oriented investments. And we think for the long term, it will make our business more sustainable. Also, we think it's a good thing because we are optimistic about the future in Argentina with the stabilization of the macro and the opportunities to the capital markets.

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

We think that the nature of a broker is to be the place for investors to analyze their savings and investments. And we think that what we are seeing is a more normal behavior that's kind of new in Argentina comparing to the last years.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

If I might complement, if you just see what happened in the first half of the year, the assets under custody for invertironline, and as well as the assets under management for funds has grown considerably. And this is not simply revaluation of assets, but it's new money. It's new money coming from, three types of clients that we are focusing on: affluent enterprises and also IFAs. This change of behavior of investors that Diego mentioned is translating into more assets for invertironline. I think this is very healthy and hopefully it will continue.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Head of Latam Financial Institutions at HSBC

Okay, that's a very good explanation. What do you think the long-term growth rate for this business might be? You have, what is it, I think, 60,000 accounts right now. Where do you see yourself in three or five years?

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

6,000.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

600,000.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Head of Latam Financial Institutions at HSBC

600,000. Sorry, I took a zero off. Yes.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

That's a very good answer.

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

We believe that the number is very good compared, because we are roughly in the same amount of accounts active that we have in last periods where volatility was higher. That is why I said that we are not seeing customers leaving. We are seeing them shifting. We believe that, with normalization in Argentina, probably a 10%-15% growth quarter-over-quarter would be reachable. Also, I think we have to start to look into the AUC and AUM, as Patricio mentioned, because the activity when you have investors instead of customers trying to capture short-term opportunities will be perhaps lower, but the AUC and the AUM in our asset management business will be growing, and that is the real metric we have to look to see the health of the business.

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

Something I did not mention before, but we launched our asset management business one year and a half or two years, and now we are close to ARS 500 million in AUM in our three funds that are managed by our team. That is part of what we are focusing on, and the AUC, as Patricio mentioned before, is growing also, and not because of a market effect also, but a net new money we are seeing in every quarter.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Carlos Gomez-Lopez
Head of Latam Financial Institutions at HSBC

Thank you so much.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Carlos. I think we are running out of time anyway. I think there is some question from a sell side analyst, Brian Flores, who asked, "Which are your expectations in terms of return on equity and loan growth for 2027? What is needed in your view for loan growth to take off and be sustainable? Is there any regulation or partnership with the government that could further drive growth ahead? Or is it more dependent on organic demand supply trends?" Maybe this is, the rate, I think, have been already answered. Then I will go back to someone, another sell side, which has raised his hand. We answer this one, and then we end with the ones on Federico.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

Maybe we can answer it both, Mariano and I. Let me address the last part in terms of partnership or regulation with the government. I think that there is an important or pending agenda on mortgages or securitization. The banking industry has been advocating for a broader role for the FGS, el Fondo de Garantía de Sustentabilidad, which is the Social Security or what remains of the previous AFJP base. This would help develop a securitization market for newly originating mortgages, drawing on models such as Peru, Chile, or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. So definitely, this is an agenda that is very important. Also, in terms of growth expectations next year, definitely, as Paco mentioned, we have a complete focus in export-end industry. We have commercial specialists that are dedicated, for instance, for oil and gas. We have expanded considerably our commercial team for these industries.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

We also have people on the risk side dedicated and specialized in these new industries, just to give you an example of the focus we have. So export financing and value chain financing will be an important agenda for 2027. In terms of the retail side, it will depend on declining inflation, it will depend on improving disposable income. But I am optimistic that eventually it will be a good year, 2027. I do not know if you want to add something on that.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

No, I can complement about the 2027 ROE. In effect, that loan growth will be a driver of ROE improvement for 2027 because, as I said before, for the second part of this year, we know margins will be more pressured. Going into 2027, we expect to offset that with loan growth and with the growth of the loan book, also a more balanced book between retail and corporate, thus improving the NIM and impacting positively on the ROE, where on top of that, we will also capture the full benefits of the right sizing program that we carried out this year for the first half, and also reducing the cost of risk. So those will be the main drivers.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

We still have not given a guidance for 2027, but if we end the year 2026 on our range closer to 10% ROE, we would expect that 2027 to be closer to 15% and transitioning into a longer-term ROE of more than 15%.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Okay. There is a question from Federico Cabelli from Adcap. Hello, Federico. Please go ahead. Then we have a follow-up from another analyst.

Federico Cabelli
Equity Research Analyst at Adcap

Hello, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. I had a question regarding IOL. We have seen, as you mentioned, your assets under custody grow considerably year-over-year, yet your net income has decreased. I want to ask, how have you been monetizing this growing base, and how do you think normalized earnings for IOL should look in the future?

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

Regarding the net income, part of the growing in AUC, AUM, as you mentioned, it is part of a more sustainable business, but it is less profitable like periods where high volatility, where people operate more and with high margins. Part of on the side of the revenue, it is the shift between high transaction and high profitability to a more stable and long-term business with less margin, but more sustainable. That is on the revenue side. On the cost side, we made some investments that we expect to be generating revenues and profits in the next quarters. But mainly to serve these customers, as Patricio mentioned before, that for us are the core for our next year, that it is developing our business in all the advised business like IFAs, the wealth management, and also the SMEs.

Diego Pizzulli
Diego Pizzulli
CEO of IOL invertironline at Grupo Supervielle

We have made some investments in our platform to adapt new products and services for these kind of customers, that are kind of different than the ones we have for retail investors. Also we hired, we have some increasing headcounts, mainly advisors for this business. Those were the two effects that were in place. But we think that the investment is not only paying off in the short term, but will be, in the future, a good investment to a more sustainable business. Keeping in mind that we think that the stabilization and normalization, the economic variables in Argentina will allow the capital market in Argentina to expand. We think it is in its infancy, so we think we are doing the right investments to capture that opportunity that will come in the future.

Federico Cabelli
Equity Research Analyst at Adcap

Okay, thank you. I have a follow-up question. You paid for IOL $48 million in 2018. What is the book value today?

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Book value. Book value is more or less a bit more than that, I think.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes, we also have the goodwill.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

Included in our book value. But including the price paid for at that moment, was mainly a goodwill, which we booked in pesos. We translate that to pesos at the moment, and then we adjust for inflation. Then we have the shareholders' equity of invertironline, which accumulated profits throughout this year. So it has a higher equity value on a standalone basis. So adding up the equity value and the goodwill, adjusted for inflation, the total book value in the group's balance sheet is around, I would say, $70 million.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

The equity is close to the same amount. The equity value, so net worth.

Mariano Biglia
Mariano Biglia
CFO at Grupo Supervielle

The net worth. Yes, but it's because of accumulated profits.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes, sure.

Federico Cabelli
Equity Research Analyst at Adcap

Okay. Thank you, and congratulations.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Federico. We have a follow-up from Pedro Leduc from Itaú. Pedro, you wanted to ask any- Follow up?

Pedro Leduc
Equity Research of Brazil Financials at Itaú BBA

Yeah, just a quick one, not particularly related to the quarter, but there's been several media reports in Argentina about the authorities considering flexibilizing the use of dollar deposits onto lending. I think you heard me?

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Yes, I did. I'm sorry.

Pedro Leduc
Equity Research of Brazil Financials at Itaú BBA

Yeah. If there was any first thoughts you have on that, if more of the dollar deposits could be used to lending, and I'm sure you are also close to the regulators, so how that discussion has been unfolding. Any first thoughts, comments will be welcomed.

Patricio Supervielle
Patricio Supervielle
Chairman and CEO at Grupo Supervielle

I think we mentioned that already, that there's possibility that there will be regulations allowing or giving more flexibility to lend dollars to corporations. We will be very active on this. As a bank, we are positive, so certainly, it will be in the agenda. As I've mentioned before, all the export related industries are growing very fast. So that's going to also be a use of proceeds for the dollar deposits. Just bear in mind that dollar deposits have grown over the past year very fast. In our case, our franchise, we expanded our market share of dollar deposits quite considerably over the past year and a half. So we have a much stronger franchise, and it will allow us to be a strong player on the export related industry.

Pedro Leduc
Equity Research of Brazil Financials at Itaú BBA

Great. Thank you so much.

Ana Bartesaghi
Ana Bartesaghi
Treasurer and IRO at Grupo Supervielle

Thank you, Pedro. I think now we reach the end of the Q&A and of the earnings call. Once again, I apologize for the inconvenience we had, we experienced at the beginning of the Q&A session. Thank you for being there as well, and we look forward to meeting a few in the incoming months, and any additional question you may have, please feel free to ask. Thank you.

Executives
    • Ana Bartesaghi
      Ana Bartesaghi
      Treasurer and IRO
    • Patricio Supervielle
      Patricio Supervielle
      Chairman and CEO
    • Gustavo Paco Manriquez
      Gustavo Paco Manriquez
      CEO of Banco Supervielle
    • Mariano Biglia
      Mariano Biglia
      CFO
    • Diego Pizzulli
      Diego Pizzulli
      CEO of IOL invertironline
Analysts
    • Camila Severo
      Equity Research Analyst at UBS
    • Ernesto Gabilondo
      Director of Latam Financials at Bank of America
    • Pedro Leduc
      Equity Research of Brazil Financials at Itaú BBA
    • Yuri Fernandes
      Managing Director at JPMorgan
    • Pedro Offenhenden
      Equity Research Analyst at Latin Securities
    • Carlos Gomez-Lopez
      Head of Latam Financial Institutions at HSBC
    • Federico Cabelli
      Equity Research Analyst at Adcap