Banco Macro S.A. (NYSE:BMA) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Carlos Gomez: Yes. My apologies again for the line. I was asking when do you think you will have the operational merger with Itaú and when will you be using a single brand?

Jorge Scarinci: Carlos, that is going to come in the second half of the year. Exactly, we believe that it’s going to be between August and October, but still do not have an exact time. But second half, for sure.

Carlos Gomez: Second half, all right. That is good. And going back to the gains from the regional market, again with the swap rate and the case with negative real rates today, what you think in a normal market would be if these conditions are ramping?

Jorge Scarinci: I mean, yes, the environment here is negative real interest rate and is basically — I mean now that you have to take into consideration that when you compare the average cost of funds of the bank and the yield that we are getting on loans and on the securities, even though they are still negative in real terms, the margins, they are quite attractive. Take into consideration that almost 50% of our deposits are close to 0%, the other 50% close to 100%. So we assume that the average cost of funds in the area of between 55% and 60%. Then you have to assume that loans are used in the area of , approx., under the Securities. Therefore, margins look still quite attractive for a banking intermediation tier. And therefore, that’s why we continue to increase our funding on the asset side, increasing loans or securities, the better.

Carlos Gomez: Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator: And there are no further questions at this time. So this concludes the question and answer session. I will turn the conference back over to Mr. Nicolas Torres for some final considerations.

Nicolas Torres: Thank you all for your interest in Banco Macro. We appreciate your time and look forward to speaking with you again soon. Good day.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending and have a great day. You may now disconnect.