Bancolombia S.A. (NYSE:CIB) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

And related to fees, your second question, we have been working on the strategy since, probably three or four years ago to diversify our sources of fees, in Colombia and in the other geographies. And I think now we have diversified source of fees, a very broad client base, particularly in Colombia. We have now more than 22 million customers in Colombia that allow us to have, or to reach them with additional services. So, we will see the fees growing, around inflation or above inflation and continuing important part of our income. I don’t know Humberto you want to compliment something about the Ernesto’s question about fees?

Jose Humberto Acosta: No, that is very clear. And you have to take in consideration our weight in terms of transactional, so that supporting that phase that the fees could be above a little bit of inflation. So, we are going to reach potentially a level of 20% income ratio in the next coming years.

Ernesto Gabilondo: Perfect. Thank you very much, Juan Carlos. Just the last question on NIMs, just want to double check your guidance for next year. So should we think it should be, stable for the full year, seeing a NIM expansion in the first half, and potentially NIM pressure in the second half if we start to see and it in cycle? Did I understand it correctly?

Juan Carlos Mora: You are correct, Ernesto. That’s what is, we will see is going to happen. We will have probably some additional expansion during the third semester of the year and then some contraction. And what we are expecting is that the NIM should be around 6.5% for 2023, Ernesto.

Ernesto Gabilondo: Perfect. Thank you very much.

Juan Carlos Mora: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Tito Labarta of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Tito Labarta: Hi, good morning. Thanks for the call. Thanks for taking my question. A couple questions. First, how do you think, just in terms of asset quality, I mean, it’s been holding up fairly well, but slowing economy, high inflation, high rates, any concerns, any particular segments where you may be seeing issues already? Or how do you think about the evolution of that? And second question, in terms of capital returns, given high ROE that you’ve had €“ how are you thinking about dividend payouts from here? Thank you.

Jose Humberto Acosta: Thank you, Tito. Regarding your first question on the segments that we will see probably will be impacted for an economic conditions that will be different from here. And you mentioned them very well, high inflation and high interest rates and low growth. We expect that the segment that is going to be impacted the most is the retail credit, consumer credit particularly, credit cards will have an impact. But what we see is, we can manage the increase in the cost of risk that we are seeing in that segment. We have been very careful on the origination side, like may remind you that we are in a strategy or developing strategy, we pre-approved lines of credit. So, we are proactive and we monitor the permanently the conditions, the economic condition of our those clients.

So, we can react, quick and be proactive on when we see that the risk is increasing. So definitely will be an increasing in risk, particularly in those segments. Some SMEs, small SMEs could be impacted also, mainly because the cost of interest will be higher and at that burden product to protect them. But, overall, that will, mean that the cost of risk for the full year on a consolidated basis will be around 1.8 , pretty much in line with our long-term expectation about cost of risk. And regarding capital, we have been growing at a very healthy pace, about 25% in our loan book. So that is consuming capital, and we are very well aware of that. Remember that last year, we declare that our dividend policy will be that we will calculate a Tier 1 goal level and with that level we will deduct the dividend payout.