Intercorp Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:IFS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Luis Felipe Castellanos: The short question is yes, but all will depend on the — obviously, in the recovery of the economy. As you’ve seen, we do expect the economic growth to return to a more positive environment next year. However, that will be dependent on the extent of the impact of El Nino. And also, we also expect moderation in terms of volatility in the global market conditions. And as rates go down, probably, that will have an impact, a positive impact. So probably the first half of the year will be more complicated than the second half of the year, but we do expect to slowly and surely return to an uptick in profitability. Probably next year won’t be the year where we will reach our medium target — medium-term target. But depending on — again, on the impact of El Nino, we will start increasing our ROE to more normal levels.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] And I would like to hand the call over to the InspIR Group for any webcast questions.

Valentina Porto: [interpreted] Thank you, operator. The first question comes from Catalina from BCI Asset Management . The question is, what would be the impact on the cost of risk if you adjust in your models the probability of El Nino from moderate to strong?

Luis Felipe Castellanos: Okay. Thanks for your question, Catalina. Let me pass it on to Michela.

Michela Casassa: Good morning, Catalina. We have run some estimates already. But I mean, of course, it will depend also on the update of the other macroeconomic variables. But what we do expect is a smaller impact of what we have already registered for a moderate impact from El Nino. So it should be a little bit less than what we have already in this quarter.

Valentina Porto: At this time, there are no further questions. I would like to turn the call over to the operator.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] There appear to be no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the floor back over to Ms. Casassa for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Michela Casassa: Thank you, everybody, for attending our call. If you have further questions, you can always contact our Investor Relations and we will see each other again in the next conference call. Bye, everybody.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.