Half Year 2026 OTP Bank Nyrt Earnings Call
Operator: Q2 2026 conference call. Please be advised that this event is being recorded. Kindly note that all participants will remain in listen-only mode throughout the presentation. Following the formal remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. At this point, I would like to hand over the floor to Mr. László Bencsik, Chief Financial and Strategic Officer. László, the stage is yours.
Operator: Q2 2026 conference call. Please be advised that this event is being recorded. Kindly note that all participants will remain in listen-only mode throughout the presentation. Following the formal remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. At this point, I would like to hand over the floor to Mr. László Bencsik, Chief Financial and Strategic Officer. László, the stage is yours.
Speaker #1: Second quarter 2026 conference call. Please be advised that this event is being recorded. Kindly note that all participants will remain in listen-only mode throughout the presentation.
Speaker #1: Following the formal remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. At this point, I would like to hand over the floor to Mr. László Bencsik, Chief Financial and Strategy Officer.
Speaker #1: László, the stage is yours.
Speaker #2: Thank you. Good morning, or good afternoon, depending where you are, and thank you so much for joining us on this mid-summer day. It's very warm here in Budapest, and very sunny, and unfortunately very dry, so you're in a way fighting with the elements.
László Bencsik: Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon, depending where you are, and thank you so much for joining us on this midsummer day. It's very warm here in Budapest, and very sunny, and unfortunately very dry. We are in a way fighting with the elements. We are going to follow the usual process. We are going to show you the presentation, but the presentation is also available on the website, so you can download it. First I go through a reasonably brief presentation, and then we'll have a question and answer session. We may just start. Going to page two, the kind of high level features or most important messages, they have not changed. I don't think we should dwell on these. We'll continue to deliver on those lines. Page three, we try to summarize the situation and make sense of the numbers.
László Bencsik: Thank you. Good morning or good afternoon, depending where you are, and thank you so much for joining us on this midsummer day. It's very warm here in Budapest, and very sunny, and unfortunately very dry. We are in a way fighting with the elements. We are going to follow the usual process. We are going to show you the presentation, but the presentation is also available on the website, so you can download it. First I go through a reasonably brief presentation, and then we'll have a question and answer session. We may just start. Going to page two, the kind of high level features or most important messages, they have not changed. I don't think we should dwell on these. We'll continue to deliver on those lines. Page three, we try to summarize the situation and make sense of the numbers.
Speaker #2: Now, if we follow the usual we are going to follow the usual process, so we are going to show you the presentation, but the presentation is also available on the website, so you can download it.
Speaker #2: And first I go through a reasonably brief presentation, and then we'll have a question-and-answer. Session. So we may just start going to page 2, the kind of high-level features or most important messages.
Speaker #2: They have not changed, so I don't think we should dwell on these. We'll continue to deliver on those lines. Page 3, we try to summarize the situation and make sense of the numbers.
Speaker #2: Because in order to be able to understand the underlying business developments, we need to somewhat specify which numbers we are looking at. If we just look at looking at only the reported numbers, that is 306 billion HUF profit after tax in the second quarter, and 483 billion HUF profit after tax for the first half, and looking at the quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year developments of these numbers, it's not particularly insightful.
László Bencsik: Because in order to be able to understand the underlying business developments, we need to somewhat specify which numbers we are looking at. If we just looking at only the reported numbers, that is HUF 306 billion profit after tax in Q2 and HUF 483 billion profit after tax for H1, and looking at the quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year developments of these numbers is not particularly insightful. One big problem with these numbers in order to make some sense of them is the usual one which we have been facing for a number of years, that this extra profit tax and the bank tax and in general, the supervisory fees across the group, they all have to be booked at the beginning of the year.
László Bencsik: Because in order to be able to understand the underlying business developments, we need to somewhat specify which numbers we are looking at. If we just looking at only the reported numbers, that is HUF 306 billion profit after tax in Q2 and HUF 483 billion profit after tax for H1, and looking at the quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year developments of these numbers is not particularly insightful. One big problem with these numbers in order to make some sense of them is the usual one which we have been facing for a number of years, that this extra profit tax and the bank tax and in general, the supervisory fees across the group, they all have to be booked at the beginning of the year.
Speaker #2: One big problem with these numbers, in order to make some sense of them, is the usual one which we have been facing for a number of years, that these extra profit tax and the bank tax and the, in general, the supervisory fees across the group, they all have to be booked at the beginning of the year.
Speaker #2: And since the size of these numbers have grown, unfortunately, quite extensively during the last couple of years, this is actually it has a huge impact on the quarterly distribution of profits.
László Bencsik: Since the size of these numbers have grown, unfortunately, quite extensively during the last couple of years, it has a huge impact on the quarterly distribution of profits. On top of that, the extra profit tax keeps decreasing throughout the year as we continue to fulfill the requirements in order to reduce or kind of be able to have the discount on the extra profit tax. Therefore, we kind of show you these prorated or adjusted numbers where we show the numbers as if these extra burdens were evenly distributed between the four quarters throughout the year. Those are the numbers, what you see on this page in the upper left corner in a kind of darker green color. These numbers are much more meaningful than the reported ones. However, they also require some further kind of consideration.
László Bencsik: Since the size of these numbers have grown, unfortunately, quite extensively during the last couple of years, it has a huge impact on the quarterly distribution of profits. On top of that, the extra profit tax keeps decreasing throughout the year as we continue to fulfill the requirements in order to reduce or kind of be able to have the discount on the extra profit tax. Therefore, we kind of show you these prorated or adjusted numbers where we show the numbers as if these extra burdens were evenly distributed between the four quarters throughout the year. Those are the numbers, what you see on this page in the upper left corner in a kind of darker green color. These numbers are much more meaningful than the reported ones. However, they also require some further kind of consideration.
Speaker #2: On top of that, the extra profit tax keeps decreasing throughout the year, as we continue to fulfill the requirements in order to reduce or kind of be able to have the discount on the extra profit tax.
Speaker #2: Therefore, we kind of show you these prorated or adjusted numbers, where we show the numbers as if these extra burdens were evenly distributed between the four quarters, throughout the year.
Speaker #2: And those are the numbers you see on this page, in the upper left corner in a kind of darker green color. Now, these numbers are much more meaningful than the reported ones.
Speaker #2: However, they also require some further kind of consideration. The first one is due to the fact that the HUF exchange rate moves so much; the HUF appreciated so much during the last year. So, year-on-year, in order to fundamentally understand what's going on in terms of the business performance, it may be better to look at the FX-adjusted numbers, which are not affected by the exchange rate changes.
László Bencsik: The first one is due to the fact that the HUF exchange rate moved so much. They have appreciated so much during the last year, so year on year. In order to fundamentally understand what's going on in terms of the business performance, it may be better to look at the FX-adjusted numbers, which are not affected by the exchange rate changes. If we compare the H1 of this year to H1 of last year, this adjusted number shows 2% decline. In an FX-adjusted level, without the impact of the exchange rate changes, in fact, profit went up by 4% after tax, year on year, H1. Now, taxes increased quite substantially, and there are two sources of that increase. The bigger one, obviously, is the extra profit tax doubling from last year to this year.
László Bencsik: The first one is due to the fact that the HUF exchange rate moved so much. They have appreciated so much during the last year, so year on year. In order to fundamentally understand what's going on in terms of the business performance, it may be better to look at the FX-adjusted numbers, which are not affected by the exchange rate changes. If we compare the H1 of this year to H1 of last year, this adjusted number shows 2% decline. In an FX-adjusted level, without the impact of the exchange rate changes, in fact, profit went up by 4% after tax, year on year, H1. Now, taxes increased quite substantially, and there are two sources of that increase. The bigger one, obviously, is the extra profit tax doubling from last year to this year.
Speaker #2: So if we compare the first half of this year to first half of last year, this adjusted numbers shows 2% decline, but on an FX adjusted level, without the impact of the exchange rate changes, in fact, profit went up by 4% after tax.
Speaker #2: Year-on-year, first half. Now, taxes increased quite substantially, and there are two sources of that increase. The bigger one, obviously, is the extra profit tax doubling from last year to this year.
Speaker #2: In the first half, it's almost 30 billion HUF plus tax. The other country where we are subject to increased taxes is Ukraine. In Ukraine, the corporate tax increased from 25% last year to 50% this year.
László Bencsik: In the H1, it's almost HUF 30 billion plus tax. The other country where we are subject to increased taxes is Ukraine. In Ukraine, the corporate tax increased from 35% last year to 50% this year. Therefore, the taxes line, which includes all of these, went up 22%. Now, that leads us to the profit before tax numbers. On that line, again, FX-adjusted, we see 8% growth year on year. That's somewhat better. Even this number includes this kind of one-off burden, which we had to book in the Q2 for the rate cap in Hungary, which has been with us since the beginning of 2022. Previously, the method applied by the previous government was that in every 6 months, they extended the program with another 6 more months.
László Bencsik: In the H1, it's almost HUF 30 billion plus tax. The other country where we are subject to increased taxes is Ukraine. In Ukraine, the corporate tax increased from 35% last year to 50% this year. Therefore, the taxes line, which includes all of these, went up 22%. Now, that leads us to the profit before tax numbers. On that line, again, FX-adjusted, we see 8% growth year on year. That's somewhat better. Even this number includes this kind of one-off burden, which we had to book in the Q2 for the rate cap in Hungary, which has been with us since the beginning of 2022. Previously, the method applied by the previous government was that in every 6 months, they extended the program with another 6 more months.
Speaker #2: So therefore, the taxes line which includes all of these went up 22%. Now, that leads us to the profit before tax numbers. And on that line, again, FX adjusted, we see 8% growth year-on-year.
Speaker #2: That's somewhat better. But even this number includes this kind of one-off burden which we had to book in the second quarter for the mortgage for the rate cap in Hungary.
Speaker #2: This has been with us since the beginning of '22, but previously, the method applied by the previous government was that every six months they extended the program for another six months.
Speaker #2: So, therefore, we kind of gradually, step by step, recognized the potential loss of this. Now, the current situation is that, legally, there's no end to the rate cap.
László Bencsik: Therefore, we kind of gradually, step by step, recognized the potential loss of this. Now, the current situation is that legally, there's no end to the rate cap. This we understand as an interim situation because discussions are ongoing between the government representatives and the banking association. Our expectation is that eventually this is going to change, and they will come up with a solution which creates a more fair system on the level of society and the solution which is actually according to the legal requirements in Hungary, because we believe that the current solution is not. Therefore, we have taken legal actions, obviously, and we are going to continue to do so in the future as well. Nevertheless, the best solution is if there's a fair outcome of this rate cap, which shouldn't have happened, but it has, and it should be fixed.
László Bencsik: Therefore, we kind of gradually, step by step, recognized the potential loss of this. Now, the current situation is that legally, there's no end to the rate cap. This we understand as an interim situation because discussions are ongoing between the government representatives and the banking association. Our expectation is that eventually this is going to change, and they will come up with a solution which creates a more fair system on the level of society and the solution which is actually according to the legal requirements in Hungary, because we believe that the current solution is not. Therefore, we have taken legal actions, obviously, and we are going to continue to do so in the future as well. Nevertheless, the best solution is if there's a fair outcome of this rate cap, which shouldn't have happened, but it has, and it should be fixed.
Speaker #2: This we understand as an interim situation because discussions are ongoing between the government representatives and the banking association and our expectation is that eventually this is going to change and they will come up with a solution which creates more fair system on the level of society and the solution which is actually according to the legal requirements.
Speaker #2: In Hungary, because we believe that the current solution is not. Therefore, we have taken legal actions obviously, and we are going to continue to do so.
Speaker #2: In the future as well. But nevertheless, I mean, the best solution is if there's a fair outcome of this rate cap, which, I mean, shouldn't have happened, but it has, and it should be fixed.
Speaker #2: But it hasn't been done yet. So technically, we had no other choice than to book the full potential loss for the remaining maturity of these loans.
László Bencsik: It hasn't been done yet. Technically, we had no other choice than booking the full potential loss for the remaining maturity of these loans. That was the equivalent of HUF 30 billion pre-tax, and most of this was booked as a risk cost. Now, if we had not had this, then the profit before tax growth compared to last year would have been 11%. This kind of 11% is more or less what can be considered as a kind of business as usual underlying performance improvement. That looks markedly better than the -7 or the -2 or the +4, +8, you can pick your number, we believe that the 11 is probably the closest to the actual developments. Now, let's have a look at the details of the P&L lines.
László Bencsik: It hasn't been done yet. Technically, we had no other choice than booking the full potential loss for the remaining maturity of these loans. That was the equivalent of HUF 30 billion pre-tax, and most of this was booked as a risk cost. Now, if we had not had this, then the profit before tax growth compared to last year would have been 11%. This kind of 11% is more or less what can be considered as a kind of business as usual underlying performance improvement. That looks markedly better than the -7 or the -2 or the +4, +8, you can pick your number, we believe that the 11 is probably the closest to the actual developments. Now, let's have a look at the details of the P&L lines.
Speaker #2: And that was the equivalent of 30 billion HUF pre-tax. And most of this was booked as a risk cost. Now, if we hadn't had if we had not had this, then the profit before tax growth compared to last year would have been 11%.
Speaker #2: So this kind of 11% is more or less what can be considered as a kind of business as usual underlying performance improvement. And that looks markedly better than the minus 7 or the minus 2 or the plus 4 plus 8, but we can pick your number, but we believe that the 11 is probably the closest to the actual developments.
Speaker #2: Now, let's have a look at the details of the P&L lines, again on this FX-adjusted basis. This is the middle section of the slide.
László Bencsik: On this FX-adjusted manner, this is the middle section of the slide. Net interest income year on year has gone up by 19%. That's a pretty solid performance. This is the result of strong organic loan growth. Last year, we had 15%, and we guided for this year, maybe similar level to last year. The good news is that the H1 of the year was 8%, some acceleration. Even within the first six months, the Q2 was stronger than the Q1. That means that year on year, to end of June this year compared to end of June last year, the growth was 17%. FX-adjusted. That's loan growth volume. On top of that, net interest margin also improved somewhat compared to last year.
László Bencsik: On this FX-adjusted manner, this is the middle section of the slide. Net interest income year on year has gone up by 19%. That's a pretty solid performance. This is the result of strong organic loan growth. Last year, we had 15%, and we guided for this year, maybe similar level to last year. The good news is that the H1 of the year was 8%, some acceleration. Even within the first six months, the Q2 was stronger than the Q1. That means that year on year, to end of June this year compared to end of June last year, the growth was 17%. FX-adjusted. That's loan growth volume. On top of that, net interest margin also improved somewhat compared to last year.
Speaker #2: So that interest income year-on-year has got up by 19%. That's a pretty solid performance. This is the result of strong organic loan growth. Last year, we had 15%, and we guided for this year maybe similar level to last year.
Speaker #2: Now, the good news is that the first half of the year was 8%. So some acceleration. And even within the first six months, the second quarter was stronger than the first.
Speaker #2: And that means that year-on-year, to end of June this year, compared to end of June last year, the growth was 17%. Again, FX adjusted.
Speaker #2: That's loan growth volume. And on top of that, net interest margin also improved somewhat compared to last year. And these two together plus obviously the strong and even more in retail, resulted in almost 20% year-on-year net interest income growth.
László Bencsik: These two together, plus obviously, the strong and even more profitable deposit growth, especially in retail, resulted in almost 20% year on year net interest income growth. However, fees and commissions, only 3%, and other net non-interest income, actually -21%. What happened here? Fees and commissions used to grow faster. What happened on the fees and commission lines? Two reasons. One, the bigger one is that in Russia, fees and commissions actually declined by 17% year on year. The other smaller impact came from the fact that we had to delay the legally possible fees and commission increases in Hungary.
László Bencsik: These two together, plus obviously, the strong and even more profitable deposit growth, especially in retail, resulted in almost 20% year on year net interest income growth. However, fees and commissions, only 3%, and other net non-interest income, actually -21%. What happened here? Fees and commissions used to grow faster. What happened on the fees and commission lines? Two reasons. One, the bigger one is that in Russia, fees and commissions actually declined by 17% year on year. The other smaller impact came from the fact that we had to delay the legally possible fees and commission increases in Hungary.
Speaker #2: However, fees and commissions only 3%, and other net non-interest income actually negative 21%. So what happened here? Fees and commissions used to grow faster.
Speaker #2: So, what happened on the fees and commission lines? Two reasons. One, the bigger one is that in Russia, fees and commissions actually declined by 17% year-on-year.
Speaker #2: The other, smaller impact came from the fact that we had to delay the legally possible fees and commission increases in Hungary. You may remember that we were strongly requested to voluntarily delay the fee increases by the previous government, somewhere last year.
László Bencsik: You may remember that we were strongly requested to voluntarily delay the fee increases by the previous government somewhere last year, therefore those kind of annual fee and commission adjustments in retail, which we typically do in Hungary, happened only at the end of June and that month in January. This has a small impact. The other income line, which was actually negative, -21%, was primarily negative, again because of Russia. Russia, this line declined by 32%. This reflects the declining volume of this transactional business, which we have in Russia, which is primarily coming from European corporate clients who make transactions and that's reasonably high-margin business. This is declining in line with the overall decline of trade volumes between Russia and EU counterparts. That's a kind of external environmental trend, this is something we are not going to fight.
László Bencsik: You may remember that we were strongly requested to voluntarily delay the fee increases by the previous government somewhere last year, therefore those kind of annual fee and commission adjustments in retail, which we typically do in Hungary, happened only at the end of June and that month in January. This has a small impact. The other income line, which was actually negative, -21%, was primarily negative, again because of Russia. Russia, this line declined by 32%. This reflects the declining volume of this transactional business, which we have in Russia, which is primarily coming from European corporate clients who make transactions and that's reasonably high-margin business. This is declining in line with the overall decline of trade volumes between Russia and EU counterparts. That's a kind of external environmental trend, this is something we are not going to fight.
Speaker #2: And therefore, those kind of annual fee and commission adjustments in retail, which we typically do in Hungary, happened only at the end of June.
Speaker #2: And that's not in January. Now, this has a smaller impact. Now, the other line, the other not the other income line, which was actually negative, minus 21, was primarily negative again because of Russia.
Speaker #2: In Russia, this line declined by 32%. So, this reflects the declining volume of this transactional business that we have in Russia, which is primarily coming from European corporate clients who make transactions, and that's reasonably high-margin business.
Speaker #2: But this is declining in line with the overall decline of trade volumes between Russia and the EU counterparties. So that's a kind of external environmental trend.
Speaker #2: And this is something we are not going to fight. So this we accept and we are not proactively selling these so that in a way, this is okay.
László Bencsik: This we accept we are not proactively selling this. That in a way, this is okay. Maybe some of you might be a bit happy to see that because that shows that our Russian activity is actually declining in that sense actually our profits are also year on year started to decline. That's why the total income growth is only 10%, despite the fact that the net interest income growth year on year is 19%. That net interest income is obviously the majority of the biggest part of the total income. This 10% is due to these factors which I just explained. Operating expenses went up 17%, this doesn't look very good, to be honest, we are not very happy about this, that operating expenses went up 17% and income only 10%.
László Bencsik: This we accept we are not proactively selling this. That in a way, this is okay. Maybe some of you might be a bit happy to see that because that shows that our Russian activity is actually declining in that sense actually our profits are also year on year started to decline. That's why the total income growth is only 10%, despite the fact that the net interest income growth year on year is 19%. That net interest income is obviously the majority of the biggest part of the total income. This 10% is due to these factors which I just explained. Operating expenses went up 17%, this doesn't look very good, to be honest, we are not very happy about this, that operating expenses went up 17% and income only 10%.
Speaker #2: Maybe some of you might be a bit happy to see that because that shows that our Russian activities actually declining in that sense. And actually, our profits are also year-on-year started to decline.
Speaker #2: So that's why the total income growth is only 10% despite the fact that the net interest income growth year-on-year was 19%. And that net interest income is obviously the majority of the I mean, that's the biggest part of the total income.
Speaker #2: So this 10% is due to these factors which I just explained. Now, operating expenses went up 17%. And this doesn't look very good, to be honest.
Speaker #2: And we are not very happy about this. That's operating expenses went up 17 and income only 10%. Again, despite the fact that actually the core part of income, which is net interest income, grew more than expenses, 19%.
László Bencsik: Despite the fact that actually the core part of income, which is net interest income, grew more than expenses, 19%. Certainly on this expense growth trajectory, we are actively working on this. This is one of the management focuses, to slow down this rate of growth and we are working hard to have a materially lower number for next year of the operating expenses growth. Okay, on the right side you see the ratios which are related to the guidance which we have given, and we decided to change the guidance or modify the guidance in one occasion, and that's the net interest margin. Given that the fact for H1 is 461, and considering all the environmental factors, we believe it is actually quite likely that the net interest margin is going to be higher than last year.
László Bencsik: Despite the fact that actually the core part of income, which is net interest income, grew more than expenses, 19%. Certainly on this expense growth trajectory, we are actively working on this. This is one of the management focuses, to slow down this rate of growth and we are working hard to have a materially lower number for next year of the operating expenses growth. Okay, on the right side you see the ratios which are related to the guidance which we have given, and we decided to change the guidance or modify the guidance in one occasion, and that's the net interest margin. Given that the fact for H1 is 461, and considering all the environmental factors, we believe it is actually quite likely that the net interest margin is going to be higher than last year.
Speaker #2: But certainly on this expense growth trajectory, we are actively working on this. So this is one of the management focuses to slow down this rate of growth.
Speaker #2: And we are working hard to have a materially lower number for next year in terms of operating expenses growth. Okay, so on the right side you see the ratios, which are related to the guidance we have given.
Speaker #2: And we decided to change the guidance, or modify the guidance, on one occasion. And that's the net interest margin. I mean, given that the fact for the first half is 4.61%, and considering all the environmental factors, we believe it is actually quite likely that the net interest margin is going to be higher than last year.
Speaker #2: But that's probably another huge surprise to you. All the other lines we haven't felt necessary to modify the guidance, but you can see what where these numbers lead to.
László Bencsik: That's probably not a huge surprise to you. On all the other lines, we haven't felt necessary to modify the guidance, but you can see where these numbers lead to. Maybe the risk cost rate requires some further elaboration. As I mentioned, this kind of one-off cost of the interest rate cap extension to maturity, the HUF 30 billion cost, most of it appeared as a risk cost, as a credit risk cost. Obviously that increased the risk cost rate and the risk cost line. Without this impact, the risk cost rate, without Russia, this 42 basis point would have been 21 basis point. That is without Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
László Bencsik: That's probably not a huge surprise to you. On all the other lines, we haven't felt necessary to modify the guidance, but you can see where these numbers lead to. Maybe the risk cost rate requires some further elaboration. As I mentioned, this kind of one-off cost of the interest rate cap extension to maturity, the HUF 30 billion cost, most of it appeared as a risk cost, as a credit risk cost. Obviously that increased the risk cost rate and the risk cost line. Without this impact, the risk cost rate, without Russia, this 42 basis point would have been 21 basis point. That is without Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
Speaker #2: And maybe the risk constraint requires some further elaboration. As I mentioned, this kind of one-off cost of the interest rate cap extension to maturity—the 30 billion HUF cost—most of it appeared as a risk cost, as a credit risk cost.
Speaker #2: And obviously, that increased the risk constraint and the risk cost line. So without this impact, the risk cost rate the credit without Russia I mean, would have been this 42 basis point would have been 21 basis point.
Speaker #2: And that is the without Russia and the Ukraine and Uzbekistan. So this kind of 42 basis points what you see here as risk cost rate for the European countries was kind of under the fundamental part was actually only 21 basis point, which is not very different from the reference period last year.
László Bencsik: This kind of 42 basis points, what you see here as risk cost rates for the European countries was kind of under the fundamental part was actually only 21 basis point, which is not very different from the reference period last year. Okay, page four, it just gives more details of the P&L line. You see the numerical values as well. I already talked about the most important column, and that is the one somewhere in the middle, showing the year-on-year FX-adjusted growth rates. On page five, you can see the tactical details behind this pro rata recognition of the extra charges. If you are interested, what we actually booked and reported for H1 was HUF 173.5 billion and what actually falls on this H1 period, if we evenly distribute, was only HUF 75.9.
László Bencsik: This kind of 42 basis points, what you see here as risk cost rates for the European countries was kind of under the fundamental part was actually only 21 basis point, which is not very different from the reference period last year. Okay, page four, it just gives more details of the P&L line. You see the numerical values as well. I already talked about the most important column, and that is the one somewhere in the middle, showing the year-on-year FX-adjusted growth rates. On page five, you can see the tactical details behind this pro rata recognition of the extra charges. If you are interested, what we actually booked and reported for H1 was HUF 173.5 billion and what actually falls on this H1 period, if we evenly distribute, was only HUF 75.9.
Speaker #2: Okay. So page four, it just gives more details of these of the P&L lines. So you see the numerical values as well. But I already talked about the most important column, and that is the one somewhere in the middle.
Speaker #2: Showing the year-on-year FX adjusted growth rates. On page five, you can see the technical details behind this prorata recognition or prorated sorry, prorated recognition of the extra charges.
Speaker #2: So if you are if you're interested, what we actually booked and reported for the first half was 173.5 billion. And what actually should what falls on this first half period if we kind of evenly distribute was only 75.9.
Speaker #2: So that's the explanation of this kind of difference. Before we dwell into the details of the performance of the group, let me share with you some information and some thoughts regarding the potential most exciting recent development.
László Bencsik: That's the explanation of this kind of difference. Before we dwell into the details of the performance of the group, let me share with you some information and some thoughts regarding the potentially most exciting recent development, that is that we finally agreed with the owners of Luminor of buying the bank. We signed an SPA with Blackstone and DNB Bank. We are obviously very excited about this. The price, obviously, we are not able to disclose anything other than what available is publicly. However, we agreed with the sellers that we can actually share this one information and as you can see here, the purchase price was set below the book value. Again, this is potentially not a new information because DNB Bank already published the expected loss on their investments in their books.
László Bencsik: That's the explanation of this kind of difference. Before we dwell into the details of the performance of the group, let me share with you some information and some thoughts regarding the potentially most exciting recent development, that is that we finally agreed with the owners of Luminor of buying the bank. We signed an SPA with Blackstone and DNB Bank. We are obviously very excited about this. The price, obviously, we are not able to disclose anything other than what available is publicly. However, we agreed with the sellers that we can actually share this one information and as you can see here, the purchase price was set below the book value. Again, this is potentially not a new information because DNB Bank already published the expected loss on their investments in their books.
Speaker #2: And that is that we finally agreed with the owners of Luminor on buying the bank. So we signed an SPA with Blackstone and DNB Bank.
Speaker #2: And I mean, we are obviously very excited about this. The price we are obviously, we are not able to disclose anything. Other than what available is publicly.
Speaker #2: However, we agreed with the sellers that we can actually share this one information that the as you can see here, the purchase price was set below the book value.
Speaker #2: Again, this is not a potentially not a new information because DMB Bank already kind of published the expected loss on their investments in their books and from that, some of the analysts already kind of calculated the price.
László Bencsik: From that, some of the analysts already calculated the price, or roughly the price or the price range or something like that. This is what we can tell about the purchase price with an agreement from the sellers. On our side, the rationale is, well, obviously entering three new markets, which are quite developed Eurozone markets, both in terms of penetration, in terms of income per capita, and in terms of banking services. These markets are very advanced in terms of digital services, and that's part of the excitement what we have, to be able to compete in such an advanced market. This acquisition, we have been saying that we like to be, or the optimal position in Central Eastern Europe, in the smaller countries, is to be number 1 or number 2 maximum. Luminor is not number 1 and number 2.
László Bencsik: From that, some of the analysts already calculated the price, or roughly the price or the price range or something like that. This is what we can tell about the purchase price with an agreement from the sellers. On our side, the rationale is, well, obviously entering three new markets, which are quite developed Eurozone markets, both in terms of penetration, in terms of income per capita, and in terms of banking services. These markets are very advanced in terms of digital services, and that's part of the excitement what we have, to be able to compete in such an advanced market. This acquisition, we have been saying that we like to be, or the optimal position in Central Eastern Europe, in the smaller countries, is to be number 1 or number 2 maximum. Luminor is not number 1 and number 2.
Speaker #2: But or roughly the price or the price range or something like that. And this is what we can tell about the purchase price with an agreement from the sellers.
Speaker #2: Now, on our side, the rationale is, well, obviously, entering three new markets, which are quite developed Eurozone markets, both in terms of penetration, in terms of income per capita, and in terms of banking services.
Speaker #2: These markets are very advanced in terms of digital services, and that's part of the excitement we have. I mean, to be able to compete in such an advanced market.
Speaker #2: Now, with this acquisition, we have been saying that we like to be, or the optimal position in Central Eastern Europe in the smaller countries is to be number one or number two, maximum.
Speaker #2: Now, Luminor is not number one or number two, but we consider this potential acquisition as creating a growth platform in these countries. And, obviously, our intention or aim is to challenge the market leaders, and that can be done through organic growth.
László Bencsik: We consider this potential acquisition as creating a growth platform in these countries. Obviously our intention or aim is to challenge the market leaders, and that can be done through organic growth, but that also could be done through further acquisitions. This is obviously something we take into consideration when we look at this transaction strategically. Again, we are not able to share with you insights, but we may go as far as if we find the management team very competent and capable and strong, the current management team and the IT developments, what they have achieved during the last couple of years is also very impressive and there's a visible result of that.
László Bencsik: We consider this potential acquisition as creating a growth platform in these countries. Obviously our intention or aim is to challenge the market leaders, and that can be done through organic growth, but that also could be done through further acquisitions. This is obviously something we take into consideration when we look at this transaction strategically. Again, we are not able to share with you insights, but we may go as far as if we find the management team very competent and capable and strong, the current management team and the IT developments, what they have achieved during the last couple of years is also very impressive and there's a visible result of that.
Speaker #2: But that also could be done through further acquisitions. So, this is obviously something we take into consideration when we look at this transaction strategically.
Speaker #2: Again, we are not able to share with you insights, but we may go as far as that we find the management team very competent and capable and strong.
Speaker #2: The current management team and the IT developments what they have achieved during the last couple of years is also very impressive. And there's a visible result of that.
Speaker #2: Luminor actually recently came out with a very new and we consider it very good and very competitive new mobile app, which we believe will considerably strengthen the ability to compete in the retail segment in the country primarily.
László Bencsik: Luminor actually recently came out with a very new, and we consider it very good and very competitive, new mobile app, which we believe will considerably strengthen the ability to compete in the retail segment in these countries primarily. In the next couple of slides, you can see the publicly available information and the pro forma combination of the assets. If we were to combine these assets as pro forma, again, with the Q1, because those are the most current numbers which we have available publicly for Luminor, then it would be like 12% of the total assets, 14% of total loan book, and 22% of total mortgage loans. Actually, mortgage is the strongest part of the Luminor business activity. Also very interesting that if we were to combine with Luminor now, actually, 50% of the loan volumes would be in the Eurozone.
László Bencsik: Luminor actually recently came out with a very new, and we consider it very good and very competitive, new mobile app, which we believe will considerably strengthen the ability to compete in the retail segment in these countries primarily. In the next couple of slides, you can see the publicly available information and the pro forma combination of the assets. If we were to combine these assets as pro forma, again, with the Q1, because those are the most current numbers which we have available publicly for Luminor, then it would be like 12% of the total assets, 14% of total loan book, and 22% of total mortgage loans. Actually, mortgage is the strongest part of the Luminor business activity. Also very interesting that if we were to combine with Luminor now, actually, 50% of the loan volumes would be in the Eurozone.
Speaker #2: In these countries now, in the next couple of slides, you can see the kind of publicly available information and the kind of pro forma combination of the assets.
Speaker #2: So if you were to combine these assets just pro forma at the end of the first quarter because that's those are the most current numbers which we have available publicly for Luminor.
Speaker #2: Then it would be like 12% of the total assets 14% of total loan book. And 22% of total loans. So in total mortgage loans.
Speaker #2: So actually, mortgage is the strongest part of the Luminor kind of business activity. Also, very interesting that if you were to combine with Luminor now, actually the total—I mean, 50% of the loan volumes would be in the Eurozone.
Speaker #2: And that's again, this is potentially important from not just from the kind of primary business, but also from this perspective, maybe for rating and it has kind of wide potentially positive effects on us.
László Bencsik: Again, this is potentially important from- Not just from the kind of primary business, but also from this perspective, maybe for rating, and it has kind of wide potentially positive effects on us. On the following page, you see the detailed information on what available is publicly for Luminor and also for the market. You can see from the penetration numbers that indeed, these markets and the whole region seem to be more similar to developed Western European Eurozone markets than what we typically have at the moment in our portfolio. That is reflected in the kind of higher mortgage loan penetration and the much lower consumer loan penetration. This kind of perhaps meet 3.5% is closer to the most developed Eurozone countries like Germany, Netherlands, and so on. Specifically, Luminor, the return on equity is not particularly strong.
László Bencsik: Again, this is potentially important from- Not just from the kind of primary business, but also from this perspective, maybe for rating, and it has kind of wide potentially positive effects on us. On the following page, you see the detailed information on what available is publicly for Luminor and also for the market. You can see from the penetration numbers that indeed, these markets and the whole region seem to be more similar to developed Western European Eurozone markets than what we typically have at the moment in our portfolio. That is reflected in the kind of higher mortgage loan penetration and the much lower consumer loan penetration. This kind of perhaps meet 3.5% is closer to the most developed Eurozone countries like Germany, Netherlands, and so on. Specifically, Luminor, the return on equity is not particularly strong.
Speaker #2: On the following page, you see the detailed information on what is publicly available for Luminor and also for the market. You can see from the penetration numbers that indeed these markets, and the whole region, seem to be more similar to developed Western European Eurozone markets than what we typically have at the moment in our portfolio.
Speaker #2: And that is reflected in the higher mortgage loan penetration and the much lower consumer loan penetration. I mean, this figure of 3.5% is closer to the most developed Eurozone countries, like Germany, the Netherlands, and so on.
Speaker #2: Specifically for Luminor, the return on equity is not particularly strong. I mean, if you look at last year's numbers, it was 8.6%. This is much less than the comparable two larger and two smaller banks.
László Bencsik: If we look at the last year numbers, 8.6%, this is much less than the comparable two larger and two smaller banks, which you can see on page three at the lower right corner. These are the banks which are active across the region, so directly comparable to Luminor. Luminor falls behind in terms of return on equity. Why? Again, just from outside in, if you look at the numbers, in terms of net interest margin, they seem to do well. In fact, it's better than the market leaders. In cost-to-income ratio, they don't compare very well. That not so good performance in some aspect is always a potential opportunity to improve. This is obviously a theoretical, at this stage, opportunity to maybe improve the profitability ratio of Luminor in the future.
László Bencsik: If we look at the last year numbers, 8.6%, this is much less than the comparable two larger and two smaller banks, which you can see on page three at the lower right corner. These are the banks which are active across the region, so directly comparable to Luminor. Luminor falls behind in terms of return on equity. Why? Again, just from outside in, if you look at the numbers, in terms of net interest margin, they seem to do well. In fact, it's better than the market leaders. In cost-to-income ratio, they don't compare very well. That not so good performance in some aspect is always a potential opportunity to improve. This is obviously a theoretical, at this stage, opportunity to maybe improve the profitability ratio of Luminor in the future.
Speaker #2: But you can see on page three, the lower right corner, these are the banks which are active in across the region. So I'm directly comparable to Luminor.
Speaker #2: And Luminor falls behind in terms of return on equity. So why? I mean, again, just from outside in, if you look at the numbers, in terms of net interest margin, they seem to do well.
Speaker #2: In fact, it's better than the market leaders. But in cost to income ratio, they don't compare very well. And that I mean, that not so good performance in some aspect is always a potential opportunity to improve.
Speaker #2: So this is obviously a theoretical at this stage opportunity to maybe improve the profitability ratio of Luminor in the future. Now, page nine shows this kind of the level of digital maturity of the markets and the scarcity of branch coverage.
László Bencsik: Now, page nine shows this kind of the level of digital maturity of the markets and the scarcity of branch coverage. As you can see, in all the three countries, Luminor itself has 18 branches only, so it's already primary digital. Again, with this new mobile app, which they just came out, it's called Luminor Bloom. We believe that they will be able to compete even more effectively on the digital front. That's what we can say about the story. Obviously, we have to go through the approval process, and that is going to take some time given that it's ECB and also the authorities in all three countries which are relevant here. It is going to be a process taking some time, but we do everything on our side and on the side of the sellers to make it as fast as possible.
László Bencsik: Now, page nine shows this kind of the level of digital maturity of the markets and the scarcity of branch coverage. As you can see, in all the three countries, Luminor itself has 18 branches only, so it's already primary digital. Again, with this new mobile app, which they just came out, it's called Luminor Bloom. We believe that they will be able to compete even more effectively on the digital front. That's what we can say about the story. Obviously, we have to go through the approval process, and that is going to take some time given that it's ECB and also the authorities in all three countries which are relevant here. It is going to be a process taking some time, but we do everything on our side and on the side of the sellers to make it as fast as possible.
Speaker #2: As you can see, in all the three countries, Luminor itself has 18 branches only. So it's already primary digital. And again, with this new mobile app, which they just came out, it's called Luminor Bloom.
Speaker #2: We believe that they will be able to compete even more effectively on the digital front. So that's I mean, what we can say about the story.
Speaker #2: Obviously, we have to go through the approval process. And that is going to take some time, given that it's ECB and also the authorities in all three countries which are relevant.
Speaker #2: Here it is going to be process taking some time. But we do everything on our side and on the side of the sellers to make it as fast as possible.
Speaker #2: And we very much hope that the process will be objective and fair, and in that scenario, we don't see any major roadblocks to success.
László Bencsik: We very much hope that the process will be objective and fair. In that scenario, we don't see any major roadblock to success. On page 10, we go back to the kind of usual series of slides, starting with the story in Hungary. The Hungarian results were even more affected by this cap one-offs that I kind of explained. I didn't explain the quarterly decline on page three on the group level, but I'm going to do it here, because the reason for that came from the Hungarian numbers. There were two events or two factors here. One, I already talked about, and that's the interest rate cap, what we booked. Again, it was 3.4 billion pre-tax and 26 billion after-tax impact. All of this was obviously in the core in Hungary. Plus, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, there was another line which impacted the quarterly difference.
László Bencsik: We very much hope that the process will be objective and fair. In that scenario, we don't see any major roadblock to success. On page 10, we go back to the kind of usual series of slides, starting with the story in Hungary. The Hungarian results were even more affected by this cap one-offs that I kind of explained. I didn't explain the quarterly decline on page three on the group level, but I'm going to do it here, because the reason for that came from the Hungarian numbers. There were two events or two factors here. One, I already talked about, and that's the interest rate cap, what we booked. Again, it was 3.4 billion pre-tax and 26 billion after-tax impact. All of this was obviously in the core in Hungary. Plus, on a quarter-to-quarter basis, there was another line which impacted the quarterly difference.
Speaker #2: On page 10, we go back to the kind of usual theories of slides, starting with the story in Hungary. So the Hungarian results were even more affected by this one of what I kind of explained.
Speaker #2: I didn't explain the quarterly decline on the on page three, on the group level, but I'm going to do it here. Because the reason for that came from the Hungarian numbers.
Speaker #2: I mean, there were two events or two factors here. One, I already talked about and that's the interest rate cap, what we booked. And again, it was 30.4 billion pre-tax and 26 billion after tax impact.
Speaker #2: All of this was obviously in the core in Hungary. Plus, on a quarterly quarter to quarter basis, there was another line which impacted the quarterly difference.
Speaker #2: And that is the on the kind of other income side. The fair value adjustment of the subsidized loans. Now, this is a rather large and growing portfolio.
László Bencsik: That is on the other income side, the fair value adjustment of the subsidized loans. Now, this is a rather large and growing portfolio. It's now more than 2 trillion. It's like 2.2.3 trillion and growing portfolio in Hungary in local currency, in Hungarian forints. It's getting closer to EUR 5 billion equivalents, right? Now we have to fair value adjust this portfolio. Also if there's any kind of swap interest rate swap related to this portfolio. Those swaps have to be fair value adjusted because we can only do hedge accounting, or I would rather say hedge accounting cannot be done if the underlying asset is actually marked to market on a fair value adjustment basis. This is a rather big portfolio, and if the yield curves shift and change their shapes, then the quarterly impact can be actually quite sizable.
László Bencsik: That is on the other income side, the fair value adjustment of the subsidized loans. Now, this is a rather large and growing portfolio. It's now more than 2 trillion. It's like 2.2.3 trillion and growing portfolio in Hungary in local currency, in Hungarian forints. It's getting closer to EUR 5 billion equivalents, right? Now we have to fair value adjust this portfolio. Also if there's any kind of swap interest rate swap related to this portfolio. Those swaps have to be fair value adjusted because we can only do hedge accounting, or I would rather say hedge accounting cannot be done if the underlying asset is actually marked to market on a fair value adjustment basis. This is a rather big portfolio, and if the yield curves shift and change their shapes, then the quarterly impact can be actually quite sizable.
Speaker #2: It's now more than 2 trillion. It's like 2.2, 2.3 trillion and growing portfolio in Hungary. In local currency, in Hungarian forints. I mean, it's getting closer to 5 billion euro.
Speaker #2: Equivalent, right? Now, we have to fair value adjust this portfolio. And also, if there's any kind of swap—interest rate swap—related to this portfolio, those swaps also have to be fair value adjusted, because we can only do hedge accounting, or I would rather say hedge accounting cannot be done if the underlying asset is actually marked to market on a fair value adjustment basis.
Speaker #2: So, this is a rather big portfolio, and if the yield curves shift and change their shapes, then the quarterly impact can be actually quite sizable.
Speaker #2: And what happened was that in the first quarter, we had 20 billion plus, and in the second quarter, we had 20 billion minus. Impact coming from this.
László Bencsik: What happened was that in Q1, we had HUF +20 billion, and in Q2, we had HUF -20 billion impact coming from this. That created the difference of HUF 40 billion between the two quarters. In Hungary, on top of these two, we also reevaluated negatively some investment in subsidiaries, but that only has impact on the numbers in Hungary, on the local numbers. On the consolidated level, they are eliminated, so they don't appear. They actually appear positively because they create a tax shield in Hungary. The impact of this is actually positive somewhat because of the tax shield on group level. The other two obviously appear on the group level as well, the HUF 26 and the HUF 40, and these two were the reason behind the quarterly decline on the group level as well.
László Bencsik: What happened was that in Q1, we had HUF +20 billion, and in Q2, we had HUF -20 billion impact coming from this. That created the difference of HUF 40 billion between the two quarters. In Hungary, on top of these two, we also reevaluated negatively some investment in subsidiaries, but that only has impact on the numbers in Hungary, on the local numbers. On the consolidated level, they are eliminated, so they don't appear. They actually appear positively because they create a tax shield in Hungary. The impact of this is actually positive somewhat because of the tax shield on group level. The other two obviously appear on the group level as well, the HUF 26 and the HUF 40, and these two were the reason behind the quarterly decline on the group level as well.
Speaker #2: And that created the difference of 40 billion between the two quarters. And in Hungary, on top of these two, there was one—we also revaluated negatively some investment in subsidiaries, but that only has impact on the numbers in Hungary; on the local numbers. On the consolidated level, they are eliminated.
Speaker #2: So they don't appear. They actually appear positively because they create a tax shield in Hungary. So the impact of this is actually positive somewhat because of the tax shield on group level.
Speaker #2: But the other two obviously appear on a group level as well, the 26 and the 40. And these two were the reason behind the quarterly decline on the group level as well.
Speaker #2: And they are also the reason behind the quarterly decline at the quarterly level in Hungary. Now, the good news is that in Hungary, this spike—I mean, in the first six months.
László Bencsik: They are also the reason behind the quarterly decline on the quarterly level in Hungary. The good news is that in Hungary, despite in H1, so if you take the six months altogether, then this fair value adjustment of subsidized loans had a very small positive impact, HUF 1 billion or so. The good news is that on a kind of year-to-date level, there's not much impact, but on a quarterly level, there is. The other good news is that actually, if you compare H1 of last year, again, this prorated recognition of one-offs, then the increase in Hungary was 15%, even including the cost of the interest rate cap. Right?
László Bencsik: They are also the reason behind the quarterly decline on the quarterly level in Hungary. The good news is that in Hungary, despite in H1, so if you take the six months altogether, then this fair value adjustment of subsidized loans had a very small positive impact, HUF 1 billion or so. The good news is that on a kind of year-to-date level, there's not much impact, but on a quarterly level, there is. The other good news is that actually, if you compare H1 of last year, again, this prorated recognition of one-offs, then the increase in Hungary was 15%, even including the cost of the interest rate cap. Right?
Speaker #2: So if you take the six months altogether, then this fair value adjustment of subsidized loans had a very small positive impact—a billion or so.
Speaker #2: So the good news is that on a kind of year-to-date level, there's not much impact. But on a quarterly level, there is. And the other good news is that actually, if you compare the first half to last year, again, this pro rata recognition of one-offs, then the increase in Hungary was 15%, even including the cost of the interest rate cap.
Speaker #2: And that obviously comes from A, from the improvement in the net interest margin, which you can see here. On this slide and also from the very strong growth in the portfolios where I'm going to talk about that, the growth rates of the loan portfolio and the deposit portfolio both are very positive in Hungary.
László Bencsik: That obviously comes from, A, from the improvement in the net interest margin, which you can see here on this slide, and also from the very strong growth in the portfolios. I'm going to talk about that, the growth rates of the loan portfolio and the deposit portfolio, both are very positive in Hungary. One more remark on this slide, the credit risk cost rate in Hungary was 55 basis points in H1, which is much higher than last year. Again, the entire growth here is due to the fact that we booked most of the cost of the interest rate cap prolongation here among the risk costs. If this was not there, if it didn't happen, or it had not happened, then we would have had 1 basis point credit risk cost rate in Hungary. Pretty stable portfolio. Okay.
László Bencsik: That obviously comes from, A, from the improvement in the net interest margin, which you can see here on this slide, and also from the very strong growth in the portfolios. I'm going to talk about that, the growth rates of the loan portfolio and the deposit portfolio, both are very positive in Hungary. One more remark on this slide, the credit risk cost rate in Hungary was 55 basis points in H1, which is much higher than last year. Again, the entire growth here is due to the fact that we booked most of the cost of the interest rate cap prolongation here among the risk costs. If this was not there, if it didn't happen, or it had not happened, then we would have had 1 basis point credit risk cost rate in Hungary. Pretty stable portfolio. Okay.
Speaker #2: Now, one more remark on this slide, the credit risk cost rate in Hungary was 55 basis points in the first half, which is much higher than I mean, higher than last year.
Speaker #2: Now, again, the entire growth here was due to the fact that we booked most of the cost of the interest rate cap prolongation here among the risk cost.
Speaker #2: If this was not there, if it didn't happen, then or it had not happened, then we would have had one basis point credit risk cost rate in Hungary.
Speaker #2: So, pretty stable portfolio. Okay, a few more details in Hungary. On page 11, you can see the growth of the home start program—it continues.
László Bencsik: A few more details in Hungary. Page 11, you can see the growth of the Home Start program. It continues. Q2 was just as strong as Q1 in terms of new applications. So far, we haven't heard about modifications of the conditions. As far as we understand, the program continues. As usual, when there's a surge in demand, and especially when the demand is shaped by availability of subsidized programs and subsidized loans are typically more complicated to process in terms of applications than market-based loans, because clients have to prove their eligibility, and the structure is usually more complicated. It requires longer and deeper and more skilled interaction with clients in these situations. Typically, our market share increases, and indeed, this happened during H1 of this year.
László Bencsik: A few more details in Hungary. Page 11, you can see the growth of the Home Start program. It continues. Q2 was just as strong as Q1 in terms of new applications. So far, we haven't heard about modifications of the conditions. As far as we understand, the program continues. As usual, when there's a surge in demand, and especially when the demand is shaped by availability of subsidized programs and subsidized loans are typically more complicated to process in terms of applications than market-based loans, because clients have to prove their eligibility, and the structure is usually more complicated. It requires longer and deeper and more skilled interaction with clients in these situations. Typically, our market share increases, and indeed, this happened during H1 of this year.
Speaker #2: Second quarter was just as strong as the first in terms of new applications. And so far, we haven't heard about modifications of the conditions.
Speaker #2: So as far as we understand, the program continues. And, as usual, when there's a surge in demand—especially when the demand is shaped by the availability of subsidized programs—and subsidized loans are typically more complicated to process in terms of applications than market-based loans, because clients have to prove their eligibility.
Speaker #2: And the structure is usually more complicated. It requires more longer and deeper and more skilled interaction with clients. In these situations, typically our market share increases and indeed this happened during the first half of this year.
Speaker #2: Our market share from new production of mortgage loans went up from this kind of low 30s, which we used to have to close to 40%, which is also something we are quite happy about.
László Bencsik: Our market share from new production of mortgage loans went up from this kind of low 30s, which we used to have, to close to 40%, which is also something we are quite happy about. Following page shows the other retail segments and how they fare. Okay. Cash loans continue to be strong. The baby loan program continues. Again, we haven't heard about changing conditions. There's one interesting number here. It's the market share in retail deposits. As you can see, there is some decline in Q2, which also shows up in the year-to-date numbers. We ended the year last year 41.2%, and now we went down to 40.4%.
László Bencsik: Our market share from new production of mortgage loans went up from this kind of low 30s, which we used to have, to close to 40%, which is also something we are quite happy about. Following page shows the other retail segments and how they fare. Okay. Cash loans continue to be strong. The baby loan program continues. Again, we haven't heard about changing conditions. There's one interesting number here. It's the market share in retail deposits. As you can see, there is some decline in Q2, which also shows up in the year-to-date numbers. We ended the year last year 41.2%, and now we went down to 40.4%.
Speaker #2: The following page shows the other retail segments and how they fare. Cash loans continue to be strong. The baby loan program continues as well. Again, we haven't heard about changing conditions.
Speaker #2: And there's one interesting number here: it's the market share in retail deposits. As you can see, there is some decline in the second quarter, which also shows up in the year-to-date number.
Speaker #2: So, we ended the year last year at 41.2%, and we went down to 40.4%. Now, this is, in our understanding, due to a technical—or, well, a development—that a digital bank which is active in the region started to localize its client base, and they switched the IBAN numbers of their Hungarian clients to Hungarian.
László Bencsik: Now, this is in our understanding, due to a technical, a development that a digital bank, which is active in the region, started to localize its client base, and they switched the IBAN numbers of their Hungarian clients to Hungarian. Apparently, in our understanding, they were actually part of the total market number at the end of 2025 and Q1, which was in fact not quite the case because they were part, but with a zero volume. Technically, this localization and the deposit volumes of this digital player who has Hungarian clients, starts to appear in the overall market numbers, technically from most of it at end of June. We don't know exactly, but our understanding is that most of these volumes appear at end of June, but maybe some parts are going to come through in July, maybe August.
László Bencsik: Now, this is in our understanding, due to a technical, a development that a digital bank, which is active in the region, started to localize its client base, and they switched the IBAN numbers of their Hungarian clients to Hungarian. Apparently, in our understanding, they were actually part of the total market number at the end of 2025 and Q1, which was in fact not quite the case because they were part, but with a zero volume. Technically, this localization and the deposit volumes of this digital player who has Hungarian clients, starts to appear in the overall market numbers, technically from most of it at end of June. We don't know exactly, but our understanding is that most of these volumes appear at end of June, but maybe some parts are going to come through in July, maybe August.
Speaker #2: And apparently, in our understanding, they were actually part of the total market number at the end of '25 and first quarter. Which was, in fact, not quite a case because they were part, but with the zero volume.
Speaker #2: So technically, this localization and the deposit volumes of this digital player, who has clients in Hungarian clients, starts to appear in the overall market numbers technically from most of it at the end of June.
Speaker #2: We don't know exactly. But our understanding is that most of these volumes appear at the end of June, but maybe some part are going to come through in July maybe August.
Speaker #2: But certainly, by the end of August, we should see the impact on the total market numbers coming from this technical reporting change, and that resulted in this decline.
László Bencsik: Certainly by the end of August, we should see the impact on the total market numbers coming from this technical reporting change. That resulted in this decline. Overall saving market share increased, but that is just May numbers, so that's not June. Okay. Corporate. A few words in Hungary. It looks good. Again, we were probably one of the very few banks last year who started to grow, and the growth rate even last year was quite strong, in large corporate and in micro small. Now, the good news is that the large corporate growth continued into H1, and the even better news is that micro small accelerated quite substantially. We have 14% growth in six months in micro small corporate loans in Hungary.
László Bencsik: Certainly by the end of August, we should see the impact on the total market numbers coming from this technical reporting change. That resulted in this decline. Overall saving market share increased, but that is just May numbers, so that's not June. Okay. Corporate. A few words in Hungary. It looks good. Again, we were probably one of the very few banks last year who started to grow, and the growth rate even last year was quite strong, in large corporate and in micro small. Now, the good news is that the large corporate growth continued into H1, and the even better news is that micro small accelerated quite substantially. We have 14% growth in six months in micro small corporate loans in Hungary.
Speaker #2: But overall saving market share increased. But that is just main numbers. So that's not true. Okay. Corporate few words in Hungary. It looks good.
Speaker #2: Again, we were probably one of the very few banks last year who started to grow. And the growth rate even last year was quite strong in large corporate and in micro small.
Speaker #2: Now, the good news is that the large corporate growth continued into the first half and they even better news is that micro small accelerated quite substantially.
Speaker #2: We have 14% growth in six months in micro small corporate loans in Hungary. And as a result of these, our market share continued to increase in terms of loans to Hungarian corporates.
László Bencsik: As a result of this, our market share continued to increase in terms of loans to Hungarian corporates, and now it reaches 22%. A brief overview of our non-Hungarian operations. These are the foreign group members or outside Hungary group members. The overall performance is quite stable, I would say, in terms of profitability. We will go more details into volume growth in loans and deposits in the coming slides. If it's just looking at the profitability, it's typically stable, with some exceptions. The exception, the biggest improvement we see in Uzbekistan in terms of return on equity compared to last year, and that's due to the fact that the share of consumer loans, which have higher margin than other loans, increases. We managed to somewhat optimize the cost of funding, the deposit rates, and the cost of deposits.
László Bencsik: As a result of this, our market share continued to increase in terms of loans to Hungarian corporates, and now it reaches 22%. A brief overview of our non-Hungarian operations. These are the foreign group members or outside Hungary group members. The overall performance is quite stable, I would say, in terms of profitability. We will go more details into volume growth in loans and deposits in the coming slides. If it's just looking at the profitability, it's typically stable, with some exceptions. The exception, the biggest improvement we see in Uzbekistan in terms of return on equity compared to last year, and that's due to the fact that the share of consumer loans, which have higher margin than other loans, increases. We managed to somewhat optimize the cost of funding, the deposit rates, and the cost of deposits.
Speaker #2: And now it reaches 22%. A brief overview of our non-Hungarian operations. So these are the foreign group members, or outside Hungary group members. I mean, the overall performance is quite stable, I would say, in terms of profitability.
Speaker #2: We will go into more detail about volume growth in loans and deposits in the coming slides. But if we just look at the profitability, it's typically stable, with some exceptions.
Speaker #2: So the exception or the biggest improvement we see in Uzbekistan in terms of return on equity compared to last year. And that's due to the fact that the share of consumer loans, which have higher margin than other loans increases, plus we managed to somewhat optimize the cost of funding the deposit rates and the cost of deposits.
Speaker #2: And that translated into better margins, and that translated into higher earnings. Now, on the negative side, we have Russia, where we have a 10% trend-like decline in profitability.
László Bencsik: That translated into better margins, that translated into higher earnings. Now, on the negative side, we have Russia, where we have a trend-like decline in profitability, and this is linked to the fact that what I kind of explained at the beginning of the presentation, that income, the fee income, and other income lines decline in Russia in line with the decline of these overall activities, these transactional activities of our primarily European corporate client base. We also have decline in case of Ukraine, but that is not at all related to the business performance. As you can see, return on equity went down from the kind of high 20s to 17%, but that is due to the fact that the corporate tax doubled. Last year, we had 25%, this year 50%. Even with 50% corporate tax rate, we made 17%, which is kind of okay.
László Bencsik: That translated into better margins, that translated into higher earnings. Now, on the negative side, we have Russia, where we have a trend-like decline in profitability, and this is linked to the fact that what I kind of explained at the beginning of the presentation, that income, the fee income, and other income lines decline in Russia in line with the decline of these overall activities, these transactional activities of our primarily European corporate client base. We also have decline in case of Ukraine, but that is not at all related to the business performance. As you can see, return on equity went down from the kind of high 20s to 17%, but that is due to the fact that the corporate tax doubled. Last year, we had 25%, this year 50%. Even with 50% corporate tax rate, we made 17%, which is kind of okay.
Speaker #2: And this is linked to what I kind of explained at the beginning of the presentation—that income, the fee income, and other income lines decline in Russia in line with the decline of these overall activities, these transactional activities of our primarily European corporate client base.
Speaker #2: We also have decline in case of Ukraine, but that is not at all related to the business performance. As you can see, return on equity went down from the kind of high 20s to 17%.
Speaker #2: But that's due to the fact that the corporate tax doubled. So last year, we had 25%. This year, 50%. And even with 50% corporate tax rate, we made 17%, which is kind of okay.
Speaker #2: The other kind of smaller magnitude decline happened in Serbia. In Serbia, there's not as drastic a decline, but there's also a kind of rate cap, primarily for consumer loans, which was really introduced last year.
László Bencsik: The other kind of smaller magnitude decline happened in Serbia. In Serbia, there is a not as drastic, but there is also a kind of rate cap primarily for consumer loans, which were introduced last year, and that, to some extent, it is actually contracted our margins in Serbia. That is why we have somewhat lower return on equity in Serbia than last year. Now, going back to the kind of cross-section slides, maybe briefly looking at the margins. There was not much, but 3 basis point improvement, at least it is positive quarter-on-quarter in the net interest margin, and you see the biggest components of that. Hungary was unusually, in this period, negative. The reason behind that was not that product level margins declined, it was because there is a surge in the overall total assets. The nominator is 6% growth quarter-on-quarter on the balance sheet.
László Bencsik: The other kind of smaller magnitude decline happened in Serbia. In Serbia, there is a not as drastic, but there is also a kind of rate cap primarily for consumer loans, which were introduced last year, and that, to some extent, it is actually contracted our margins in Serbia. That is why we have somewhat lower return on equity in Serbia than last year. Now, going back to the kind of cross-section slides, maybe briefly looking at the margins. There was not much, but 3 basis point improvement, at least it is positive quarter-on-quarter in the net interest margin, and you see the biggest components of that. Hungary was unusually, in this period, negative. The reason behind that was not that product level margins declined, it was because there is a surge in the overall total assets. The nominator is 6% growth quarter-on-quarter on the balance sheet.
Speaker #2: And that to some extent is actually contracted our margins in Serbia. So that is why we have somewhat lower return on equity in Serbia.
Speaker #2: Than last year. Now, going back to the kind of cross section slides, maybe one briefly looking at the margins. So there was not much, but three basis point improvement, at least it's positive.
Speaker #2: Quarter on quarter and then add interest margin. And you see the biggest components of that. So Hungary was unusually in this period negative but the reason behind that was not that I mean, product level margins decline.
Speaker #2: It was because there is a surge in the overall total assets. So the nominated 6% growth quarter on quarter on the balance sheet. And that came primarily from intergroup placements.
László Bencsik: That came primarily from intragroup placements. Intragroup, placements of the subsidiaries in Hungary increased quite substantially, and that is obviously a close to zero margin activity. Also corporate deposits have quite a surge, and that also a relatively low margin liability side product, especially compared to retail. This kind of composition impact in Hungary. Uzbekistan was positive and the other 4 basis point came from, again, composition. The lower margin countries had lower growth and the higher margin countries had higher growth. In rate sensitivity to the EUR rate and HUF rate, they have not changed much. 120 million to 1 percentage point to the EUR and HUF 23 billion at the 1 percentage point to the HUF rate. Looking at volume dynamics, we are quite happy to see this slide.
László Bencsik: That came primarily from intragroup placements. Intragroup, placements of the subsidiaries in Hungary increased quite substantially, and that is obviously a close to zero margin activity. Also corporate deposits have quite a surge, and that also a relatively low margin liability side product, especially compared to retail. This kind of composition impact in Hungary. Uzbekistan was positive and the other 4 basis point came from, again, composition. The lower margin countries had lower growth and the higher margin countries had higher growth. In rate sensitivity to the EUR rate and HUF rate, they have not changed much. 120 million to 1 percentage point to the EUR and HUF 23 billion at the 1 percentage point to the HUF rate. Looking at volume dynamics, we are quite happy to see this slide.
Speaker #2: So intergroup, so I mean, placements of the subsidiaries in Hungary increased. Quite substantially. And that's obviously close to zero margin activity and also corporate deposits have quite a surge.
Speaker #2: And that also a relatively low margin liability side product, especially compared to retail. And so this kind of composition, in fact, impact in Hungary.
Speaker #2: Uzbekistan was positive and the other four basis point came from, again, compositions. So the lower margin countries had lower growth and a higher margin countries had higher growth.
Speaker #2: Rate sensitivity to the euro rate and half rate. They have not changed much. So 120 million to 1 percentage point to the euro and 23 billion half per 1 percentage point to the half rate.
Speaker #2: Looking at volume dynamics, we are quite happy to see the slides. Slide again, 8% growth in six months. And the quarterly increase was 5%.
László Bencsik: Slide again. 8% growth in 6 months and the quarterly increase was 5%. There is acceleration in the growth rate compared to the Q1. You can see the particularly high performers, highest, Ukraine. Ukraine started to kind of turn on the tap and the growth rate is high. Nominally, you can see the nominal numbers in terms of growth. This 18% growth in Ukraine was nominally less than 10% of the nominal growth in Hungary. I think this shows our commitment to the country and our belief that business can be done profitably even in this environment. We also consider this as an investment into the future of the country. Obviously the biggest country is Hungary. Bulgaria did very well, double-digit growth in 6 months. In Bulgaria, this is the kind of post Eurozone accession impact.
László Bencsik: Slide again. 8% growth in 6 months and the quarterly increase was 5%. There is acceleration in the growth rate compared to the Q1. You can see the particularly high performers, highest, Ukraine. Ukraine started to kind of turn on the tap and the growth rate is high. Nominally, you can see the nominal numbers in terms of growth. This 18% growth in Ukraine was nominally less than 10% of the nominal growth in Hungary. I think this shows our commitment to the country and our belief that business can be done profitably even in this environment. We also consider this as an investment into the future of the country. Obviously the biggest country is Hungary. Bulgaria did very well, double-digit growth in 6 months. In Bulgaria, this is the kind of post Eurozone accession impact.
Speaker #2: So there's acceleration in the growth rate compared to the first quarter. And you can see the particularly high performance—highest in Ukraine. In Ukraine, they decided to kind of turn on the tap, and, I mean, the growth rate is high.
Speaker #2: Nominally, this is not you can see the nominal numbers in terms of growth. So this 18% growth in Ukraine was nominally less than 10% of the nominal growth in Hungary.
Speaker #2: But I think this shows our commitment to the country and I believe that business can be done profitably in even in this environment. And we also consider this as an investment into the future of the country.
Speaker #2: Now, obviously, the biggest countries, Hungary and Bulgaria, did very well. Double-digit growth in six months. And in Bulgaria, this is the kind of post-eurozone accession impact.
Speaker #2: And in Hungary, this is primarily fueled by the housing loan subsidized program—17% growth in the first half, in six months, in mortgages in Hungary, right?
László Bencsik: In Hungary, this is primarily fueled by the housing loan subsidized program, 17% growth in H1 in mortgages in Hungary. Right? The only kind of laggards here is Uzbekistan. I showed you that in terms of profitability, Uzbekistan, Ipoteka Bank already started to improve, but in terms of growth, they are not there yet. The new development here is that we changed the CEO. We have a new CEO, who is a Hungarian gentleman who joined in 2005, I guess, actually to my team in finance. He is a very seasoned and very good manager. He has been the CFO, the Chief Financial Officer of Ipoteka Bank since we acquired it. He is taking over the leadership of the bank. Especially personally me, I believe that this is going to give the right boost to the performance.
László Bencsik: In Hungary, this is primarily fueled by the housing loan subsidized program, 17% growth in H1 in mortgages in Hungary. Right? The only kind of laggards here is Uzbekistan. I showed you that in terms of profitability, Uzbekistan, Ipoteka Bank already started to improve, but in terms of growth, they are not there yet. The new development here is that we changed the CEO. We have a new CEO, who is a Hungarian gentleman who joined in 2005, I guess, actually to my team in finance. He is a very seasoned and very good manager. He has been the CFO, the Chief Financial Officer of Ipoteka Bank since we acquired it. He is taking over the leadership of the bank. Especially personally me, I believe that this is going to give the right boost to the performance.
Speaker #2: Now, the only kind of laggard here is Uzbekistan. So I showed you that in terms of profitability, Uzbekistan, in particular, already started to improve.
Speaker #2: But in terms of growth, they are not there yet. Now, the new development here is that we changed the CEO, so we have a new CEO.
Speaker #2: There's a Hungarian gentleman who joined in 2005, I guess, actually to my team in Finance. And he's a very seasoned and very good manager.
Speaker #2: He has been the CFO, the Chief Financial Officer of Ipoteca since we acquired it, so he's taking over the leadership of the bank. And I, especially personally, believe that this is going to give the right boost to the performance.
Speaker #2: And I personally expect visible improvements over the course of even the next six months, compared to what we have achieved so far. Deposits.
László Bencsik: I personally expect visible improvements over the course of even the next 6 months compared to what we have achieved so far. Deposits year to date, 6%. Again, strong. Especially strong in Hungarian retail and in Bulgarian retail, which are very profitable. These are potentially the most profitable products across the group. That is certainly very important. Overall, a good picture. Quarterly numbers, I am not going to dwell or kind of detail, but again, I think the headline is that 5% H1, loan growth was 8%, Q2 was 5%. There was some acceleration in the growth rate as we have seen. In terms of portfolio quality, stable. Coverage, also stable.
László Bencsik: I personally expect visible improvements over the course of even the next 6 months compared to what we have achieved so far. Deposits year to date, 6%. Again, strong. Especially strong in Hungarian retail and in Bulgarian retail, which are very profitable. These are potentially the most profitable products across the group. That is certainly very important. Overall, a good picture. Quarterly numbers, I am not going to dwell or kind of detail, but again, I think the headline is that 5% H1, loan growth was 8%, Q2 was 5%. There was some acceleration in the growth rate as we have seen. In terms of portfolio quality, stable. Coverage, also stable.
Speaker #2: Year-to-date, 6% again strong. Especially strong in Hungarian retail and in Bulgarian retail, which are very profitable. I mean, these are potentially the most profitable products across the group.
Speaker #2: So that is certainly very important. So overall, good picture. Quarterly numbers—I’m not going to dwell or kind of detail. But again, I think the headline is that 5% first six months’ loan growth was 8%.
Speaker #2: Second quarter was 5. So, there's some acceleration in the growth rate that we have seen. In terms of portfolio quality, stable. Coverage also stable.
Speaker #2: And again, the risk cost rate second quarter was higher, but that was due to the fact that we booked this one-off charge. For the rate cap as a risk cost most of it.
László Bencsik: Again, the risk cost rate, Q2 was higher, but that was due to the fact that we booked this one-off charge for the rate cap as a risk cost, most of it. In terms of capital position, 17.6% Tier 1 ratio. We consider this strong. You can see the year to date development of the factors and the decomposition. The kind of profit, the normalized profit generated 1.9 percentage points Common Equity Tier 1 percentage point Tier 1 equivalent. That shows the capital generation potential. I mean, is it high? Is it low, 17.6? I am sure there will be questions about this.
László Bencsik: Again, the risk cost rate, Q2 was higher, but that was due to the fact that we booked this one-off charge for the rate cap as a risk cost, most of it. In terms of capital position, 17.6% Tier 1 ratio. We consider this strong. You can see the year to date development of the factors and the decomposition. The kind of profit, the normalized profit generated 1.9 percentage points Common Equity Tier 1 percentage point Tier 1 equivalent. That shows the capital generation potential. I mean, is it high? Is it low, 17.6? I am sure there will be questions about this.
Speaker #2: In terms of capital position, the 17.6% Tier 1 ratio we consider strong. You can see the year-to-date development of the factors.
Speaker #2: The decomposition. So the kind of profit, the normalized profit, generated 1.9 percentage points Tier 1 Common Equity, 1 percentage point Tier 1 equivalent. So that shows the capital generation potential.
Speaker #2: Yeah. I mean, is it high? Is it low? 17.6. You may know I'm sure there will be questions about this. I mean, we believe that this 17.6 is somewhat higher than the optimal if you believe that the optimal is that we want to be at the kind of one of the strongest in this pack in this group of comparable banks.
László Bencsik: I mean, we believe that this 17.6 is somewhat higher than the optimal, if you believe that the optimal is that we want to be at the kind of one of the strongest in this pack, in this group of comparable banks. Now we seem to be quite at kind of an outlier in the higher end. I mean, Raiffeisen, obviously, because of the large exposure in some high-risk countries, they may not be the best benchmark here. The good news is that we found a solution, and we hope that I mean, not just hope, we believe we found a solution which actually creates value for shareholders, and that is an acquisition. With the Luminor acquisition, we believe will bring this ratio to this range what we kind of target compared to these banks. In terms of liquidity, I mean, liquidity remains stable.
László Bencsik: I mean, we believe that this 17.6 is somewhat higher than the optimal, if you believe that the optimal is that we want to be at the kind of one of the strongest in this pack, in this group of comparable banks. Now we seem to be quite at kind of an outlier in the higher end. I mean, Raiffeisen, obviously, because of the large exposure in some high-risk countries, they may not be the best benchmark here. The good news is that we found a solution, and we hope that I mean, not just hope, we believe we found a solution which actually creates value for shareholders, and that is an acquisition. With the Luminor acquisition, we believe will bring this ratio to this range what we kind of target compared to these banks. In terms of liquidity, I mean, liquidity remains stable.
Speaker #2: And now we seem to be quite a bit of an outlier at the higher end. I mean, Raiffeisen, obviously, because of the large exposure in some high-risk countries, may not be the best benchmark here.
Speaker #2: But the good news is that we found the solution, and we hope that—we, I mean, not just hope—we believe we found the solution which actually creates value for shareholders.
Speaker #2: And that is an acquisition with the Luminor acquisition. We believe we'll bring this ratio to this range what we kind of target compared to these banks.
Speaker #2: In terms of liquidity, I mean, liquidity remains stable. Loan to deposit ratio 78%. Liquidity coverage ratio above 200%. That's stable funding above 150%. And in the second quarter, we made a benchmark tier two and now we moved the benchmarked up from 500 to million to 1 billion.
László Bencsik: Loan to deposit ratio, 78%. Liquidity coverage ratio, above 200%, and stable funding above 150%. In Q2, we made a benchmark Tier 2, and now we moved the benchmark up from EUR 500 million to EUR 1 billion. This was our largest ever issuance, and we consider it quite successful. That further strengthened our, not just our capital, but also our liquidity position as well. Having said that, we are still not very much leveraged. The leverage is quite low. If you look at the total wholesale debt to total assets, it is 8%, which we consider still quite low. We were, I mean, in 2008 when the global financial crisis hit us, and hit us hard, that was actually 25%. This is, we consider comparatively low still. There has not been much movement on the rating.
László Bencsik: Loan to deposit ratio, 78%. Liquidity coverage ratio, above 200%, and stable funding above 150%. In Q2, we made a benchmark Tier 2, and now we moved the benchmark up from EUR 500 million to EUR 1 billion. This was our largest ever issuance, and we consider it quite successful. That further strengthened our, not just our capital, but also our liquidity position as well. Having said that, we are still not very much leveraged. The leverage is quite low. If you look at the total wholesale debt to total assets, it is 8%, which we consider still quite low. We were, I mean, in 2008 when the global financial crisis hit us, and hit us hard, that was actually 25%. This is, we consider comparatively low still. There has not been much movement on the rating.
Speaker #2: So this is our largest-ever issuance, and we consider it quite successful. That further strengthened not just our capital, but also our liquidity position as well.
Speaker #2: Having said that, we are still not very much levered. The leverage is quite low. So if you look at the total wholesale debt to total assets, it's 8%, which we consider still quite low.
Speaker #2: We were, I mean, in 2008 when the global financial crisis hit us, hit us hard, that was actually 25%. So this is we consider comparatively low still.
Speaker #2: There hasn't been much movement on the rating. However, we are potentially optimistic in terms of the future, coming from two factors. One, that the new economic policy of the newly elected government in Hungary is obviously, we believe, rating-friendly.
László Bencsik: However, we are potentially optimistic in terms of the future, coming from two factors. One, that the economic policies of the newly elected government in Hungary are obviously, we believe, rating friendly. Obviously they will also have to deliver and not just set targets and policy frameworks, but a good framework is important. Delivery is even more important. That makes us optimistic in terms of potential future rating developments. The other factor is, I mean, obviously, buying an asset in three Eurozone countries, with a better rating than ours should have a positive impact on this consideration as well. Another outside-in perspective on us. I mean, I am sure it is not a big thing for you because you are investing in many very successful large global companies.
László Bencsik: However, we are potentially optimistic in terms of the future, coming from two factors. One, that the economic policies of the newly elected government in Hungary are obviously, we believe, rating friendly. Obviously they will also have to deliver and not just set targets and policy frameworks, but a good framework is important. Delivery is even more important. That makes us optimistic in terms of potential future rating developments. The other factor is, I mean, obviously, buying an asset in three Eurozone countries, with a better rating than ours should have a positive impact on this consideration as well. Another outside-in perspective on us. I mean, I am sure it is not a big thing for you because you are investing in many very successful large global companies.
Speaker #2: So, obviously, they also have to deliver—not just set targets and policy frameworks. A good framework is important, but delivery is even more important.
Speaker #2: But that makes us optimistic in terms of potential future rating developments. And the other factor is, I mean, obviously, buying an asset in three eurozone countries with a better rating than ours should have a positive impact on this consideration as well.
Speaker #2: Another outside-in perspective on us—I mean, I'm sure it's not a big thing for you because you have invested in many very successful, large, global companies.
Speaker #2: But for us, it was actually quite important that our ranking in the Forbes Global 2000 improved considerably. And now we are part of the elite group of top 400 corporate entities.
László Bencsik: For us, it was actually quite important that our ranking in the Forbes Global 2000 improved considerably, and now we are in part of the elite group of top 400 entities, corporate entities. That is something we are quite happy about. Then some more kind of self-marketing slides. There is not much change on this, page 26, 27. We have seen these. We continue with green lending. On 28, you can see, you may remember that we set this target to reach 1.5 trillion HUF equivalent of green loans stock. We did that in 2022. We overachieved at the end of 2025, but we did not stop. We did not want to stop, this has further developed, and now we are close to 2 trillion HUF green loans stock volume. That is, I mean, that is getting closer to EUR 5 billion. Now maybe a few words about expectations.
László Bencsik: For us, it was actually quite important that our ranking in the Forbes Global 2000 improved considerably, and now we are in part of the elite group of top 400 entities, corporate entities. That is something we are quite happy about. Then some more kind of self-marketing slides. There is not much change on this, page 26, 27. We have seen these. We continue with green lending. On 28, you can see, you may remember that we set this target to reach 1.5 trillion HUF equivalent of green loans stock. We did that in 2022. We overachieved at the end of 2025, but we did not stop. We did not want to stop, this has further developed, and now we are close to 2 trillion HUF green loans stock volume. That is, I mean, that is getting closer to EUR 5 billion. Now maybe a few words about expectations.
Speaker #2: So that's something we are quite happy about. And then some more kind of self-marketing slides. There's not much change on this page 26, 27.
Speaker #2: We have seen these. We continue with green lending. So, in '28, you can see, you may remember that we set this target to reach 1.5 trillion HUF equivalent of green loan stock.
Speaker #2: We did that in '22. We overachieved at the end of '25. But we did not stop—we didn't want to stop. So this has further developed.
Speaker #2: And now we are close to 2 trillion in green loan stock volume. That’s, I mean, that’s getting closer to 5 billion. Now maybe a few words about expectations.
Speaker #2: In terms of macro, I mean, there's volatility. I'm sure you are also very much subject to it, coming from the war in Iran and the US strategies regarding that difficult situation, and so therefore expectations are volatile.
László Bencsik: In terms of macro, there is a volatility, I am sure you are also very much subject to, coming from the war in Ukraine and the US strategies regarding that difficult situation, expectations are volatile, so to say. If you put that, plus, the heat and the drought and the scarcity of water, actually, it is a current issue in Hungary, nevertheless, we believe that it is not going to have a major material impact on the overall kind of forecast numbers for this year. We still believe that these are the expected numbers. Now, what we see as a kind of regional trend that we have had couple of years when Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, has done better and Central or Northern Europe has done somewhat not so better, some normalization seems to happen.
László Bencsik: In terms of macro, there is a volatility, I am sure you are also very much subject to, coming from the war in Ukraine and the US strategies regarding that difficult situation, expectations are volatile, so to say. If you put that, plus, the heat and the drought and the scarcity of water, actually, it is a current issue in Hungary, nevertheless, we believe that it is not going to have a major material impact on the overall kind of forecast numbers for this year. We still believe that these are the expected numbers. Now, what we see as a kind of regional trend that we have had couple of years when Southern Europe, the Mediterranean, has done better and Central or Northern Europe has done somewhat not so better, some normalization seems to happen.
Speaker #2: So to say. But if you put that as, and plus it's the heat and the drought and the scarcity of water is—actually, it's the current issue in Hungary.
Speaker #2: But nevertheless, we believe that it's not going to have a major material impact on the overall forecast numbers for this year. So we still believe that these are the expected numbers.
Speaker #2: Now what we see kind of as a kind of regional trend that we have had a couple of years when Southern Europe, the Mediterranean has done better and the kind of central or Northern Europe has done somewhat not so better.
Speaker #2: But some normalization seems to be happening. So the Mediterranean, at least in our portfolio where we focus, seems to have slowed down somewhat, and the central and northern parts of Europe are starting to perform somewhat better.
László Bencsik: The Mediterranean seem to, at least in our portfolio, where we focus on, seem to slow down somewhat and Central and Northern part of Europe starts to perform somewhat better. There's some normalization of this growth difference what we have had during the last couple of years. Other than that, we do not see a major impact on the macro, other than what we told about the potentially higher energy prices translate into higher inflation and higher rate environment, at least temporarily, as long as the conflict lasts in the Gulf. In terms of guidance, we decided to modify some of the guidance in one respect regarding the net interest margin. Again, I think now we can reasonably safely predict that the net interest margin this year is going to be higher, exceed last year, and not just to be around it.
László Bencsik: The Mediterranean seem to, at least in our portfolio, where we focus on, seem to slow down somewhat and Central and Northern part of Europe starts to perform somewhat better. There's some normalization of this growth difference what we have had during the last couple of years. Other than that, we do not see a major impact on the macro, other than what we told about the potentially higher energy prices translate into higher inflation and higher rate environment, at least temporarily, as long as the conflict lasts in the Gulf. In terms of guidance, we decided to modify some of the guidance in one respect regarding the net interest margin. Again, I think now we can reasonably safely predict that the net interest margin this year is going to be higher, exceed last year, and not just to be around it.
Speaker #2: So there's some normalization of this growth difference that we have had during the last couple of years. Other than that, we don't see a major impact on the macro.
Speaker #2: Other than what we kind of talked about that potentially higher energy prices translate into higher inflation and higher rate environment. At least temporarily as long as the conflict lasts in the Gulf.
Speaker #2: In terms of guidance, we decided to modify somewhat the guidance in one respect. Regarding the net interest margin, again, it's I think now we can reasonably safely predict that the net interest margin this year is going to be higher exceed last year and not just to be around it.
Speaker #2: On all the other lines, we keep the previous guidance and you can judge yourself whether the risks are up or down on those lines.
László Bencsik: On all the other lines, we keep the previous guidance, and you can judge yourself whether the risks are up or down on those lines. There's a bunch of other cross-section slides going through each line of the balance sheet, the P&L, sorry. If you have interest or if your questions will target them, I'm going to talk about them as part of the formal presentation. I'll finish here, and I like to ask you to ask your excellent questions.
László Bencsik: On all the other lines, we keep the previous guidance, and you can judge yourself whether the risks are up or down on those lines. There's a bunch of other cross-section slides going through each line of the balance sheet, the P&L, sorry. If you have interest or if your questions will target them, I'm going to talk about them as part of the formal presentation. I'll finish here, and I like to ask you to ask your excellent questions.
Speaker #2: There are a bunch of other cross-section slides, going through each line of the balance sheet—the P&L, sorry. So if you have interest, or if you have questions, we'll target them.
Speaker #2: I'm going to talk about something as part of the formal presentation, so I'll finish here. And I'd like to ask you to ask your excellent questions.
Speaker #1: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now proceed with the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand icon to indicate or press star 9 on your phone's dial pad.
Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now proceed with the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand icon to indicate or press star nine on your phone's dial pad. The first question is from Gulnara Saitkulova, Morgan Stanley.
Operator: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We will now proceed with the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand icon to indicate or press star nine on your phone's dial pad. The first question is from Gulnara Saitkulova, Morgan Stanley.
Speaker #1: The first question is from Gulnara Shaitkulova Morgen Stanley.
Speaker #3: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. When it comes to Luminar, where do you see the greatest opportunities to create value under your ownership?
Gulnara Saitkulova: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. When it comes to Luminor, where do you see the greatest opportunities to create value under your ownership? At the same time, what do you see as the key execution risks associated with acquisition, both in terms of integrating the business and operating in a market where OTP has not previously had a presence? You mentioned that you aim to become number one or number two in the Baltic market. However, the Baltic banking market is highly competitive. There are well-established Nordic incumbents, as well as digital challengers such as Revolut. What do you see as OTP's and Luminor's key competitive advantages in this market, and how do you plan to strengthen Luminor's competitive position over the medium term? In addition, on the slide eight, you highlighted that Luminor's cost-to-income ratio is materially higher than that of the Baltic peers.
Gulnara Saitkulova: Hi, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. When it comes to Luminor, where do you see the greatest opportunities to create value under your ownership? At the same time, what do you see as the key execution risks associated with acquisition, both in terms of integrating the business and operating in a market where OTP has not previously had a presence? You mentioned that you aim to become number one or number two in the Baltic market. However, the Baltic banking market is highly competitive. There are well-established Nordic incumbents, as well as digital challengers such as Revolut. What do you see as OTP's and Luminor's key competitive advantages in this market, and how do you plan to strengthen Luminor's competitive position over the medium term? In addition, on the slide eight, you highlighted that Luminor's cost-to-income ratio is materially higher than that of the Baltic peers.
Speaker #3: At the same time, what do you see as the key execution risks associated with the acquisition, both in terms of integrating the business and operating in the market where OTP has not previously had a presence?
Speaker #3: And you mentioned that you aim to become number one or number two in the Baltic market. However, the Baltic banking market is highly competitive.
Speaker #3: There are well-established Nordic incumbents, as well as digital challengers such as Revolut. What do you see as OTPs and Luminar's key competitive advantages in this market?
Speaker #3: And how do you plan to strengthen Luminar's competitive position over the medium term? In addition on the slide 8, you highlighted that Luminar's cost to income ratio is materially higher than that of the Baltic peers.
Speaker #3: What are the main operational levers you intend to pull to improve the efficiency and narrow this gap? Do you think this will require material upfront investment from your side?
Gulnara Saitkulova: What are the main operational levers you intend to pull to improve the efficiency and narrow this gap? Do you think this will require material upfront investment from your side? Are there any areas of the business of Luminor where you can see scope for improvement or the profitability? Thank you.
Gulnara Saitkulova: What are the main operational levers you intend to pull to improve the efficiency and narrow this gap? Do you think this will require material upfront investment from your side? Are there any areas of the business of Luminor where you can see scope for improvement or the profitability? Thank you.
Speaker #3: And are there any areas of the business of Luminar where you can see scope for improvement or the profitability? Thank you.
Speaker #2: Wow, that was a very detailed question. We would like to challenge the market leaders, and if you look at the numbers, they have a 12% market share across the Baltics.
László Bencsik: Wow, that was a very detailed question. Now, what I said exactly was that we would like to challenge the market leaders, if you look at the numbers, they have 12% market share across the Baltics. In terms of loan, the number 2 player has 21, that's quite a big gap. As an aspiration, this gap should be closed or at least should decline. What else would be a target to buy a bank than to grow it, right? Again, I don't think it's a secret that we may look into other acquisition opportunities in these markets. to strengthen the position of Luminor through acquisition. It's typically not easy to grow through market shares organically. That's usually a very costly exercise, nevertheless, possible.
László Bencsik: Wow, that was a very detailed question. Now, what I said exactly was that we would like to challenge the market leaders, if you look at the numbers, they have 12% market share across the Baltics. In terms of loan, the number 2 player has 21, that's quite a big gap. As an aspiration, this gap should be closed or at least should decline. What else would be a target to buy a bank than to grow it, right? Again, I don't think it's a secret that we may look into other acquisition opportunities in these markets. to strengthen the position of Luminor through acquisition. It's typically not easy to grow through market shares organically. That's usually a very costly exercise, nevertheless, possible.
Speaker #2: In terms of loan, the number two player has 21. So that's quite a big gap. And as an aspiration, this gap should be closed, or at least should decline.
Speaker #2: I mean, why what else would be a target to buy a bank than to grow it, right? And again, I don't think it's a secret that we may look into other acquisition opportunities in these markets.
Speaker #2: To strengthen the position of Luminar through acquisition is typically not easy; to grow market share organically is usually a very costly exercise.
Speaker #2: Nevertheless, possible. Now, all of your other questions I have answers to more or less, or we have strong views on those, but I don't think I'm able to share with you.
László Bencsik: Now, all of your other questions, I have answers to, more or less, or we have strong views on those, I don't think I'm able to share with you. We have a non-disclosure agreement, I cannot tell you anything where the information comes from other than publicly available sources. At this stage, I won't be able to have an answer, because operational levers, and so on and so on, and how to improve the cost-to-income ratio, I would need to share with you information which I'm not allowed to do. Right? Therefore, in terms of communication, we have to remain on that level. If you go to page eight, I think it's very clear that there's an opportunity. If bigger banks and even smaller banks can operate with a much lower cost-to-income ratio, then there may be an opportunity to improve this.
László Bencsik: Now, all of your other questions, I have answers to, more or less, or we have strong views on those, I don't think I'm able to share with you. We have a non-disclosure agreement, I cannot tell you anything where the information comes from other than publicly available sources. At this stage, I won't be able to have an answer, because operational levers, and so on and so on, and how to improve the cost-to-income ratio, I would need to share with you information which I'm not allowed to do. Right? Therefore, in terms of communication, we have to remain on that level. If you go to page eight, I think it's very clear that there's an opportunity. If bigger banks and even smaller banks can operate with a much lower cost-to-income ratio, then there may be an opportunity to improve this.
Speaker #2: I mean, we have a non-disclosure agreement. So I cannot tell you anything which where the information comes from other than publicly available sources. So at this stage, we are we won't be able I won't be able to have an answer because operationally levers and so on and so on and how to improve the cost to income ratio that would mean to share with you information which I'm not allowed to do, right?
Speaker #2: So this is so therefore, I think we have to in terms of communication, we have to remain on that level. So if you go to page 8, I think it's very clear that there's an opportunity.
Speaker #2: If bigger banks and even smaller banks can operate with a much lower cost to income ratio than there may be an opportunity, to improve this.
Speaker #2: But to be but I'm not in a position to share with you where if at all we see opportunities, right? Because I mean, it's just I mean, we have not closed the transaction.
László Bencsik: I'm not in a position to share with you where, if at all, we see opportunities, right? Because we have not closed the transaction. In terms of risk of integrating the bank, I don't see We acquired 14 banks in the last 12 years, many of them were in new markets, and some of them were much, much less developed in terms of the market where they operate, in terms of the supervisory environment they operate, and in terms of their operations or management. I think the risk of integrating Luminor to OTP Group is much less than the risk what we have faced in most of the cases during the last 12 years throughout these 14 acquisitions, either because the country and the entity was less developed and/or because we actually had to merge entities. There's no merger here, right?
László Bencsik: I'm not in a position to share with you where, if at all, we see opportunities, right? Because we have not closed the transaction. In terms of risk of integrating the bank, I don't see We acquired 14 banks in the last 12 years, many of them were in new markets, and some of them were much, much less developed in terms of the market where they operate, in terms of the supervisory environment they operate, and in terms of their operations or management. I think the risk of integrating Luminor to OTP Group is much less than the risk what we have faced in most of the cases during the last 12 years throughout these 14 acquisitions, either because the country and the entity was less developed and/or because we actually had to merge entities. There's no merger here, right?
Speaker #2: And in terms of risk of integrating the bank, I don't see I mean, we have done these I mean, we acquired 14 banks in the last 12 years.
Speaker #2: And many of them were in new markets. And some of them were much, much less developed in terms of and in terms of the market where they operate in terms of the supervisory environment they operate and in terms of their operations or management.
Speaker #2: So I think the risk of integrating Luminar to OTP Group is much less than the risk what we have faced in most of the cases in this kind during the last 12 years throughout this 14 acquisitions.
Speaker #2: Either because the country and the entity was less developed or and or because we actually had to merge entities. There's no merger here, right?
Speaker #2: So, it's just that we only have to include it into our kind of group activities. Plus, again, I think this—you may consider this sensitive, but maybe not, because, I mean, we know that you could, you know, the names as well of the management team.
László Bencsik: We only have to include it into our group activities. Plus, again, I think this is you may consider this sensitive, but maybe not, because you know the names as well of the management team. We consider the management team quite strong. No. We consider this as low risk in terms of integration to the group. I'm sorry, I'm just not in a position to answer your very detailed and very pertinent questions, I must say. Indeed, these are the right questions to ask, and these were the questions what we asked ourselves when we did the due diligence and when we did the modeling of the expected financial performance.
László Bencsik: We only have to include it into our group activities. Plus, again, I think this is you may consider this sensitive, but maybe not, because you know the names as well of the management team. We consider the management team quite strong. No. We consider this as low risk in terms of integration to the group. I'm sorry, I'm just not in a position to answer your very detailed and very pertinent questions, I must say. Indeed, these are the right questions to ask, and these were the questions what we asked ourselves when we did the due diligence and when we did the modeling of the expected financial performance.
Speaker #2: We consider the management team quite strong. So we no, we consider this as low risk in terms of integration to the group. And I'm sorry, I'm not just not in a position to answer your very detailed and very pertinent questions, I must say, indeed these are the right questions to ask.
Speaker #2: And these were the questions what we asked ourselves. When we did the due diligence and when we did the modeling of the expected financial performance.
Speaker #3: That's fair. Thank you very much.
Gulnara Saitkulova: That's fair. Thank you very much.
Gulnara Saitkulova: That's fair. Thank you very much.
Speaker #2: Thank you.
László Bencsik: Thank you.
László Bencsik: Thank you.
Speaker #3: Thank you so much. And the next question is from Gabor Kemény, Autonomous Research.
Operator: Thank you so much. The next question is from Gabor Kemeny, Autonomous Research.
Operator: Thank you so much. The next question is from Gabor Kemeny, Autonomous Research.
Speaker #4: Hello. Can I please follow up on Luminar? I think the way you phrased it that you were hoping for a fair and objective approval process here.
Gabor Kemeny: Hello. Can I please follow up on Luminor? I think the way you phrased it, that you were hoping for a fair and objective approval process here. How concerned are you that this may not be the case on some of your approval processes in previous M&As, like Slovenia has been dragged on for quite some time. We saw some press reports about OTP's Russian exposure coming up, your views on this would be interesting. Secondly, on your point of high or advanced digital adoption in the Baltic markets, what is your point here? Does this mean that you might actually not have too many low-hanging fruits to save on costs? Would this mean that the rest of the organization can potentially learn from the more digitally advanced Baltic operations?
Gabor Kemeny: Hello. Can I please follow up on Luminor? I think the way you phrased it, that you were hoping for a fair and objective approval process here. How concerned are you that this may not be the case on some of your approval processes in previous M&As, like Slovenia has been dragged on for quite some time. We saw some press reports about OTP's Russian exposure coming up, your views on this would be interesting. Secondly, on your point of high or advanced digital adoption in the Baltic markets, what is your point here? Does this mean that you might actually not have too many low-hanging fruits to save on costs? Would this mean that the rest of the organization can potentially learn from the more digitally advanced Baltic operations?
Speaker #4: How concerned are you that this may not be the case? I mean, some of your approval processes in previous M&A deals, like Slovenia—I think Dragon took quite some time.
Speaker #4: We saw some press reports about OTP's Russian exposure coming up. So your views on this would be interesting. Secondly, on your point of high or advanced digital adoption, in the Baltic markets, I mean, what is your point here?
Speaker #4: I mean, does this mean that you might actually not have too many low-hanging fruits to save on costs? Would this mean that the rest of the organization can potentially learn from the more digitally advanced Baltic operations or could this mean that how do you think about the physical branch the physical network of 18 branches?
Gabor Kemeny: Could this mean that, how do you think about the physical branch and the physical network of 18 branches? Is this the optimal level? Your thoughts on that would be helpful. Finally, on the Home Start program and Hungarian loan growth topic, what are your latest thoughts about the sustainable growth rate here? I think you mentioned on a previous call when we spoke about it, that the mortgages could potentially grow at a double-digit rate, even without the subsidies. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts, to what extent are we seeing a front-loading of demand ahead of the market potentially moving to standard rates. Thank you.
Gabor Kemeny: Could this mean that, how do you think about the physical branch and the physical network of 18 branches? Is this the optimal level? Your thoughts on that would be helpful. Finally, on the Home Start program and Hungarian loan growth topic, what are your latest thoughts about the sustainable growth rate here? I think you mentioned on a previous call when we spoke about it, that the mortgages could potentially grow at a double-digit rate, even without the subsidies. It would be interesting to hear your thoughts, to what extent are we seeing a front-loading of demand ahead of the market potentially moving to standard rates. Thank you.
Speaker #4: Is this the optimal level? Your thoughts on that would be helpful. And then finally, on the home start program and Hungarian loan the Hungarian loan growth topic, what are your latest thoughts about the sustainable growth rate here?
Speaker #4: I think you mentioned on a previous call when we spoke about it that the mortgage is could potentially grow at a double-digit rate. Even without the subsidies, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts to what extent are we seeing a front-loading of demand ahead of the market potentially moving to standard rates.
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Speaker #2: In terms of the approval process, indeed it's a very I mean, put it this way, the nature of OTP Group is somewhat politically sensitive.
László Bencsik: In terms of the approval process, indeed, put it this way, the nature of OTP Group is somewhat politically sensitive in the Baltics. We openly acknowledge that sensitivity and take it very seriously. I think we have to put effort into transparently communicate what we do, how we do it, and why it should not be a problem for any of the Baltic countries. Somehow communicate the OTP story, our strength, what we have achieved, what we typically bring to a country, and what we could bring to Luminor. Also our commitment and dedication in supporting Ukraine, and taking the risk there and being potentially the most active non-local banks in terms of growth rates and everything. I think we have to make a good effort to create a transparent and fair view of the group.
László Bencsik: In terms of the approval process, indeed, put it this way, the nature of OTP Group is somewhat politically sensitive in the Baltics. We openly acknowledge that sensitivity and take it very seriously. I think we have to put effort into transparently communicate what we do, how we do it, and why it should not be a problem for any of the Baltic countries. Somehow communicate the OTP story, our strength, what we have achieved, what we typically bring to a country, and what we could bring to Luminor. Also our commitment and dedication in supporting Ukraine, and taking the risk there and being potentially the most active non-local banks in terms of growth rates and everything. I think we have to make a good effort to create a transparent and fair view of the group.
Speaker #2: In the Baltics, and we have to I mean, and we openly acknowledge that sensitivity and take it very seriously. So this is so we I think we have to put effort into transparently communicate what we do, how we do it, and why it's not it should not be a problem for any of the Baltic countries.
Speaker #2: And somewhere and somehow communicate the OTP story, our strength, what we have achieved, what we typically bring to a country and what we could bring to Luminar and also our commitment and dedication in supporting Ukraine and taking the risk there and being potentially the most active non-local banks in terms of growth rate and everything.
Speaker #2: So I think we have to make a good effort to create a transparent and fair view of the group. And somehow focus on the facts and the objective parts of the story we cannot and we don't want to be kind of politically involved, but as we have seen, across Europe, cross-border acquisitions can develop into local can become part of local political discussions or agendas, right?
László Bencsik: Somehow focus on the facts and the objective parts of the story. We cannot and we don't want to be politically involved. But as we have seen across Europe, cross-border acquisitions can become part of local political discussions or agendas, right? In case of much bigger countries, we have seen that happening. I think this is unfortunate in Europe. This is not healthy for Europe. This is there. We have to take it seriously, and we will take it seriously. Obviously, we have consulted with the local supervisors and with ECB prior to this transaction, these discussions made us believe that objectively, there doesn't seem to be any potential big roadblock to transaction. Nevertheless, it will take time, and we have to manage this process or contribute to this process as much as we can.
László Bencsik: Somehow focus on the facts and the objective parts of the story. We cannot and we don't want to be politically involved. But as we have seen across Europe, cross-border acquisitions can become part of local political discussions or agendas, right? In case of much bigger countries, we have seen that happening. I think this is unfortunate in Europe. This is not healthy for Europe. This is there. We have to take it seriously, and we will take it seriously. Obviously, we have consulted with the local supervisors and with ECB prior to this transaction, these discussions made us believe that objectively, there doesn't seem to be any potential big roadblock to transaction. Nevertheless, it will take time, and we have to manage this process or contribute to this process as much as we can.
Speaker #2: In the case of much bigger countries, we have seen that happening, right? And I think this is unfortunate in Europe. This is not healthy for Europe.
Speaker #2: But this is there we have to take it seriously and we will take it seriously. Obviously, we have consulted with the local supervisors and with ECB prior to this transaction and also these discussions made us believe that objectively that doesn't seem to be any potential big roadblock to transaction.
Speaker #2: But nevertheless, it will take time and we have to manage this process or kind of contribute to this process as much as we can.
Speaker #2: I think this is what I can say at this stage. In terms of the nature of digital development and why I think it's good, because you are as strong as your competitors make you, right?
László Bencsik: I think this is what I can say at this stage. In terms of the nature of digital development and why I think it's good, because you are as strong as your competitors make you, right? You get better and stronger by competing with better and stronger competitors. Actually it would be a potential mistake to stay out of one of the most developed markets digitally in Europe, because then you are not part of the real happening, right? Yes, I am sure we will learn from these markets, learning which we can apply in some other parts of the group. I also believe that we can contribute from the quite broad experience, what we have in terms of different geographies and market situations and potential developments.
László Bencsik: I think this is what I can say at this stage. In terms of the nature of digital development and why I think it's good, because you are as strong as your competitors make you, right? You get better and stronger by competing with better and stronger competitors. Actually it would be a potential mistake to stay out of one of the most developed markets digitally in Europe, because then you are not part of the real happening, right? Yes, I am sure we will learn from these markets, learning which we can apply in some other parts of the group. I also believe that we can contribute from the quite broad experience, what we have in terms of different geographies and market situations and potential developments.
Speaker #2: You get better and stronger by competing with better and stronger competitors. So actually, it would be a potential mistake to stay out of one of the most developed markets digitally in Europe, because then you are not part of the real happening, right?
Speaker #2: And yes, I mean, I'm sure we will learn from these markets which learning which can apply in some other parts of the group. But I also believe that we can contribute from a quite broad experience what we have in terms of different geographies and market situations and potential developments.
László Bencsik: The Home Start program, I think the first question, your question was very good, even more exciting question, I think is, how long this is going to continue? So far, we don't see the end of it. We haven't heard any plans to change the structure or the level of subsidy or whatever. This is certainly, as far as we can tell, this continues, right? Obviously, the longer it continues We take this commitment by the government to join the Eurozone seriously. The timeline, what they said, was quite short. In four years, so by 2030, they want to be ready to join the Eurozone. That assumes a quite rapid fulfillment of criteria and a normalization of the rate environment quite rapidly.
László Bencsik: The Home Start program, I think the first question, your question was very good, even more exciting question, I think is, how long this is going to continue? So far, we don't see the end of it. We haven't heard any plans to change the structure or the level of subsidy or whatever. This is certainly, as far as we can tell, this continues, right? Obviously, the longer it continues We take this commitment by the government to join the Eurozone seriously. The timeline, what they said, was quite short. In four years, so by 2030, they want to be ready to join the Eurozone. That assumes a quite rapid fulfillment of criteria and a normalization of the rate environment quite rapidly.
Speaker #2: The home start program I mean, I think the first question I mean, your question was very good, but even more exciting question I think is, how long this is going to continue?
Speaker #2: And so far, we don't see the end of it. We haven't heard any plans to change the structure or the level of subsidy, or anything like that.
Speaker #2: So this is certainly as far as we can tell, this continues, right? And obviously, the longer it continues, well, there will be two I mean, if I mean, we take this commitment by the government to join the Eurozone, seriously, the timeline what they said was quite short.
Speaker #2: In three in four years, so by 2030, they want to be ready to join the Eurozone. And that means that that assumes a quite rapid fulfillment of criterias and normalization of the rate environment quite rapidly.
Speaker #2: And that means that the difference between the kind of subsidized rate, which is kind of maximum 3% for clients, and the market rate is not going to is going to be less and less different.
László Bencsik: That means that the difference between the kind of subsidized rate, which is kind of maximum 3% for clients, and the market rate is going to be less and less different. Therefore, as we go along in the future, go more into the future, the difference should be less and less between the subsidized and the market rate. In this sense, that means that the attractiveness of the program, if it doesn't change, is going to diminish because this relative attractiveness is going to be less and less, and the potential negative impact should the program end or be substantially changed, be less and less. I think it's still reasonable to assume if in a kind of business as usual environment, which we should be in a kind of lower teens, around 10% and 15%.
László Bencsik: That means that the difference between the kind of subsidized rate, which is kind of maximum 3% for clients, and the market rate is going to be less and less different. Therefore, as we go along in the future, go more into the future, the difference should be less and less between the subsidized and the market rate. In this sense, that means that the attractiveness of the program, if it doesn't change, is going to diminish because this relative attractiveness is going to be less and less, and the potential negative impact should the program end or be substantially changed, be less and less. I think it's still reasonable to assume if in a kind of business as usual environment, which we should be in a kind of lower teens, around 10% and 15%.
Speaker #2: Therefore, as we go along in the future, I mean, go more into the future, the difference should be less and less between the subsidized and the market rate.
Speaker #2: So in this sense, they I mean, that means that the attractiveness of the program, if it doesn't change, is going to diminish because this relative attractiveness is going to be less and less.
Speaker #2: And the potential negative impact should the program and/or be substantially changed be less and less. But I think it's still reasonable to assume if in a kind of business as usually environment, which we should be in a kind of lower teens, I mean, around 15, 10, 15%.
Speaker #2: Having said that, if we look at what happened in Bulgaria, closer to the joining the Eurozone, and after joining the Eurozone, I mean, we have very strong loan dynamics.
László Bencsik: Having said that, if we look at what happened in Bulgaria closer to joining the Eurozone and after joining the Eurozone, we have very strong loan dynamics. We have had two, three years of more than 20% growth in Bulgarian mortgages. We are still, year on year, we are 35%, as fast as Hungary, right? Now, Bulgarian mortgages are special because there the benchmark is the deposit rate, and that's on the market, and that's zero. It's very specific and rather cheap, but still strong growth. Bulgarian penetration level is twice as much as in Hungary. Housing loans to GDP in Bulgaria is around 40%, in Hungary is still around seven. If we believe in this accession scenario, policy scenario, then maybe even without this subsidized structure in a few years, we can get to 20-plus percent. That's what the experience in Bulgaria suggests, right?
László Bencsik: Having said that, if we look at what happened in Bulgaria closer to joining the Eurozone and after joining the Eurozone, we have very strong loan dynamics. We have had two, three years of more than 20% growth in Bulgarian mortgages. We are still, year on year, we are 35%, as fast as Hungary, right? Now, Bulgarian mortgages are special because there the benchmark is the deposit rate, and that's on the market, and that's zero. It's very specific and rather cheap, but still strong growth. Bulgarian penetration level is twice as much as in Hungary. Housing loans to GDP in Bulgaria is around 40%, in Hungary is still around seven. If we believe in this accession scenario, policy scenario, then maybe even without this subsidized structure in a few years, we can get to 20-plus percent. That's what the experience in Bulgaria suggests, right?
Speaker #2: We have had like two, three years of more than 20% growth in Bulgaria mortgages. And we are still I mean, year on year, we have 35%.
Speaker #2: As fast as Hungary, right? Now, Bulgaria mortgages are special because they're the benchmark is the deposit rate, and that's on the market, and that's zero.
Speaker #2: So it's very specific and rather cheap. But still, strong growth. And Bulgarian beneficial level is twice as much as in Hungary. Housing loans to GDP in Bulgaria is around 14%.
Speaker #2: In Hungary, it's still around 7. So if you if we believe in this accession scenario, policy scenario, then maybe even without this subsidized structure in a few years, we can get to 20 plus percent.
Speaker #2: I mean, that's what the experience in Bulgaria suggests, right? We'll see. But for us, the more immediate question is that how long is it going to continue?
László Bencsik: We'll see. For us, the more immediate question is, that how long is it going to continue? That we don't know. The current subsidized structure.
László Bencsik: We'll see. For us, the more immediate question is, that how long is it going to continue? That we don't know. The current subsidized structure.
Speaker #2: And that we don't know. I mean, the current subsidized structure.
Speaker #1: Yeah. Fair enough. Thank you for all the color, László.
Gabor Kemeny: Yeah. Fair enough. Thank you for all the color, László.
Gabor Kemeny: Yeah. Fair enough. Thank you for all the color, László.
Speaker #2: Thank you.
László Bencsik: Thank you.
László Bencsik: Thank you.
Speaker #3: Thank you. The next question is from Alex Kantarovich, Römer Capital.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Alex Kantarovich, Roemer Capital.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Alex Kantarovich, Roemer Capital.
Speaker #1: Édesbaba.
Gabor Kemeny: Hm.
Speaker #3: Alex, the floor is open. Please unmute your microphone.
Operator: Alex, the floor is open. Please unmute your microphone.
Operator: Alex, the floor is open. Please unmute your microphone.
Speaker #4: Yes. Can you hear me?
Alex Kantarovich: Yes. Can you hear me?
Alex Kantarovich: Yes. Can you hear me?
Speaker #2: Yes, loud and clear.
Speaker #4: Yes, my apology. I would like to ask about the Russian situation. You mentioned declining profitability. But I want to check if the bank in Russia handles oil and gas payments for from Western Europe to Russia.
László Bencsik: Yes. Loud and clear.
László Bencsik: Yes. Loud and clear.
Alex Kantarovich: Yes. My apology. I would like to ask about the Russian situation. I want to check if the bank in Russia handles oil and gas payments from Western Europe to Russia. If you can give some color on this. The broader question is, what are your expectations about a resumption of upstreaming of dividends from Russia? Thank you.
Alex Kantarovich: Yes. My apology. I would like to ask about the Russian situation. I want to check if the bank in Russia handles oil and gas payments from Western Europe to Russia. If you can give some color on this. The broader question is, what are your expectations about a resumption of upstreaming of dividends from Russia? Thank you.
Speaker #4: If you can give some color on this. And the broader question is, what are your expectations about resumption of upstreaming of dividends from Russia?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
László Bencsik: We have been clear about this, we do cross-border transfers between European counterparties and Russian counterparties, or counterparties in Russia and European counterparties, typically serving our clients in European corporate clients in Russia, within the framework of the sanction rulings and rules and being extremely focused and rigorous on compliance. Exactly what clients and what details, I probably should not go into more details than this. Strategically, by far, the first and most important target is, or goal is to fully comply and especially to the sanction regulations. Everything what we do is within the context of detailed sanction regulations. Whenever there's a potentially sensitive transaction, we do consult with the relevant authorities, outside Russia, right? That's what I can say on this.
Speaker #2: As we have been clear about this, we do cross-border transfers between European counterparties and Russian counterparties. Counterparties in Russia and European counterparties typically serve our European corporate clients in Russia within the framework of these sanction rulings and rules, and we are extremely focused and rigorous on compliance.
László Bencsik: We have been clear about this, we do cross-border transfers between European counterparties and Russian counterparties, or counterparties in Russia and European counterparties, typically serving our clients in European corporate clients in Russia, within the framework of the sanction rulings and rules and being extremely focused and rigorous on compliance. Exactly what clients and what details, I probably should not go into more details than this. Strategically, by far, the first and most important target is, or goal is to fully comply and especially to the sanction regulations. Everything what we do is within the context of detailed sanction regulations. Whenever there's a potentially sensitive transaction, we do consult with the relevant authorities, outside Russia, right? That's what I can say on this.
Speaker #2: I mean, we exactly what clients and what details I probably should not go into more details than this, but we I mean, strategically, by far, the first and most important target is or goal is to fully comply and especially to the sanction regulations.
Speaker #2: So everything what we do is within the context of detailed sanction regulations. And whenever there's a potentially sensitive transaction, we do consult with the relevant authorities.
Speaker #2: I mean, outside Russia, right? So that's what I can say on this. Dividend upstreaming—we have all submitted an application for dividend payments based on the first half results.
László Bencsik: Dividend upstreaming, we will submit an application for dividend payments based on the H1 results, and we are hopeful that they will be approved, and we can resume the dividend payments. We are going to try. I hope silence means sufficient answer. Maybe we can go to the next one.
László Bencsik: Dividend upstreaming, we will submit an application for dividend payments based on the H1 results, and we are hopeful that they will be approved, and we can resume the dividend payments. We are going to try. I hope silence means sufficient answer. Maybe we can go to the next one.
Speaker #2: And we are hopeful that they will be approved. And we can resume the dividend payments. So we are going to try. Yeah. I hope silence means sufficient answer.
Speaker #2: So maybe we can go to the next one.
Speaker #3: Yes. The next question is from an attendee joined via phone. I opened the line. You will receive an automatic message about it. Please unmute your microphone, press star six.
Operator: Yes. The next question is from an attendee joined via phone. I open the line. You will receive an automatic message about it. Please unmute your microphone, press star six. May I ask the name-
Operator: Yes. The next question is from an attendee joined via phone. I open the line. You will receive an automatic message about it. Please unmute your microphone, press star six. May I ask the name-
Speaker #3: May I ask for your name and company, please?
László Bencsik: Hi
László Bencsik: Hi
Operator: and the company, please?
Operator: and the company, please?
Speaker #4: Hi, good afternoon. It's Jovan Sikimich from Odobechev. Thanks for taking my questions. I was just interested in, let's say, your earlier thoughts on expanding the footprint in Central Asia—if that's still valid.
Jovan Sikimic: Hi, good afternoon. It's Jovan Sikimic from ODDO BHF. Thanks for taking my questions. I was just interested in what about, let's say, your earlier thoughts on expanding the footprint in Central Asia, if it's still valid, and after Luminor deal probably will not take as much capital as initially thought. Can you give us a bit of an update about the capital returns going forward, in terms of potential new share buyback this year? Thanks a lot.
Jovan Sikimic: Hi, good afternoon. It's Jovan Sikimic from ODDO BHF. Thanks for taking my questions. I was just interested in what about, let's say, your earlier thoughts on expanding the footprint in Central Asia, if it's still valid, and after Luminor deal probably will not take as much capital as initially thought. Can you give us a bit of an update about the capital returns going forward, in terms of potential new share buyback this year? Thanks a lot.
Speaker #4: And after Lumino deal, probably will not take as much capital as initially thought. Can you give us a bit of an update about capital returns going forward?
Speaker #4: I mean, in terms of potential new share buyback this year. Thanks a lot.
Speaker #2: The attractiveness of Central Asia has not changed. We continue to consider the region attractive, and we continue to look into every meaningful opportunity. In the region.
László Bencsik: The attractiveness of Central Asia has not changed. We continue to consider the region attractive, and we continue to look into every meaningful opportunity in the region. Sure. That's not a guarantee, obviously, for any new event or transaction. Our interest remains, and we are going to continue to monitor these markets and seriously consider opportunities if they come up. In terms of capital returns, our approach to share buybacks have not changed. We announce them when we receive an approval from our supervisor. I think it's fair to say that we are going to submit application, but as usual, we are not telling that how much and when. Only at the time, only on the day when we receive the regulatory approval. The other part of capital return is dividend, obviously.
László Bencsik: The attractiveness of Central Asia has not changed. We continue to consider the region attractive, and we continue to look into every meaningful opportunity in the region. Sure. That's not a guarantee, obviously, for any new event or transaction. Our interest remains, and we are going to continue to monitor these markets and seriously consider opportunities if they come up. In terms of capital returns, our approach to share buybacks have not changed. We announce them when we receive an approval from our supervisor. I think it's fair to say that we are going to submit application, but as usual, we are not telling that how much and when. Only at the time, only on the day when we receive the regulatory approval. The other part of capital return is dividend, obviously.
Speaker #2: So but that's not a guarantee, obviously, for any new event or transaction. But our interest remains and we are going to continue to monitor these markets and seriously consider opportunities if they come up.
Speaker #2: In terms of capital returns, I mean, as our approach to share buybacks have not changed. So we announced them. When we receive an approval from our supervisor, and I think it's fair to say that we are going to submit application.
Speaker #2: But I'm not as usual, we are not telling that how much and when only when only at the time only on the day when we receive the regulatory approval.
Speaker #2: In terms of I mean, the other part of capital return is dividend, obviously. I think I can say as much as that this acquisition does not change our dividend aspirations, so to say, or our views on how much dividends we intend to suggest to pay.
László Bencsik: I think I can say as much as that this acquisition does not change our dividend aspirations, so to say, or our views on how much dividends we intend to suggest to pay. Having said that, we don't have a formal dividend payment policy and the payout ratio target. I think it's fair to share with you that our internal thinking and discussions, this Luminor transaction does not change how we think about future dividend payments.
László Bencsik: I think I can say as much as that this acquisition does not change our dividend aspirations, so to say, or our views on how much dividends we intend to suggest to pay. Having said that, we don't have a formal dividend payment policy and the payout ratio target. I think it's fair to share with you that our internal thinking and discussions, this Luminor transaction does not change how we think about future dividend payments.
Speaker #2: Having said that, we don't have a formal dividend payment policy and the payout ratio target. But I think it's fair to share with you that our internal thinking and discussions this Lumino transaction does not change how we think about future dividend payments.
Speaker #4: Of course. Of course. Thanks a lot. And maybe if I may add another one. Maybe your thoughts or insights if there's something changed recently in terms of how do you see Windfall Tech's development in Hungary by the new government?
Jovan Sikimic: Of course. Thanks a lot. Maybe if I may add another one.
Jovan Sikimic: Of course. Thanks a lot. Maybe if I may add another one.
Jovan Sikimic: Maybe your thoughts or insights if there's something changed recently in terms of how do you see windfall tax development in Hungary by the new government?
Jovan Sikimic: Maybe your thoughts or insights if there's something changed recently in terms of how do you see windfall tax development in Hungary by the new government?
Speaker #2: Very, very relevant question indeed. We expect the Windfall Tech to start to decline next year and then potentially gradually go down to zero. This was an extraordinary measure for a situation which was claimed to be extraordinary.
László Bencsik: Very relevant question indeed. We expect the windfall tax to start to decline next year. Then potentially gradually go down to zero. This was an extraordinary measure for a situation which was claimed to be extraordinary. The magnitude is huge. It was just doubled last year without any. We believe that if the government seriously considers converging with more developed countries in Europe in terms of their economic performance and in terms of their institutional and business environment, then these sector tax decisions and with this magnitude are out of the question. This is not just a banking tax. There are many other sectors in Hungary which have been heavily, specifically taxed and this is extremely distorting and very negative for long-term development of the country. Obviously, there are short-term fiscal constraints. We acknowledge them.
László Bencsik: Very relevant question indeed. We expect the windfall tax to start to decline next year. Then potentially gradually go down to zero. This was an extraordinary measure for a situation which was claimed to be extraordinary. The magnitude is huge. It was just doubled last year without any. We believe that if the government seriously considers converging with more developed countries in Europe in terms of their economic performance and in terms of their institutional and business environment, then these sector tax decisions and with this magnitude are out of the question. This is not just a banking tax. There are many other sectors in Hungary which have been heavily, specifically taxed and this is extremely distorting and very negative for long-term development of the country. Obviously, there are short-term fiscal constraints. We acknowledge them.
Speaker #2: I mean, the magnitude is huge. It was just doubled last year without any so it's just we believe that if the government seriously considers kind of converging with more developed countries in Europe in terms of their economic performance and in terms of their institutional and business environment, then these sector tactics and with this magnitude, are out of the question.
Speaker #2: So they have to and this is not just the banking tax. I mean, there are many other sectors in Hungary which have been heavily specifically taxed.
Speaker #2: And this is extremely distorting and very negative for long-term development of the country. Obviously, there are short-term fiscal constraints. We acknowledge them. So we didn't expect anything for this year.
László Bencsik: We didn't expect anything for this year, but we expect the government to make a commitment during the course of this fall, because somewhere in October, they will publish the budget for next year. Even more interestingly, the convergence plan, which is a three-year fiscal plan, which they have to submit to the EU. In that three-year convergence plan, we pretty much expect to see a gradual phasing out of at least the interest section. Now, I'm sure there will be. Now it's August and very warm, but I'm sure that starting from September, there will be discussions between the banking association and the government on this, and I hope these are going to be fruitful and positive. Obviously, these are not our decisions. We think we have very strong arguments, but we'll see.
László Bencsik: We didn't expect anything for this year, but we expect the government to make a commitment during the course of this fall, because somewhere in October, they will publish the budget for next year. Even more interestingly, the convergence plan, which is a three-year fiscal plan, which they have to submit to the EU. In that three-year convergence plan, we pretty much expect to see a gradual phasing out of at least the interest section. Now, I'm sure there will be. Now it's August and very warm, but I'm sure that starting from September, there will be discussions between the banking association and the government on this, and I hope these are going to be fruitful and positive. Obviously, these are not our decisions. We think we have very strong arguments, but we'll see.
Speaker #2: But we expect the government to make a commitment during the course of this fall because somewhere in October, they will publish the budget for next year.
Speaker #2: But even more interestingly, the convergence plan, which is a three-year fiscal plan, which they have to submit to the EU. And that in that three-year convergence plan, we pretty much expect to see a gradual phasing out of the at least the Windfall Tech.
Speaker #2: And I'm sure there will be I mean, now it's August and very warm. But I'm sure when that starting from September, there will be discussions between the banking association and the government on this and I hope these are going to be fruitful and positive.
Speaker #2: But, I mean, obviously, these are not our decisions. I think we have very strong arguments, but we'll see.
Speaker #4: Okay. Thanks a lot, László. Appreciate it.
Jovan Sikimic: Okay. Thanks a lot, László. Appreciate it.
Jovan Sikimic: Okay. Thanks a lot, László. Appreciate it.
Speaker #2: Sure.
László Bencsik: Sure.
László Bencsik: Sure.
Speaker #1: Thank you. The next question is from Nishchita, HSBC Asset Management. Nish, the floor is open, so you can start. Nish, we can still yes.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Nish Chetta, HSBC Asset Management. Nish, the floor is open, you can start. Nish, we can't hear. Yes.
Operator: Thank you. The next question is from Nish Chetta, HSBC Asset Management. Nish, the floor is open, you can start. Nish, we can't hear. Yes.
Speaker #2: No, that was me, László. So, we don't seem to hear Nish.
László Bencsik: That was me, László, sir. We don't seem to hear Nish.
László Bencsik: That was me, László. We don't seem to hear Nish.
Speaker #1: Okay. So let's move to the next question. If you wish to ask a question, please use raise hand icon to indicate or press star 9 on your phone's dial pad.
Operator: Okay. Let's move to the next question. If you wish to ask a question, please use raise hand icon to indicate or press star nine on your phone's dial pad. The next question is from Valentina Stoykova.
Operator: Okay. Let's move to the next question. If you wish to ask a question, please use raise hand icon to indicate or press star nine on your phone's dial pad. The next question is from Valentina Stoykova.
Speaker #1: Yes, the next question. Yes, the next question is from Valentina Stoykova.
Speaker #5: Yes, hi. Good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Valentina Stoykova: Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Can you hear me?
[Analyst]: Yes. Hi, good afternoon. Can you hear me?
Speaker #2: Yes, loud and clear. Yes.
Speaker #5: Oh, wonderful. Thanks a lot for the presentation. I have a few questions on Ipoteka, Uzbekistan. So you mentioned that long growth in H1 was mainly due to consumer loans.
László Bencsik: Yes. Loud and clear. Yes.
László Bencsik: Yes. Loud and clear. Yes.
Valentina Stoykova: Oh, wonderful. Thanks a lot for the presentation. I have a few questions on Ipoteka, Uzbekistan. You mentioned that loan growth in H1 was mainly due to consumer loans. I was wondering, how do you see cost of risk, NPL ratios, migration from stage 2 to stage 3 developing into the end of the year? I don't know whether you can comment on your expectations for next year as well. This leads me to my next question, which is mainly on the growth strategy for Ipoteka. I was just wondering, where do you see the main opportunities, given there is quite intense competition in the corporate lending and various caps on retail loans? My last question is, when do you expect OTP to buy the remaining stake of the government, and shall we expect any dividend distribution from this year's earnings?
[Analyst]: Oh, wonderful. Thanks a lot for the presentation. I have a few questions on Ipoteka, Uzbekistan. You mentioned that loan growth in H1 was mainly due to consumer loans. I was wondering, how do you see cost of risk, NPL ratios, migration from stage 2 to stage 3 developing into the end of the year? I don't know whether you can comment on your expectations for next year as well. This leads me to my next question, which is mainly on the growth strategy for Ipoteka. I was just wondering, where do you see the main opportunities, given there is quite intense competition in the corporate lending and various caps on retail loans? My last question is, when do you expect OTP to buy the remaining stake of the government, and shall we expect any dividend distribution from this year's earnings?
Speaker #5: I was wondering how do you see cost of risk and PR ratios, migration from stage two to stage three developing in the into the end of the year and also I don't know whether you can comment on your expectations for next year as well.
Speaker #5: And then, this leads me to my next question, which is mainly on the growth strategy for Ipoteka. I was just wondering, where do you see the main opportunities, given there is quite intense competition in corporate lending and various gaps in retail loans?
Speaker #5: And then my last question is when do you expect OTP to buy the remaining stake of the government? And shall we expect any dividend distribution from this year's earnings?
Speaker #2: Yeah. I mean, in the first six months, consumer loans—which in our case are just cash loans—are typically given to payroll clients who have officially declared income.
László Bencsik: In H1, consumer loan, which in our case is just cash loan, typically given to payroll clients who have official declared income, was 8%. Now, this segment contributes to maybe 20% to 25% of the growth in the total market of unsecured lending or lending-type activities. Our problem so far has been that we have been targeting only a small segment of the total unsecured lending, so to say, in the country. Now, the good side of that is that our risk profile is actually quite good, and profitability is good, and the portfolio quality is good. We are falling behind in terms of growth. We are not capturing the full opportunity from the market growth, because we are not targeting the whole market. We are targeting just a sub-segment, which is a lower risk, lower return segment.
László Bencsik: In H1, consumer loan, which in our case is just cash loan, typically given to payroll clients who have official declared income, was 8%. Now, this segment contributes to maybe 20% to 25% of the growth in the total market of unsecured lending or lending-type activities. Our problem so far has been that we have been targeting only a small segment of the total unsecured lending, so to say, in the country. Now, the good side of that is that our risk profile is actually quite good, and profitability is good, and the portfolio quality is good. We are falling behind in terms of growth. We are not capturing the full opportunity from the market growth, because we are not targeting the whole market. We are targeting just a sub-segment, which is a lower risk, lower return segment.
Speaker #2: It was 8%. Now, this segment is contributes to maybe 20, 25 percent of the growth in the total market of unsecured lending or lending type activities.
Speaker #2: So our problem so far has been that we have been targeting only a small segment of the total unsecured lending, so to say, in the country.
Speaker #2: Now, the good side of that is that our risk profile is actually quite good and profitability is good and the portfolio quality is good.
Speaker #2: But we are falling behind in terms of growth. So we are not capturing the full opportunity from the market growth. Because we are not targeting the whole market.
Speaker #2: We are targeting just a subsegment, which is a lower risk, lower return segment. So I think it has been okay that we have done this.
László Bencsik: I think it has been okay that we have done this because it's learning and we don't want to do reckless lending. Until the IT environment was not there, until we didn't have enough data and understanding of the market, and until the management was not solid enough to start to potentially penetrate riskier segments and higher growth segments, it has been okay. Now we have to broaden our scope and our aim. The acceleration I primarily expect in consumer lending or in non-collateralized, in non-mortgage retail, which actually includes car lending in that sense. It's non-mortgage. But even in mortgage, we should do better. Corporate is tricky. The potential is big, volumes are big. Our comfort level is still not very strong to start meaningful level of corporate lending.
László Bencsik: I think it has been okay that we have done this because it's learning and we don't want to do reckless lending. Until the IT environment was not there, until we didn't have enough data and understanding of the market, and until the management was not solid enough to start to potentially penetrate riskier segments and higher growth segments, it has been okay. Now we have to broaden our scope and our aim. The acceleration I primarily expect in consumer lending or in non-collateralized, in non-mortgage retail, which actually includes car lending in that sense. It's non-mortgage. But even in mortgage, we should do better. Corporate is tricky. The potential is big, volumes are big. Our comfort level is still not very strong to start meaningful level of corporate lending.
Speaker #2: Because it's learning and we don't want to do reckless lending. And until the IT environment was not there and until we didn't have enough data and understanding of the market and until the management was not solid enough to kind of start to potentially penetrate riskier segment and higher growth segments, it has been okay.
Speaker #2: But now we have to broaden our scope and our aim. So the acceleration are primarily expect in consumer lending. Or in non I mean, in non-collateralized in non-mortgage retail, right?
Speaker #2: Which actually includes car lending in that sense. So it's non-mortgage. But even the mortgage, we should do better. Corporate is tricky. So the potential is big.
Speaker #2: Volumes are big. But our comfort level is still not very strong to start a meaningful level of corporate lending. However, we should do more, because now this volume has been declining and it keeps declining.
László Bencsik: However, we should do more because this volume has been declining, it keeps declining as you can see. This is too conservative. This is not the strategy. There should be some moderate corporate long growth as opposed to decline. We are not going to. In corporates, you could do very big deals, right? Volume-wise, you could grow very fast, that we don't want to do. Decline is also not something we want. We have to fix this. The corporate lending and the corporate business line we have to fix. We have two potential areas to expand. One is the non-cash loan, part of the unsecured retail lending. The non-payroll. That's a big part of the population.
László Bencsik: However, we should do more because this volume has been declining, it keeps declining as you can see. This is too conservative. This is not the strategy. There should be some moderate corporate long growth as opposed to decline. We are not going to. In corporates, you could do very big deals, right? Volume-wise, you could grow very fast, that we don't want to do. Decline is also not something we want. We have to fix this. The corporate lending and the corporate business line we have to fix. We have two potential areas to expand. One is the non-cash loan, part of the unsecured retail lending. The non-payroll. That's a big part of the population.
Speaker #2: As you can see, this is too conservative. So this and this is not the strategy. So there should be some moderate corporate long growth as opposed to decline.
Speaker #2: But we are not going to, kind of—because in corporate, you could do very big deals, right? I mean, volume-wise, you could grow very fast, but that we don't want to do.
Speaker #2: But decline is also not something we want so this is we have to fix this. So the corporate lending, we have to and the corporate business line, we have to fix.
Speaker #2: So, we have two potential areas to expand. One is the non-cash loan part of unsecured retail lending—the non-payroll segment. And that's a big part of the population.
Speaker #2: And now we believe that we have enough understanding and enough IT capacity to and people to do better and try to penetrate that part of the market, which is the bigger part, actually, than what we have been targeting so far.
László Bencsik: Now we believe that we have enough understanding and enough IT capacity and people to do better and try to penetrate that part of the market, which is the bigger part, actually, than mostly every target and so forth. The other one is to do better in corporate. That doesn't mean that we want to blow up the corporate volumes. There should be some moderate growth, cautious actions to slowly build up that presence as opposed to just kind of precipitous decline, what we have seen during the last three years. Dividend, yes. We seem to be able to pay dividends this year after last year results. That's quite good, actually. Yes, we are in discussions with the government to conclude the buying of the remaining part.
László Bencsik: Now we believe that we have enough understanding and enough IT capacity and people to do better and try to penetrate that part of the market, which is the bigger part, actually, than mostly every target and so forth. The other one is to do better in corporate. That doesn't mean that we want to blow up the corporate volumes. There should be some moderate growth, cautious actions to slowly build up that presence as opposed to just kind of precipitous decline, what we have seen during the last three years. Dividend, yes. We seem to be able to pay dividends this year after last year results. That's quite good, actually. Yes, we are in discussions with the government to conclude the buying of the remaining part.
Speaker #2: And the other one is to do better in corporate. But that doesn't mean that we want to blow up the corporate volumes. But there should be some moderate growth, cautious actions to slowly build up that presence.
Speaker #2: As opposed to just kind of precipitous decline what we have seen during the last three years. Dividend, yes. Yes, yes, yes. We seem to be able to pay dividends.
Speaker #2: This year. After last year results. And that's quite good, actually. And yes, we are in discussions with the government to conclude the buying of the remaining part.
Speaker #2: And we hope to make a deal, which is going to be beneficial to both sides. And make both sides happy. Because obviously, we have a strong interest to be in a good partnership relation or in a good relationship with the government.
László Bencsik: We hope to make a deal which is going to be beneficial to both sides and make both sides happy because obviously we have a strong interest to be in a good relationship with the government. Yeah.
László Bencsik: We hope to make a deal which is going to be beneficial to both sides and make both sides happy because obviously we have a strong interest to be in a good relationship with the government. Yeah.
Speaker #2: Yeah.
Speaker #3: The next question is from an attendee joined via phone. I opened the line. You will receive an automatic message about it. I have opened the line, so please press star six on your phone's dial pad.
Operator: The next question is from an attendee joined via phone. I open the line. You will receive an automatic message about it. I have opened the line, so please press star six on your phone's dial pad. Let's move forward. Let's take another try. Nick Chetta, HSBC Asset Management. I have opened the floor. Please unmute your microphone.
Operator: The next question is from an attendee joined via phone. I open the line. You will receive an automatic message about it. I have opened the line, so please press star six on your phone's dial pad. Let's move forward. Let's take another try. Nish Chetta, HSBC Asset Management. I have opened the floor. Please unmute your microphone.
Speaker #3: Let's move forward. Let's take another try. Niche, cheetah, HSBC asset management. I have opened the floor. Please unmute your microphone.
Speaker #4: Hello?
Speaker #2: Yes. Now we hear you.
Nick Dimitrov: Hello?
Nick Dimitrov: Hello?
László Bencsik: Yes. Now we hear you.
László Bencsik: Yes. Now we hear you.
Speaker #4: Hi there. Actually, there must be some kind of a confusion. This is Nick Dimitrov, Morgan Stanley investment management. Hi, László. I just have a quick question, actually a couple of questions.
Nick Dimitrov: Hi, there. Actually, there must be some kind of a confusion. This is Nick Dimitrov, Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Hi, László. I just have a quick question. Actually, a couple of questions.
Nick Dimitrov: Hi, there. Actually, there must be some kind of a confusion. This is Nick Dimitrov, Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Hi, László. I just have a quick question. Actually, a couple of questions.
Speaker #4: The first one is, I know previously you said on earnings calls that if there is a larger acquisition, you're going to look to optimize the capital structure, and potentially issue an ATO1.
Nick Dimitrov: The first one is, I know previously you said on earnings calls that if there is a large acquisition, you're going to look to optimize the capital structure and potentially issue an AT1. I was wondering whether Luminor qualifies as a large enough transaction. The second one is, there's been another transaction that I think has fallen under the radar a little bit because everybody's so focused on Luminor. There is a bank in Latin America, in Paraguay specifically, called Banco Basa, and I noticed that you increased your stake from 6.6% to 10% in May.
Nick Dimitrov: The first one is, I know previously you said on earnings calls that if there is a large acquisition, you're going to look to optimize the capital structure and potentially issue an AT1. I was wondering whether Luminor qualifies as a large enough transaction. The second one is, there's been another transaction that I think has fallen under the radar a little bit because everybody's so focused on Luminor. There is a bank in Latin America, in Paraguay specifically, called Banco Basa, and I noticed that you increased your stake from 6.6% to 10% in May.
Speaker #4: So I was wondering whether Luminor qualifies as a large enough transaction. So that is the first question. The second one is, there's been another transaction that I think has fallen under the radar a little bit because everybody's so focused on Luminor.
Speaker #4: But there is a bank in Latin America in Paraguay specifically called Banco Eno. And I noticed that you increased your stake from 6.6% to 10% in May.
Speaker #4: So I'm kind of curious about this is first, I was very surprised when I saw it, to be honest, because it's not your natural footprint, right?
Nick Dimitrov: I'm kind of curious about-- First, I was very surprised when I saw it, to be honest, because it's not your natural footprint, right? I was kind of wondering what is the long-term intention there. I guess my last question is, you have different M&A opportunities, and you opted out for Luminor. When you look at kind of Central Asia and the Baltics, and you did say this yourself that the Baltics are very advanced and blah, blah. When it comes down to growth, it could be limited. What was it in the case of Luminor that kind of attracted your attention to kind of pivot away from Central Asia, which has been talked about previously, and kind of focus back on the Baltics? Thank you.
Nick Dimitrov: I'm kind of curious about-- First, I was very surprised when I saw it, to be honest, because it's not your natural footprint, right? I was kind of wondering what is the long-term intention there. I guess my last question is, you have different M&A opportunities, and you opted out for Luminor. When you look at kind of Central Asia and the Baltics, and you did say this yourself that the Baltics are very advanced and blah, blah. When it comes down to growth, it could be limited. What was it in the case of Luminor that kind of attracted your attention to kind of pivot away from Central Asia, which has been talked about previously, and kind of focus back on the Baltics? Thank you.
Speaker #4: And I was kind of wondering what is the long-term intention there. And I guess my last question is, so you have different M&A opportunities.
Speaker #4: And you opted out for Luminor. But when you look at kind of Central Asian and the Baltics, and you did say this yourself, that the Baltics are very advanced and blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker #4: So when it comes down to growth, it could be limited. What was it in the case of Luminor that kind of attracted your attention to kind of pivot away from Central Asia which has been talked about previously and kind of focus back on the Baltics?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
László Bencsik: Okay. Well, it's a large acquisition. This is the largest acquisition we've ever made. In that sense, it's large. Is it big enough for us to issue an AT1? No. It's large from our perspective, but not as large to qualify for an AT1. ueno is very exciting. We are obviously biased because we invested, but we really like the story. It started as a purely financial investment, but we started to talk with the management and go there, and they came, and we very much like the story. It's a digital bank. It's a digital challenger growing very fast. 23%. They have public reports, so you can look at their numbers and their story. I think it's worth looking at. 23% ROE in a phase when they are growing very fast. They have amazing client relationship market share in the country.
László Bencsik: Okay. Well, it's a large acquisition. This is the largest acquisition we've ever made. In that sense, it's large. Is it big enough for us to issue an AT1? No. It's large from our perspective, but not as large to qualify for an AT1. ueno is very exciting. We are obviously biased because we invested, but we really like the story. It started as a purely financial investment, but we started to talk with the management and go there, and they came, and we very much like the story. It's a digital bank. It's a digital challenger growing very fast. 23%. They have public reports, so you can look at their numbers and their story. I think it's worth looking at. 23% ROE in a phase when they are growing very fast. They have amazing client relationship market share in the country.
Speaker #2: Okay. Well, it's a large acquisition. This is the largest acquisition we've made we ever made. So in that sense, it's large. Is it big enough for us to issue an ATO1?
Speaker #2: No. So it's large. From our perspective, but not as large to qualify for an ATO1. Ueno is very exciting. It's a story I mean, we are obviously buyers because we invested, but we really like this story.
Speaker #2: And we it started as a purely financial investment, but we started to talk with the management and go there, and they came. And so we very much like the story.
Speaker #2: It's a digital bank. It's a digital challenger, growing very fast. 23% are they actually they have public reports. So they I mean, so you can look at their numbers and their story.
Speaker #2: I think it's worth looking at. 23% ROE in the phase when they are growing very fast. They have an amazing client relationship, market share in the country.
Speaker #2: They are very strong in payments. It can develop into a story beyond even the country. So we really like that story. And we the more we know, the more we like it.
László Bencsik: They are very strong in payments. It can develop into a story beyond even the country. We really like that story, and the more we know, the more we like it. It's a financial investment, right? It's a financial investment, and there's no immediate intention to go beyond 10%. We could consider if they wanted to, but we are not a strategic investor. It's financial. We are not involved in managing the business. It also opened a window for us to look into a different continent from a very exciting digital successful perspective, and that perspective is actually quite fascinating. We're quite happy financially that we made the investment, and we're quite happy that we have this window to be able to look into the Latin American market from a purely digital challenger perspective. That's where we are.
László Bencsik: They are very strong in payments. It can develop into a story beyond even the country. We really like that story, and the more we know, the more we like it. It's a financial investment, right? It's a financial investment, and there's no immediate intention to go beyond 10%. We could consider if they wanted to, but we are not a strategic investor. It's financial. We are not involved in managing the business. It also opened a window for us to look into a different continent from a very exciting digital successful perspective, and that perspective is actually quite fascinating. We're quite happy financially that we made the investment, and we're quite happy that we have this window to be able to look into the Latin American market from a purely digital challenger perspective. That's where we are.
Speaker #2: But it's I mean, it's still it's a financial investment, right? It's a financial immediate intention to go beyond 10%. We could consider if they wanted to.
Speaker #2: But it is we are not a strategic investor. It's financial. We don't we are not involved in managing the business. But it also opened a window for us to look into a very different continent from a very exciting digital successful perspective.
Speaker #2: And that perspective is actually quite fascinating. So we are quite happy financially that we made the investment, and we are quite happy that we have this window.
Speaker #2: To be able to look into the Latin American market from a purely digital challenger perspective. That's where we are. Now, Baltics, we don't post this question as either or.
László Bencsik: Baltics, we don't pose this question as either/or, Baltics versus Central Asia. It's not that we lost interest in Central Asia or in any other potential market where we could grow, including the footprint where we are present at the moment. The fact that we decided to buy Luminor doesn't mean that we neglect all other opportunities which come up. It's just that this time, what we saw in Luminor and the deal what we agreed, we believe that this is attractive, it creates value, and we see the upside. If you show this page eight, we go back. I don't think it's difficult to see the opportunity in the Baltics, right? Because if out of the top five banks in the Baltics, we have one. The ROE is 15.3, 18, the two bigger banks, and the two smaller banks, 19 and 14.6.
László Bencsik: Baltics, we don't pose this question as either/or, Baltics versus Central Asia. It's not that we lost interest in Central Asia or in any other potential market where we could grow, including the footprint where we are present at the moment. The fact that we decided to buy Luminor doesn't mean that we neglect all other opportunities which come up. It's just that this time, what we saw in Luminor and the deal what we agreed, we believe that this is attractive, it creates value, and we see the upside. If you show this page eight, we go back. I don't think it's difficult to see the opportunity in the Baltics, right? Because if out of the top five banks in the Baltics, we have one. The ROE is 15.3, 18, the two bigger banks, and the two smaller banks, 19 and 14.6.
Speaker #2: Baltics versus Central Asia. It's not that we lost interest in Central Asia or in any other potential market where we could grow. I mean, including the footprint where we are present at the moment.
Speaker #2: So the fact that we decided to buy Luminor doesn't mean that we neglect all other opportunities which come up. It's just that we what we this time what we saw in Luminor and the deal what we agreed, we believe that this is attractive.
Speaker #2: We create value. And we see the upside. And I mean, if you show this page 8, we go back. I don't think it's difficult to see the opportunity in the Baltics, right?
Speaker #2: Because if out of the five top five banks in the Baltics, I mean, we have one I mean, the I mean, it's the ROE is 15.318 to two bigger banks.
Speaker #2: And the two smaller banks, 19 and 14.6. And these are developed eurozone markets. With the eurozone cost of capital. We find these markets attractive.
László Bencsik: These are developed Eurozone markets with the Eurozone cost of capital. We find these markets attractive. I think this is objective here, is attractive. That's the Luminor decision, right? We believe we made a good deal. That doesn't mean that we lose focus or attention on all the other opportunities which may come up in other parts of the world. Again, between 2014 and 2023, so in nine years, we acquired 14 banks. That's the kind of speed of acquisitions and the number of acquisitions we are kind of used to. Not doing anything for three years was rather strange. Now at least we have one transaction, but there's no reason not to have more. Actually, we would love to have more, but obviously that is only going to happen if we can have a deal where we believe that we create value.
László Bencsik: These are developed Eurozone markets with the Eurozone cost of capital. We find these markets attractive. I think this is objective here, is attractive. That's the Luminor decision, right? We believe we made a good deal. That doesn't mean that we lose focus or attention on all the other opportunities which may come up in other parts of the world. Again, between 2014 and 2023, so in nine years, we acquired 14 banks. That's the kind of speed of acquisitions and the number of acquisitions we are kind of used to. Not doing anything for three years was rather strange. Now at least we have one transaction, but there's no reason not to have more. Actually, we would love to have more, but obviously that is only going to happen if we can have a deal where we believe that we create value.
Speaker #2: And I think this is objectively is attractive. And so that's the Luminor decision, right? So it's just we believe we made a good deal.
Speaker #2: But that doesn't mean that we lose focus or attention on all the other opportunities which may come up in other parts of the world.
Speaker #2: So we and again, I mean, between 14 and 24 and 23, sorry. So in nine years, we acquired 14 banks. So that's the kind of speed of acquisitions and.
Speaker #2: Of acquisitions, we are kind of used to. Not doing anything for three years was rather strange. Now, at least we have one transaction, but there's no reason not to have more.
Speaker #2: Actually, we would love to have more. But obviously, that is only going to happen if we can have a deal where we believe that we create value.
Speaker #2: So it may not happen, but we are keep trying. We continue to keep trying.
László Bencsik: It may not happen, but we keep trying. We continue to keep trying.
László Bencsik: It may not happen, but we keep trying. We continue to keep trying.
Speaker #1: Thank you so much. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand icon to indicate, or press star 9 on your phone's dial pad.
Operator: Thank you so much. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand icon to indicate or press star 9 on your phone's dial pad. As there are no further questions, I hand back to the speaker.
Operator: Thank you so much. If you wish to ask a question, please use the raise hand icon to indicate or press star nine on your phone's dial pad. As there are no further questions, I hand back to the speaker.
Speaker #1: As there are no further questions, I hand back to the speaker.
Speaker #2: So thank you very much for joining us today. Listening to the presentations. And thank you for your very pertinent questions as well. I hope to see you personally.
László Bencsik: Thank you very much for joining us today, listening to the presentations, and thank you for your very pertinent questions as well. I hope to see you personally. We are going to the US, we are going to the UK, we are going to be as active as usual. Our CEO, Péter Csányi, will join us in the US and to meet investors there on the two events early September. You can see us there and as always, we are at your service. Anyway, I wish you a very good rest of the summer. I hope you will have more time to relax and prepare for H2 of the year and the rest of the year. I wish you all the best and goodbye.
László Bencsik: Thank you very much for joining us today, listening to the presentations, and thank you for your very pertinent questions as well. I hope to see you personally. We are going to the US, we are going to the UK, we are going to be as active as usual. Our CEO, Péter Csányi, will join us in the US and to meet investors there on the two events early September. You can see us there and as always, we are at your service. Anyway, I wish you a very good rest of the summer. I hope you will have more time to relax and prepare for H2 of the year and the rest of the year. I wish you all the best and goodbye.
Speaker #2: We are going to the US. We are going to the UK. We are going to be as active as usual. Our CEO, Peter Cheney, will join us in the US to meet investors there at the two events in early September.
Speaker #2: So, you can see us there, and as always, we are at your service. Anyway, I wish you a very good rest of the summer.
Speaker #2: I hope you will have more time to relax and prepare for the second half of the year. The rest of the year. And wish you all the best and goodbye.
Operator: Thank you for your participation.
Operator: Thank you for your participation.
