Foreign Trade Bank of Latin America Inc (BLX) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Bladex's fourth-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. A slide presentation is accompanying today's webcast and is also available on the Investors section of the company's website, www.bladex.com. (Operator Instructions) Please note today's conference call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today to discuss Bladex's fourth quarter and full year results for 2024.

I'm here today with a few members of my executive team, including Annette van Hoorde, who will soon assume a CFO position starting this April.

I will begin with an overview of what has been another record-breaking year for Bladex. Following that, I will update you on the progress of our strategic plan. Then Annie, our CFO, will provide a detailed analysis of our financial results for both the quarter and the year. Finally, I will discuss today's macroeconomic and trade environment and share our guidance for 2025 before we open the call for questions.

In 2024, Bladex reached a historic milestone with an exceptional performance across all key metrics, surpassing the ambitious goals we have set for the year. Building on a record year in 2023, we continue to push boundaries and achieve new heights. Throughout 2024, our commercial portfolio grew by 18%, reaching a record of $10 billion. This growth was particularly strong in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala, reflecting our robust expansion, profitability, and diversification.

Additionally, the health of our portfolio remained excellent with non-performing loans close to 0 once again highlighting our discipline, risk management practices. Similarly, deposits experience significant increase of 23% for year-end closing balances and a 33% in average balances for the year, surpassing our guidance of 30% growth for average balances.

Due to seasonal factors, deposit levels as of the end of December were slightly lower compared to those at the end of the third quarter. However, average balances continue to rise during this period. Furthermore, for the first weeks of 2025, deposits have resumed their -- increasing their share in the bank's total funding sources.

Additionally, our capital ratio remains strong, with a tier one capital ratio of 15.5%, which is well within our defined target range. In terms of profitability, net interest income has maintained an upward trend, supported by increased volumes and effective funding cost management, resulting in a stable net interest margin of 2.47% for the year.

In 2024, fee income also reached unprecedented levels, growing by 37% compared to the previous year. Annie will share more details about fees later on in the presentation. Importantly, our efficiency ratio stood below 27% despite the investments in transformation and in line with the guidance we provided.

All that combined resulted in an all-time high annual net income of $206 million marking a 24% increase from the previous year and then return on equity of 16.2%, which is 153% basis points higher than in 2023.

Moving on to slide 2, we are now three years into our five-year strategic plan which we started executing in 2022. Clearly, results have exceeded expectations. During this period, we have achieved several critical milestones.

As we have mentioned in the past, the idea of the plan has always been to take advantage of blacks' structural comparative advantages, making our bank significantly more profitable, more efficient, and increasing its product offerings, but changing neither the profile of our customers, large banks and corporations, nor the nature of our commercial portfolio, which remains and will remain very short term and widely diversified throughout the region.

This enables us to swiftly adjust credit exposures in order to ensure that we concentrate on transactions and relationships where the risk return balance is optimal. The first phase of the plan, now successfully concluded, focused on efficiency. Today we have a much more efficient deployment of our balance sheet in terms of use of capital in the region and overall capital levels.

We have also optimized key processes of the bank, allowing us to reduce client onboarding times by 52%, expand our client base by 70%, and increase our deposit base by 78%. We are currently in Phase 2 of our plan that centers in the expansion of our product offering. To that end, we are deploying the technological platforms necessary to scale our initiatives.

One of these is our trade finance platform. That project is 56% complete and is scheduled to be launched in the second half of the year. This new platform will substantially transform our letters of credit unit by providing a state-of-the-art digital client interface and enhancing transaction processing capabilities for working capital solutions.

Additionally, our new Treasury platform implementation is in its initial stage. We are finalizing adjustments with our providers to ensure a seamless rollout and expect to complete its first phase of deployment by mid 2026. This initiative will enhance our ability to offer FX and derivative products, facilitate lending in local currencies, as well as to allow to expand our range of investment products.

The remarkable results we have achieved throughout 2024 are essentially the result of a successful execution of the first phase of our strategic plan and also to a lesser extent of the favorable interest rate environment that we have experienced during the year.

As we advance into Phase 2, we expect to see additional benefits, especially from non-interest income generation as these capabilities are rolled out in the upcoming quarters.

Let me now hand it over to Annie, our CFO, for a detailed financial analysis. Annie, please go ahead.

Thank you, Jorge, and good morning to everyone.

Let's now move to slide 4. Jorge just highlighted a record breaking results for the year with net income reaching $206 million and a return on equity of 16.2%, up from 14.7% last year. This strong performance was driven by sustained business growth, higher revenues, improved efficiency, and well contained credit costs.

I will now provide further details on each of these components. Quarterly profits in 2024 consistently exceeded the $50 million mark, extending the positive trend of prior years. In the fourth quarter, our profitability continued to be supported by strong top line performance with net income reaching $51.5 million and 11% increase year over year.

Compared to the previous quarter, net income was down 3%, primarily due to higher expenses related to our ongoing strategic initiatives, which I will discuss shortly.

Let's now take a closer look at our balance sheet growth and other key drivers of profitability starting with the credit portfolio on slide 5. First, I want to clarify our approach to portfolio management. Our credit portfolio comprises both the commercial portfolio managed by our commercial team and the investment securities portfolio managed by Treasury.

The commercial portfolio, which represents the bank's core business activity in Latin America includes loans and off-balance sheet instruments such as letters of credit. At year end, our total credit portfolio stood at close to $11.2 billion reflecting an 18% increase from the prior year, mainly driven by loan growth of $1.2 billion or 16% year over year.

The consistent quarterly expansion throughout the year underscores the strength of our client relationships and market demand in nature, with 73% scheduled to mature within the next year and an average remaining tenure of approximately 12 months. This short tender structure enables us to maintain an agile business model, allowing us to swiftly adjust exposures and optimize risk adjusted returns.

The composition of our investment securities portfolio illustrated in the top right chart reflects a focus on investment grade non-LatAm issuers primarily in the US thereby further diversion. Additionally, this portfolio serves as a liquidity buffer, as most of these securities are booked in our New York agency and are eligible collateral at the Fed's discount window.

The portfolio has an average remaining duration of about two years. Our funding structure presented in slide 6 highlights the expansion of our deposit base, which closed at $5.4 billion at year end, representing 54% of total financial liabilities.

As part of our strategic initiatives, Bladex has significantly increased deposits from corporate clients over recent quarters. Enhancing our funding stability while strengthening client relationships. Our Yankee CD program, which operates out of our New York agency, remains a key component of this growth, representing 22% of total deposits and providing dispersion to our deposit base.

Meanwhile, our longer tenure funding stood at $2.7 billion at year end, accounting for 27% of total financial liabilities. Earlier in the year 2024, we executed our largest syndicated loan to date, a $400 million facility with participation from long standing lenders across Asia, Europe, and the US.

Additionally, remained active in the debt capital markets, particularly in Mexico, where we further solidified our role as a key foreign issuer. In February, we issued MXN3 billion in the local market, followed by a second issuance of MXN4 billion in November.

Notably, all non-US dollar funding is fully hedged, aligned with our risk appetite of not running FXs risk in our balance sheet. These transactions highlight blacks' strong access to global liquidity, reinforcing our funding profile and investor-based diversification.

Turning to our capital position on slide 7. Bladex's equity base continues to be strengthened by robust earnings generation. In light of our strong financial results and sustained performance, our Board of Directors approved an increase in our quarterly dividend from $0.50 per share to $0.625 per share, representing a 45% payout on fourth-quarter earnings.

This decision reflects our confidence in Bladex's earnings trajectory and our commitment to delivering value to shareholders while maintaining a strong capitalization aligned with our target at current levels, ensuring financial flexibility to support strategic growth initiatives and sustain our investment rate ratings.

Let's now discuss our P&L performance starting on slide 8 with the evolution of net interest income and margins. Since the launch of our strategic plan in 2022, net interest income or NII has nearly tripled. Driven by asset growth, improved lending spreads, and higher US dollar interest rate environment during this period, which benefits our short-term balance sheet repricing structure.

Throughout 2024, quarterly NII consistently outperformed 2023 levels, closing the fourth quarter at $67 million, up 2% year over year and stable compared to the preceding quarter. Full year NII reached $259 million, an 11% increase from the prior year. This revenue growth during 2024 was largely driven by higher average loan balances which increased by 11% annually. Net interest margin for the year stood at 2.47%, in line with our guidance and relatively stable year over year.

Let's now reviewee on performance on slide 9. Fee-based revenue remains strong, reaching nearly $12 million in the fourth quarter and totaling $44 million for the year, marking an impressive 37% annual growth.

Letters of credit fees remain a key driver, reaching $7 million in the fourth quarter and totaling $26.5 million for the year, up 24% year over year. Growth in this segment reflects continued success in cross-selling, process efficiencies, and new client acquisitions.

Loan structuring fees also had a standout order with four transactions generating $3.7 million in fees. For the full year we executed 12 transactions totaling $2.5 billion generating a record $10.2 million in fees, up 38% from 2023.

With continued strength in credit commitments and other fees, Bladex's transaction-based business continues to expand, supported by enhancements in our syndications and project finance teams. This momentum is already evident in 2025.

With a strong start in the first couple of months, our loan structuring and syndication team has already closed 4 transactions across the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Brazil, totaling $468 million and generating approximately $2 million in fees.

Looking ahead, we see continued strength in our pipeline supported by solid sponsors across multiple countries in the region including those in a promising path to economic recovery such as Argenta.

Moving on to asset quality as shown on slide 10. Bladex's disciplined risk management framework continues to deliver outstanding credit performance. At the year end, non-performing loans remain minimal at just 0.2% of total exposure, amounting to $17 million with a robust reserve coverage of nearly 5 times.

Low risk credits for stage one comprised 96.4% of our credit portfolio while Stage 2 credits accounted for 3.5%, all of which remained performing. Total credit provisions for the year amounted to $17.3 million primarily driven by portfolio growth with the portion allocated to select stage three exposures. Importantly, we recorded no write-offs during the year and recovered $1.4 million from previously written off credits.

Finally, let me provide an update on expense evolution and efficiency as shown on slide 11. Total expenses for 2024 reached $80.5 million reflecting an 11% annual increase. This was primarily driven by higher salary expenses due to increased headcount aligning with our strategy to strengthen execution capabilities.

Additionally, ongoing investments in technology and business initiatives as outlined in our strategic plan contributed to the increase. These strategic investments have supported higher business volumes, expanded product offerings, and client growth over the past few years, leading to revenue growth that continues to outpace expense increases.

As a result, our efficiency ratio improved to 26.5% in 2024 compared to 27.2% in 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2024, expenses totaled close to $23 million, representing a 7% year-over-year increase and a 9% rise quarter on quarter. This increase reflects the continued execution of our strategy along with the seasonal impact of higher year-end expenses.

With that, I'd like to turn the call back to Jorge. Thank you very much.

Great. Thank you. Before wrapping it up, I want to briefly refer to the macroeconomic context and in particular to the implications for Latin America of President Trump's America first policy. There is no doubt that the US foreign policy will remain crucial influencing the region's economic trajectory.

There are two relevant dimensions here. The first one is related to the government's immigration policy, and the second is, of course, trade policy. Regarding immigration policy, we think that the mass deportations of illegal immigrants from Latin American countries may end up having a negative effect on the flow of remittances for the region to the extent that the number of people in the US who send money home is reduced.

Remittances which were $160 billion for 2024 are no doubt an economic pillar for several countries in the region, particularly in Central America. Having said that, we see the economic impact more in the medium term if mass deportations continue to exceed what they have been in previous administrations. In any case, it is something that we are permanently monitoring.

Regarding foreign trade policy and the impact of tariffs and potential tariffs, the impact will depend on how long they stay in place and the potential offset from dollar appreciation. It is hard to predict at this point what is going to end up happening. In the case of Mexico, the US's biggest trade partner. We believe that the endgame of the Trump administration is a renegotiation of the USMCA agreement.

This review is scheduled for 2026, and it's likely that the US will use this opportunity to extract concessions. We anticipate that discussions surrounding tariffs on Canada and Mexico will persist until the eventual renegotiation of the USMCA.

It is possible that such review is brought forward. This would be positive in terms of reducing economic uncertainty, as in such scenario, tariffs will not be in place long enough to have a material negative effect on the economy. But if on the contrary, they are here to stay, supply chain disruptions will occur and this in turn will raise inflation and lower economic activity.

It is worth mentioning our portfolio in Mexico is predominantly short term, as much as 80% short term lending comprised of low leverage, very solid and well positioned corporations who are resilient and have demonstrated the ability to withstand stress scenarios in the past.

In any case, the reality is that given the short-term nature of the bulk of our credit portfolio and the presence of blacks across different sectors and countries in the region, we are confident that we will demonstrate once again that we have the ability to those companies that will be better positioned to take advantage of the new trade dynamics in slide 13.

In line with that, our projections for 2025 anticipate a commercial portfolio growth of 10% to 12%. Average deposits are expected to increase 15% to 17% with the net interest margin in the 2.3% area. Continuing in 2019 we aim to maintain efficiency ratio at around 27% and achieve a return on equity between 15% and 16% while keeping our Basel III capital ratio between the range of 15% to 16%. And this, of course, assumed that dividend that we just declared is maintained throughout the course during the year.

As I said, we are confident in our ability to adapt to the changes of the new trade reality, maintain operational efficiency, and size profitable opportunities as they arise, and they will arise.

Finally, I want to express my gratitude to our clients, our shareholders, the employees, and their trust and support during 2024. Together we have built a strong foundation for continued success. I'm going to leave it here and ask the operator to please open the call for questions.

Thank you very much. Operator, you may now open the call.

(Operator Instructions) Ricardo Buchpiguel, BTG.

Hi, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity of making questions. I have two here on my side. So first, can you please comment on what is implying your NIM contraction X estimate for 2025 in terms of Fed fund rate reduction? It seems that it's pricing a little bit more than that reduction in the reference rates. I want to have your caller on what could be eventually driving more this, you mentioned that the loan structural education business has been performing very well in the start of the year, right?

And if you could comment a little bit what could be potential drivers for this dynamic. And also taking into account a more actually more active and also the launch of the new trade finance platform this year. How should we expect Fincom to perform against 2024, right? Should we have a deceleration more close to the 40% of what we see or more very helpful.

Thank you.

Ricardo, three great questions. The one on the net interest margin, compression, you're right, set on straight, compressing. I'm going to let Annie speak about that. And then on syndications we do have a very strong pipeline going forward. I'm going to let Samuel, our Chief Commercial Officer tackle that one and then I'll talk a little bit about fees at the end. So Annie, why don't you tackle the net interest margin?

Sure, Jorge. Hey, good morning, Ricardo. Yes, as you will mention, we did see some tighter lending spreads toward the end of the year. We saw more competitive, market environment with Latin American issues, more active in the capital markets and much wider availability to US dollar financing. In fact, for the guidance that we put in this year, we're assuming the lending spreads remain at those levels, probably, we could also see some more pressure.

But in our estimation, and then like you mentioned, in the second aspect would be the 100 basis points reduction that the Fed, already lower towards the end of yields and then reducing the benefit of the equity invested in those assets. But of course our liabilities also, started to reprise, also very quickly, remember that.

We do have a very short-term repricing structures and liabilities adjust, I would say more or less than a year.

So that's, well, syndications these the on investment and the activity across in the last couple of years we've seen an importantly with more experience in structuring and distributing more complex transactions which tends to bring higher fees as well. That is to say that we believe that the current growth.

On average should be sustainable and training upwards all things equal, of course with regards to other fee generating business such as the layers of credit business like mentioned before, we continue to strength the basis, or the base and not only in terms of tech development, which was already mentioned but also very much focused on boarding new letters of credit clients as well as a strong focus on cross has made great strides on that and continue.

Thank you and that was helpful and perfect leeway for the fee question. So fees increase more than 30% this year. I mean in expecting around 10% increase. For 2025 after that 30%, it will really depend on the citations in the pipeline than Sam mentioned. We do foresee that the letters of credit fees will continue their upward trend as clients start onboarding our new platform and it will take some time, but we're confident that we can do at least 10% more for 2025.

Very clear answers, guys. Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Ricardo Vallarino. He says, in your strategic plan, successfully up to this point, I have two questions. First, tariffs affecting Bladex's outlook. you have guided for around 2.30% NIM, how do you see NIS as a part of this 2025 guidance?

I'm going to tackle the first one on Mexico and Mexico exposure and then I believe that the second one, was already, mentioned on, well, some of it was mentioned in the previous question by the BTG analyst, but, regarding Mexico is our second biggest exposure. Countrywide, it's 12% of our portfolio.

Now, as I mentioned, 78% of that exposure is short term and only 10% of that exporter is placed with companies that export to the US. So I mean these are very solid companies we have made different stress tests shocking, there're a big dot with different levels of tariffs and if we'll feel comfortable about the resilience. I mean we are, talking about net debt to a big data ratio at around 3.5 times even in the stress scenario.

So these are in general, as I said, low leverage corporations. That have demonstrated resilience in past periods, of uncertainty. So, we're confident about our Mexico, portfolio. Annie, you want --

Yeah, just to comment on our projections for the NIM of 2.30%, like I said, we anticipate to continue having some pressure in our lending spreads, and we also are projecting for two additional rate cuts, 25 basis points each for the second half of the year, that's embedded in that projection.

And with respect to the net interest spread or the NIS, we do foresee that that should remain around four quarter levels at 169, perhaps a couple basis points lower than that.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Patrick Brown. Congratulations on the excellent results. We see that you are already at 16% ROE according to the slide 3. However, your guidance is 13% to 15% for 2026. Why are you expecting less profitability in the future?

Thank you for that question. Good question. We've gotten that question before. The truth is that remember that the 2026 guidance you saw on slide 3 that was given back in 2022 in an investor day presentation, when we launched, this plan for the first time.

Now, our projections back then assume a normalized level of Fed fund rates at 2.5%. Which of course we all know it has not happened and now. With the information we have today and considering everything else equal, we feel comfortable that the profitability will be in the higher end of that range for sure in 2026 and the reason is very straightforward I mean so far, three years of execution, we have, and I'm going to give.

Round numbers here keeping as we've seen NPLs close to 0 with double almost double the income, with more than triple net income.

And all of this has been done, without even implementing the trade or the treasury platforms, so remember, as I said earlier, the purpose of the tools and the whole plan is to basically, enhance, the ability of this bank to scale and to bring the income to ultimately, make results less dependent on market rates of trade. So, quite honestly is hard not to be optimistic about the potential of this band this unique franchise going to.

Daniel Mora, Credicorp.

Hi, good morning and thank you for the presentation. I have just two questions. The first one is regarding a concept of tariffs and the foreign trade outlook in Latin America. Just similar to the case of Mexico, I would like to understand what is the total exposure of the loan portfolio to trade with the United States or if you feel there is any more exposure regarding clients between countries that are not exposed to the United States, but it still could be impacted by that context? That will be my first question.

And the second one is regarding great finance and treasury platforms. I would like to know the status of each one. And also, if the deployment of those platforms will be in all the countries in which you operate, or will you start only in a few countries. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Dan, great questions. First one regarding, exports to Mexico, I mean to the US, it's mostly Mexico, and that's where we've done, most of our stress test, so we, we're not worried about tariffs being imposed in other countries at this moment. If tariffs are imposed in Mexico and China, and it is not, for sure at this point, this will mean that these countries will likely lose, market share in US imports.

So that would be opportunity for other countries in LatAm to export to the US, so for example, we believe, Brazil could benefit in this in the short term. As it could, redirect exports of oil or agricultural products to the US, also potentially Central America and the Caribbean countries have the potential to increase their market share in the US market for food, or even light manufacturing.

What I'm trying to say is that blacks have the ability to position itself to be able to finance and take advantage of the new trade dynamics in the region because again of the short term, nature of the portfolio so we see from our end, given, the short-term nature we see more opportunities here, with that volatility than anything else.

Sam ,you want to add something to the second question?

Yeah, the platform that we're launching, with CGI initially with the letters of credit, it's country agnostic it's US dollars it's hard currency, so we could do -- it's offshore, so we could virtually do in any of the countries that we operate. What we will do is start piloting with our closest relationships or the more meaningful in that. Business and then starts deploying to the rest of the clients. The idea is to have all of our clients operating through that platform, and with time we believe we can get there, but of course it takes some time.

I don't know, Daniel, if that answers your question.

That's perfect. Thank you so much.

Okay, thank you. Next question.

Our next question comes from Valentina Marín with Bancolombia.

I have two questions. First, what countries do you expect to lead portfolio growth in 2025? Do you expect any particular focus? What would be the reason for such focus? And second, do you expect to continue reducing provisions? What would be your target for COR in 2025, 2026?

Okay, I'm going to let Sam tackle the first one on portfolio growth. That's his area and then I'll talk a little bit about provisions for 2025.

But overall, on average we believe growth should continue to be balanced throughout the countries in which we operate. We're obviously monitoring very closely what opportunities this more volatile geopolitical context and potential escalation of trade work can bring to us.

In times like these, some global investors tend to wait on the side, which could bring opportunities for us to move quick as well. Mexico could be one of such countries as it has great corporations will survive no matter what happens. We also continue to see Central American conglomerates expanding outside the region, north and south. We're working hard to capture some of those opportunities to finance M&A particularly.

Finally, like our CFO already mentioned, we see a promising path of economic recovery in countries such as Argentina and El Salvador. We don't plan to move aggressively in those countries, but there could be good opportunities to grow from where we are today with the best credits in each of those countries.

Great, Sam, thank you. Regarding reserves, remember reserves are model based. I believe reserves in 2023 were, right below $30 million and it was $28 million and you have keep in mind, that we had one Mexico and I took most of the hit in 2023. 2024 it was $17 million. So, given that we are projecting a similar growth, in similar country mix, we believe that reserves for 2025 should be around what they were for 2024, so in the $17 to $20 million.

Are there any other questions?

[David Lefkowitz].

Thank you very much and congratulations on the the great result in in 2024. I have 3 questions. The first question is, some of what has been said in today's presentation implies a concentrated portfolio. So I'd like to know what is the largest concentration you have and how you manage loan concentration?

Second question. There was a great increase in credit commitment fees this year, and I'd like to know if that implies any changes in the portfolio makeup for next year.

And finally, a third question. Most of your investment portfolio is 92% of it is held to maturity securities and is, most of this held to maturity portfolio held, and are there any changes contemplated? Thank you.

Thank you very much, very good questions. First one regarding loan concentration. First of all, keep it, keep in mind this is a wholesale bank, so we're naturally, are concentrated, because of the nature of the business, we are, as you saw, very diversified in terms of countries and also in terms of, sectors we feel very com comfortable that our top exposures.

In, are either, quasi sovereign, companies, normally short term or have very, strong, collateral, so, the concentration, it's always something that we are, monitoring at the credit board. But can you remember what the second question was? Sorry, commitment fees they have, increase on that.

Sure, I think it's important to make clear that we're not, the typical hosts that, are have a very active, book of backup facilities, RCFs unfunded RCF, the com the nature of our, from the project finance parts that typically when a project when we fund a project, not. The needs of the projects are being, dispersed as construction builds up, so there is some delayed drop down term loans as we call, and those are, yes, project finance is still very small on the in terms of the total bulk, but that business is growing.

Also what is growing with the growth of the, letters of credit business we're seeing also opportunities to in some of the tenders around the countries that we operate some of the traders ask for, our commitment right. Before the tender opens, so those are very short term, commitments and we like those and also that guarantees that we're going to be the bank of choice for the issuance of the letter of credit that we look for those. So I think that that's another source of where those come.

And third, that's so we continue to be on the lookout in the second over the last, a few years some really good opportunities, to buy, committed facilities, at discounts and there, there's some of the number of the growth that come from those, let's say, opportunistic, purchases as well. So I think this is what, a bit of, the picture of.

Thank you. The third question was regarding the investment portfolio. That is, in fact, most of it, held to maturity. Eduardo, you want share some?

Stocks explained, I mean, most of the portfolio is held with issues outside of America. It's a portfolio for a very short duration. Average duration is 2 years. And most of it is investment rate, more than 80%. We see this portfolio as a source of diversification of credit exposures outside of the region.

It must be remembered that by our bylaws we can only lend in member countries, but this portfolio which is predominantly invested outside the region provides a source of diversification and as Annie explained before, also, because most of these, I mean, I would say all of these, bonds are, global agencies, and most of them are investment rates.

They're also a vehicle, through which we can access the Fed discount window in a situation of market disruption. So, in short, most of the exposures are US minor exposure in EUR is more than 80% investment rate.

Okay, thank you very much. That's all the questions we have for today. I'll pass the line back to Jorge Salas for their concluding remarks.

Before we conclude today's call, I want to take a moment to acknowledge in November after an extraordinary 35-year career in life while she remains with us until April. (technical diffciutly) her last earnings spot. And it has been a financial performance with excellence, integrity and a true commitment to our strategic vision.

Under her help we have delivered record breaking results as you've seen the bank on behalf of the entire management team and the Board. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Annie for her years of dedication and invaluable contributions.

Annie, we will miss your leadership, but more than anything, we will miss you as a colleague and as a friend.

At the same time, I want to take this opportunity to welcome Annette as she steps into her new role. Annette brings a wealth of experience and deep knowledge of our business, and I have no doubt that she will continue to build on the strong foundation that Annie has established.

Annie, you want to say a few words?

Sure. Thank you, Jorge, and thank you all. It has been an incredible journey at Bladex. I am deeply grateful for the privilege of working with such a committed team these past years have been and achievements that I am in may thank our investors, our Board, my colleagues, and especially my team for their support, trust and collaboration.

Bladex is in an excellent position for the future and I have no doubt that the bank will continue to thrive under Jorge's leadership and the outstanding team we have built.

I am especially delighted to see my close colleague and dear friend, Annette, take on this role, confident that her expertise and vision will continue driving that forward. Thank you all.

Annette, please.

Hi, everyone. Thank you, Jorge, and thank you, Annie. (inaudible) I am honored to step into this role and continue building upon the strong foundation she has helped establish.

Over the past months, I've had the privilege, knowledge, and leadership have been in valued. I look forward to continuing to execute our strategy, clients, and stakeholders. Annie, on behalf of your client team, I wish you all the best luck.

Thank you both, and I think this concludes the call. Thank you, everyone, and I'll see you in the next call.

Thank you. Good day.

Thank you. Bladex conference call is now closed. You may disconnect and have a nice day.