Bladex Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Record Commercial Portfolio and Disciplined Growth Amid Margin Pressure

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Bladex first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. A slide presentation is accompanying today’s webcast and is also available on the investor section of the company’s website, www.bladex.com. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of today’s presentation. Please note today’s conference call is being recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen only mode. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer. Sir, please go ahead.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today to discuss Bladex’s results for the first quarter of 2026. I will begin with a brief overview of our quarter, then Annette, our CFO, will walk you through the financials in greater detail. After that, I will come back with an update on strategy execution, some thoughts on the macro environment, and our outlook for the rest of the year. Finally, we will open the line for questions. We began 2026 with a very strong quarter in terms of balance sheet growth, while maintaining solid profitability in a highly competitive environment with very tight spreads and wide open capital markets for LatAm issuers. The main highlight of the quarter was the continued expansion of our commercial portfolio. We reached a record of $12 billion, up 8% quarter-over-quarter and 13% year-over-year.

This was fully in line with the growth path we have been discussing in previous quarters and supported by the additional capital flexibility provided by the AT1 issuance completed last year. Growth was driven mainly by medium-term transactions across Colombia, Brazil, and Guatemala. On the funding side, deposits once again reached record levels, closing the quarter at $7.3 billion, up 11% quarter-over-quarter and 25% year-over-year. This strong performance was broad-based across all depositor segments, with Yankee CDs standing out, surpassing $1.7 billion. This reflects continued client activity, the strength of our franchise, and our ability to continue growing deposits at very competitive spreads, which has also helped support margins in the current rate environment.

Turning to revenues, net interest income totaled $70 million, down slightly in the quarter as the balance sheet continues to absorb the full repricing of last year’s rate cuts. Latin America has been one of the more resilient regions in a volatile global environment. That has translated into strong liquidity, tighter spreads, and increasing competition. Even in that context, we were able to maintain our net interest margin at 2.34%, supported by disciplined balance sheet management. Strong asset growth, deposit increase, and active liquidity management helped offset pressure on spreads. Fee generation in the first quarter typically runs below fourth quarter levels in our two main fee businesses, letters of credit and syndications. This seasonal pattern is not unusual. Importantly, when compared with the first quarter of last year, the underlying trend remains clearly positive.

We continue to see healthy pipeline in fees for the second quarter, which is consistent with how activity is evolving. Expenses also reflected the usual seasonality at the start of the year. That said, we do expect expenses to increase slightly over the coming quarters as we continue to execute the investment plan contemplated for the rest of the year. Efficiency levels for 2026 will remain within guidance at roughly 28%. Net income for the quarter reached $56.4 million. Return on equity was 14.2%, and our Tier 1 ratio closed the quarter at 17.9%, allowing us to continue supporting growth from a position of strength. Overall, this was a quarter of strong growth and solid profitability despite a more competitive revenue environment.

With that, let me now hand it over to Annette for a more detailed review of the financial results. Annette, please go ahead.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Thank you, Jorge, and good morning, everyone. Let me walk you through financial highlights for the first quarter of 2026. From a financial perspective, this quarter represents a solid start of the year. We continued to grow the balance sheet with discipline while maintaining stable profitability in a lower rate environment, supported by continued strengthening of our funding mix and solid fee generation despite first quarter seasonality. Starting with earnings and returns, Bladex delivered net income of $56.4 million, up 9% year-over-year and broadly stable quarter-over-quarter, reflecting the consistency of our core earnings generation. Importantly, return on average assets remains stable at 1.8% even as we continue to grow the balance sheet. This reflects the bank’s ability to expand while preserving sustainable profitability.

Return on adjusted equity stood at 14.2% in line with the previous quarter and within our 2026 guidance range, reflecting stable earnings generation. As usual, first quarter results should be assessed in context. The period is typically seasonally softer, particularly for fee income, and this quarter we operated in a lower interest rate environment, which naturally place some pressure in spreads and returns. As we will see through today’s presentation, despite this backdrop, our first quarter performance reflected the benefits of disciplined balance sheet growth, stable net interest income, continued funding optimization, and higher fee generation compared to the same period last year. Let’s now turn to balance sheet growth and commercial activity. The commercial portfolio reached $12 billion, increasing 13% year-over-year, with growth across both loans and contingencies.

Within this total, loan balances closed at $9.7 billion, reflecting continued execution of our commercial pipeline, while contingent exposures reached $2.1 billion. The quarter’s performance was supported by the execution of a strong pipeline of medium-term transactions, including activity originated through our structuring and distribution team. At the same time, our focus remains on selective origination and efficient capital rotation, with 64% of exposures maturing in less than 1 year, supporting flexibility, disciplined risk management, and repricing capacity. From a composition perspective, diversification remains a key strength. Country exposures are well-distributed, with no single country representing more than 15% of total exposure. Guatemala, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico remain among our main markets, while the overall mix reflects a balanced regional footprint. Industry diversification also remains strong.

Financial institutions represent 25% of total exposure, while corporate lending is well spread across sectors linked to regional economic activity and trade growth. Starting this quarter, our commercial exposure include a small bond position focused on LatAm issuers recorded at fair value through OCI, totaling $234 million. This represents a tactical capital deployment tool, allowing us to selectively capture opportunities within our existing credit framework while continuing to prioritize loan growth. The fair value OCI classification also provides flexibility to manage these positions over time, including adjusting exposures as credit or market conditions evolve consistent with our risk-adjusted returns objectives. With that, let me now turn to liquidity and the investment portfolio. As we continue to grow the balance sheet, maintaining a strong liquidity position remains a key part of our funding and risk management discipline.

At quarter end, liquid asset $2 billion, representing 14.5% of total assets, remaining well within regulatory requirements and providing flexibility to support commercial growth while preserving current liquidity buffers. The composition of liquidity remains highly conservative, with around 80% placed at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the remainder primarily held with high quality counterparties and multilateral institutions. The Treasury investment portfolio closed the quarter at $1.44 billion, increasing 14% year-over-year. The investment book remained 96% investment grade, geographically diversified outside Latin America, and short in duration, with an average maturity of approximately 1.5 years. These characteristics make it a strong complement to our liquidity structure, providing earning support and contingent funding capacity, as the securities are eligible for access to the Federal Reserve discount window through our New York agency.

Overall, liquidity and investment continue to provide flexibility, resilience, and earning support as we grow the balance sheet. Turning to asset quality. Credit quality remains strong and stable, consistent with the bank’s disciplined approach to origination, underwriting, and ongoing monitoring. At quarter end, total credit exposure reached $13.5 billion, with the vast majority remaining in stage one, representing 97.5% of total exposure. Stage two exposures representing 2.2% or approximately $300 million, while the stage three remain minimal at 0.3% or around $39 million. This continues to reflect the high quality profile of the credit book.

From a reserve perspective, total allowances reach $112 million, with a coverage ratio of 0.83%, broadly stable compared to the previous quarter. In addition, coverage of impaired credits remains strong at 2.9 times, reflecting a prudent reserve position. The increase in Stage 2 during the quarter primarily reflects our proactive credit assessment of selected exposures in the context of a somewhat more challenging operating environment. Importantly, impaired credits remain stable, and no material credit events were recorded during the quarter. Asset quality therefore remains a core strength of the bank, supported by high quality exposures, prudent reserve coverage, and continued proactive risk management. Let’s now move to the funding side of the balance sheet. We continue to see strong momentum in deposit growth, which remains the foundation of our funding strategy.

Deposits reached a record level of $7.3 billion, representing 63% of total funding, increasing both in scale and relevance within our liability structure. Growth was broad-based, driven by corporate deposit, financial institution, and multilateral clients, while Class A shareholder deposits continued to provide a stable and efficient anchor. In addition, Yankee CDs reached a record level of $1.7 billion, further enhancing the diversification and duration of our deposit base. As a result, deposits continue to support balance sheet growth through a more stable and cost-efficient funding structure, which remain an important driver of our ability to sustain margins within our guidance expectation. Beyond deposits, we continue to actively diversify our medium-term funding sources. During the quarter, we executed an additional tranche under our Middle Eastern syndicated loan, alongside other bilateral transactions, further expanding our investor base.

More recently, we completed another successful issuance in the Mexican market of roughly $250 million, which was swapped into US dollars at a cost well within our US dollar curve. This transaction reflects our continued access to diversified funding sources as well as our ability to capture attractive opportunities while optimizing our cost of funds. These quarter results show continued progress in strengthening the liability side of the balance sheet, improving the quality, diversification, and duration of our funding while reinforcing the role of deposits in supporting both margin sustainability and balance sheet growth. Let me now turn to capital. Our capital position remains strong and well above our target levels, providing ample capacity to support continued balance sheet growth. At quarter end, our Basel III Tier 1 ratio increased to 17.9% from 17.4% at year-end 2025.

While our regulatory capital adequacy ratio under Panama’s banking framework stood at 14.7%, well above the regulatory minimum. It is important to note that these two ratios are based on different methodologies and therefore do not necessarily move in the same direction quarter to quarter. The Panama regulatory ratio follows a more standardized framework, while the Basel III ratio is more risk-sensitive and better capture changes in the underlying risk profile of our exposures. In the first quarter, the increase in the Basel III ratio was driven mainly by lower risk-weighted asset intensity, reflecting the regular revision of our internal risk parameters, incorporating the continued strong performance of the credit book. Looking ahead, we continue to expect disciplined capital deployment through 2026, in line with our broader strategic execution.

As capital is deployed, we will expect Basel III Tier 1 ratio to gradually move towards our 15%-16% Tier 1 guidance range, which remains the appropriate operating level for the bank. Our capital position remains strong and continues to provide ample capacity to support growth while preserving balance sheet resilience. Moving now to net interest margin and spreads. During the quarter, net interest margin stood at 2.34%, while net interest spread was 1.69%, reflecting resilient performance in what remains a challenging rate environment. Margins continued to be shaped by several dynamics. The rate cuts implemented since the fourth quarter of 2025 have had some impact on NIM, while ample market liquidity and strong competition for quality assets continued to pressure loan pricing, particularly in short-term lending.

In addition, while loan average balances remain broadly stable, supporting consistent net interest income, most of the incremental balance growth was concentrated towards the end of the quarter. Therefore, the earnings contribution from this growth was only partially captured in the first quarter NII, with a fuller impact expected to be reflected in subsequent periods. At the same time, these pressures have been partially offset by the execution of medium-term transactions, which contribute to a more stable margin and support overall asset yields. On the liability side, continued deposit growth helps support balance sheet growth more efficiently, reinforcing a more stable and cost-efficient funding structure. Taken together, these factors demonstrate the resilience of our margin performance and the benefit of actively managing both sides of the balance sheet. Let me now turn to fee income.

In the first quarter, fees and commissions reached $13.1 million, up 24% year-over-year, despite this being a seasonally softer period for fee generation. Letters of Credit and guarantee remain the main source of fees, generating $7.4 million in the quarter. This activity remains closely tied to our core trade finance business. First quarter was affected by seasonality, but we see good momentum as we move to the second quarter, supported by higher transaction volumes and the increasing but gradual benefits of our trade platform. Credit commitments and other commissions were another important contributor, reaching $2.7 million, more than doubling compared to the same period last year. This reflect the growing relevance of medium-term transactions and committed facilities within our client offering.

Our structuring and distribution team also continued to contribute to fee income, generating $3.1 million during the quarter, supported by 2 transactions closed in Costa Rica and Colombia. Importantly, this was achieved despite some transactions closings shifting from the first quarter into the second quarter. While fee recognition in this business can vary depending on execution timing, the syndicated loan pipeline remains solid. In addition, client derivatives are a part of our strategy to further diversify non-interest income. We are seeing growing client demand, particularly in connection with transaction execution. The pipeline remains active, and while the timing of individual transactions may shift across quarters, we expect this business to begin contributing more visibly as execution builds over the upcoming quarters.

Taken together, fee income continues to show solid growth and increasing diversification, supported by trade-related activity, committed facilities, and structuring capabilities, with gradual contribution from client derivative as activity builds through the year. To close, let me turn to operating expenses and efficiency. Operating expenses for the quarter were $22 million, reflecting the usual first quarter seasonality, while also incorporating the impact of a strategic initiative that have moved into production, including higher depreciation, IT-related expenses, and the talent required to support execution. In that context, the first quarter expense base reflects the operating impact of initiative already underway. The efficiency ratio for the quarter was 26.5%, remaining well aligned with our full year guidance of approximately 28% and reflecting the bank’s ability to absorb a strategic investment while maintaining cost discipline.

As we move through the year, we will continue investing selectively in technology capabilities, talent, and execution capacity required to deliver on our strategic priorities while maintaining a strong focus on operating efficiency. In conclusion, the first quarter reflected disciplined balance sheet growth, resilient margins, strong fee generation relative to seasonal patterns, continued funding momentum, and a solid capital position. With that, I will now turn the call back to Jorge for his closing remarks.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Thank you very much, Annette. Let me briefly touch on strategy execution and make a couple of comments on the environment we’re operating in. We continue to make good progress on our letters of credit platform. Processing times have consistently come down from almost five hours to about one hour per transaction. This productivity improvement has allowed us to handle smaller tickets profitably, deepen penetration with existing clients as we start to scale the letters of credit business. As outlined in our Investor Day last month, transactional deposits are a key component in the new phase of our strategy. In that sense, we have already onboarded our first correspondent banking client, still in pilot phase, and we’re currently working on the second one.

We now have the governance in place to incorporate additional correspondent banking clients during the year in a disciplined way, and we continue to see strong pipeline of interested financial institutions in the region for these services, which we see, of course, as very encouraging. Turning to the macro environment, while global geopolitical and financial conditions have clearly become more volatile, our region continues to show resilience supported by healthy fundamentals, stable trade flows, and a positive investor sentiment. The reason is clear. Latin America’s direct trade exposure with the Persian Gulf is very limited, and the region as a whole is a net commodity exporter. Higher commodity prices are historically beneficial for Bladex. Obviously, net commodity importers, mainly Central American and Caribbean countries, will face some headwinds. The ultimate question, of course, is how long will this last?

In any case, our view is that this environment reinforces the importance of disciplined lending and highlights the value of our ability to actively adjust regional exposures given the short-term duration of our lending portfolio. When we look at the year as a whole, our view remains unchanged. The first quarter was consistent with our expectations, and we continue to make progress on the strategic front that support the next phase of the bank. For that reason, and based on what we have seen so far in the year, we reaffirm our full year guidance. We do so with confidence while remaining realistic about the competitive environment and the external conditions. With that, please open the call for questions, operator.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Thank you very much for the presentation. We will now begin the Q&A section for investors and analysts. If you wish to ask a question, please press the button Raise Hand. If your question has already been answered, you can leave the queue by clicking on Put Hand Down. There is also the possibility to ask your question through the Q&A icon at the bottom of the screen. You may select the icon and type your question with your name and company. Written questions that are not addressed during the earnings call will be returned by the investor relations team. Our first question comes from Iñigo Vega with Jefferies. Just a couple of comments on two areas. One, level of worry on the 70 basis points sequential increase in Stage 2 loans in the quarter.

Second, why RWAs under Basel III are down 2% quarter-on-quarter when commercial portfolio is up 80% quarter-on-quarter? Only RWAs under Panama align with asset growth.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Yes, thank you, Iñigo. I’ll tackle the first question on asset quality, and our, I’m gonna let Annette, our CFO, tackle the capital ratios questions. The short answer is we’re not worried. Asset quality remains very strong. The stage 2 increase reflects more of a proactive risk management approach than any deteriorations. We’re just being more cautious on selected exposures, basically in Brazil. We do expect normalization rather than deterioration going forward. I mean, the cost of risk is consistent with the disciplined underwriting of Laith, and that, as I always say, has not changed and will not change. Annette, you wanna talk about capital ratios?

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Sure. Yeah, as we mentioned in the call, we follow two different methodologies. One is the regulatory methodology. That’s a bank regulated by the Superintendency of Banks. We also, for a reference purpose, also follow Basel III Tier 1 ratio. These are different methodologies. The Panamanian local regulator ratio is based on a more standardized approach, where the exposures are assigned regulatory risk weights based on their categories. While the Basel III Tier 1 ratio is more risk sensitive, it reflects more directly the underlying risk profile of the portfolio, including the borrower quality, country risk, tenor, probability of default, and other characteristics. This is why these two ratios can move differently in a given quarter.

In the 1st quarter, our Basel III ratio improved despite the balance sheet growth because of the risk-weighted asset intensity that we had in the portfolio. This is reflected on the strong historical credit performance that we have that incorporated, this was incorporated in the regular revision of our internal risk parameters. The Ecuador country upgrade during the quarter also impacted the Basel III ratio. Obviously, the quality and the mix of the new exposures that we put in the balance sheet also affect the Basel III ratio. On the other hand, the Ecuador upgrade that was given, it is reflected in the Basel III framework, as we mentioned before, but it does not have the same impact under the Panamanian ratio.

This is 1 of the reasons why these two ratios behave differently from 1 quarter to the other. Looking ahead, however, we still expect Basel III Tier 1 ratio to gradually normalize toward our 15%-16% target range as we continue to deploy the capital while maintaining ample capacity for disciplined expansion.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Yeah, I think that’s it. I mean, the main point is growth in assets does not necessarily imply, you know, higher capital construction, consumption. It’s more about quality and mix are critical.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Thank you. Our next question comes from Ricardo Buchpiguel with BTG. You can open your line.

Ricardo Buchpiguel, Analyst, BTG: Hi, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity of making questions. I have two here on my side. First, as you mentioned in the presentation, you saw a higher concentration of credit transactions coming out more towards the end of the quarter, which had a negative impact on NIM. It would be helpful if you could comment on what would be the NIM, like excluding this effect, just so we can think a little bit about how is the starting point for NIM in Q2, and everyone can have their own assumption in terms of rate cuts, but the baseline is also helpful.

For my second question, during the quarter we saw a strong sequential growth in credit commitments and guarantees in the balance sheet and when we’ve seen the revenues, we saw a 14% quarter-over-quarter reduction, right? It’d be great if Sam could walk us through in more details how the monetization cycle of this product works and how seasonality plays out throughout the year, so we can have a better color on this line. Thank you very much.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Okay. Sam, you wanna talk about the commitments, then Annette will talk about NII?

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: Sure. Thanks for the question, Ricardo. I’ll start with your question on commitments. Then I can talk a little bit about the overall credit, letters of credits and guarantees, also business evolution. The commitment fees that you see there is coming from committed but unfunded exposure that is indeed growing and is in line with the expansion of our project finance and infrastructure and syndicated loan businesses. For project finance and infra, for example, it’s very common that part of the facility amount will be disbursed not in one go, but rather as CapEx is being deployed. On syndicated loans, those tends to be bigger facilities. It’s common to give the client a couple month to fund the transaction. Also, those are commitments that will be funded in due time.

There will be loans, and the commitment period in those cases is much shorter than the tenure of the actual facilities. Most importantly, of course, it generates fees, and those tend to be 30%-40% of the low margin. I think finally, and it’s very important, the commitment fees, the commitments that we have there, they’re not to liquidity backstop facilities, which is a type of exposure that we don’t like as they tend to be used when the underlying credit has deteriorated. Bottom line there is, yes, it’s very much commitment fees should continue to grow as the project finance and the syndicated business grow. In terms of letters of credit and guarantees, yeah, the reduction in this quarter versus previous quarter is, or previous 2 quarters, is more in line with seasonality.

I think there are certain types of letters of credit that they are issued more towards mid, the second and third quarter. This is a business that we continue, obviously to focus, as you know, on board new clients, and we do expect a pickup or return to normal levels as the year passes. I think that’s important to mention as well.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Yeah. Hi, Ricardo. Thank you for your question. Regarding the NIM and NII during the first quarter, as we mentioned in the call, we’ve been proactively managing our balance sheet, both the asset side and the liability, which allow us to maintain a resilient NIM as we execute through the year. As we mentioned, our current NIM is affected by the rate cuts that we received towards the end of 2025, and these have an impact in this quarter NIM. It also, it is affected by the ample liquidity and competition for asset quality in the region. We are seeing that, especially in the short term of our lending exposure. Also, the fact that, as we mentioned in the call, some of this growth was towards the end of the quarter.

We are hoping, we’re expecting that growth to reflect in the upcoming quarter, providing a sustainable net interest income to the bank. We were able to offset some of these negative pressures by deploying steadily the execution of the medium-term transactions on the loan side, which provides a more stable balances and also margins. was also offset by the growing participation of deposits and also the efficient liquidity management within the balance sheet. With this NIM of around 2.30%, which remains within our guidance, we feel confident that this, the guidance for 2026 will remain around 2.30, as we have mentioned before.

More importantly, it is also important to take consideration that we are complementing our revenues with the growth of the fees, as Sam just mentioned, in order to make the bank less sensitive to rate movements and provide a more stable profitability for the bank.

Ricardo Buchpiguel, Analyst, BTG: Thank you. That’s very clear. If I may do, like a quick follow-up on this last point. Assuming that if you get your scenario where you don’t have rate cuts, not only in Q2, but throughout this year, do you believe there is upside risk to the guidance, both in NIM and ROE?

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Well, as we are seeing, as we’ve been mentioning for the last couple of quarters, we are seeing, we see that as an upside, although we have seen a lot of pressure on margins. I think most likely, I mean, we’re already seeing a benefit from the higher-for-longer rates. However, I mean, these have been offset a little bit by the pressure we have seen on the loans origination.

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: Great. Thank you.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: For now, I would say it has remained kind of like a neutral impact.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Yeah. It’s almost a wash.

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: Perfect. Thank you.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Our next question comes from Natalia Corfield with J.P. Morgan.

Natalia Corfield, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Hi, everybody. Thank you for taking my question. I am gonna go back to capitalization, just to be sure on the decline on your Panama ratio, and also wouldn’t be this ratio, the Panamanian one, more relevant than the Basel III since you are, like, since your requirements are based on Panama? Those are my two questions.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Hi, Natalia. Both methodologies are important to the bank. Obviously, we’re a local bank in Panama, regulated by a superintendency, and it’s our priority not only to comply with the ratios, but have ample buffers versus the minimum requirements, and that has been the way the bank manages its capitalization levels. Yes, we are, and our AT1 transaction is based on our regulatory ratio, which we will follow and monitor it closely. The fact that we include our Basel III ratio in, you know, our presentations to investors, this provides a more standardized reference point for investors to be able to compare to other peers in the region. Since, as we mentioned, the methodologies are not

are different, and some characteristics of our balance sheet are not very well perceived by the local regulator ratio. Basically, those are the two reasons why we follow and comply with-

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: With both

Natalia Corfield, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Perfect. If you could go again through the reasons for the decline on the Panamanian ratio, that would be great.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: This responds directly to the growth of the balance sheet that we saw between the fourth quarter and the first quarter, which was around 8%.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: It’s almost independent of the country risk.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Yeah.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: That’s why we track the other one.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Okay.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: It doesn’t capture the improvement some of our assets.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Yeah.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Yeah.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: It is very neutral to all the exposure outside Panama, especially the corporate positions. It does not differentiate between ratings or if it’s investment grade or not investment grade. Those are the characteristics that the Basel III does incorporate into the calculation.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: That’s-

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: While the Panamanian-

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: I get-

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: ratio is more for local banks, and it’s more detailed about the positions that you have locally than the positions that you have cross-border.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Yeah. It’s almost designed for almost for local banks with a larger local exposure. In that sense, Bladex is, you know, a outlier in Panama. I mean, our Panama exposure, as you know, is less than 5% today.

Natalia Corfield, Analyst, J.P. Morgan: Okay. No. Understood. I would just making a point that the Basel III one is great that you do it, but looking through Latin America, I’ve seen that each country has its own Basel III regulations. Like, I think it’s each country adapted, and then also I know your effort to be able to display something that’s comparable, but at the end of the day, I find hard to compare Basel III ratios across Latin America. Just a comment, but thank you very much for your answers.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Thank you, Natalia.

Annette, Chief Financial Officer, Bladex: Thank you.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Our next question comes from Andres Soto with Santander.

Andres Soto, Analyst, Santander: Good morning, Jorge, Annette, Anita, and team. Thank you for the presentation. My first question is regarding your top line growth. We saw a strong performance this quarter. At the same time, you are mentioning a tougher competitive environment. At what point do you believe this competition will make a dent on your long growth expectations? You believe that the risk-adjusted returns that you are getting now are attractive, and you will continue to grow at the current pace? Is your growth driven by the new products that you are introducing in your product offering?

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Thank you, Andres. I’m gonna let Samuel, our Chief Commercial talk about growth in the lending portfolio.

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: Thanks, Andres. I think we’re very confident to follow to meet our guidance in terms of growth for the year. As you know, our exposure is very short term, so things can, the landscape can change quarter to quarter. With that said, we have some ways to mitigate that, which is one side, build a solid, medium term, more value added pipeline, which is the case right now, in project finance infrastructure, in syndicated loans. I think so we’re well, I think, prepared to continue deploying at the speed that we’re deploying and according to the guidance.

We’ve also been working very hard to build the short-term pipeline, which is the pipeline for short-term transactions that is more, I would say even more affected by the competitive landscape. I think the way to do that is through our product strategy that we have spoke a lot about in our investor day, particularly structure trade and working capital solutions that also been growing at a good speed and with a, I would say promising pipeline. Last but not least, I think the increase in oil prices come as a good tailwind in that respect, right? A lot of our short-term or part of our short-term exposure is really financing cargoes, and those cargoes are bigger in size right now.

That helps us as well.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: I guess also, Andres, it’s very important for us, you know, the quality and the durability of earnings is what is important. Not just scale. Not just scale.

Andres Soto, Analyst, Santander: That’s very clear. Connecting this with my question on fees, we also saw a strong fee on a year-over-year basis, and I appreciate the explanation that Sam provided regarding these products being fee rich and providing for those upfront and then on lending down the road. Is the current pace for fee income growth sustainable given the strategy for entering to these products such as Letters of Credit, indication, et cetera, or are there any one-offs in the quarter that we should normalize going forward?

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: No one-offs. I mean, the first quarter is typically, as Annette mentioned a minute ago, softer than most in both of our fee businesses and, you know. The point is some transactions shifted into the second quarter, so it’s more a timing effect than a slowdown. You know, fees, as you mentioned, fees are up 24%, year on year. The momentum is good. I guess the bottom line is that fees are becoming a more, you know, structural revenue component over time. No one-offs up to now. If something comes up, of course, we’ll mention it as a one-off. We’re confident with the guidance on fees.

Andres Soto, Analyst, Santander: Yeah. Thank you, Jorge. My question was, actually, sort of the opposite, since, given the strong performance this quarter, I was looking for non-recurring factors explaining the 24%.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: No

Andres Soto, Analyst, Santander: ... year-on-year growth on the fee income side.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Okay.

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: Yeah, that’s on the case.

Andres Soto, Analyst, Santander: That was very clear. Thank you.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Our next question comes from Daniel Moro with Credicorp Capital.

Daniel Moro, Analyst, Credicorp Capital: Hi. Good morning, and thank you for the presentation. I have a couple of questions. The first one is, considering that 18% of the portfolio is related to oil and gas, did you see or do you see any tailwinds or headwinds derived from the conflict between U.S. and Iran? If there is any other sector country that should be heavily impacted by the high international oil prices? I know that you mentioned a couple of points on this matter, but if we can go deeper, it will be great. Thank you. My second question is: What will be those elements that could take the 2026 ROE closer to the 15% upper bound of the guidance, considering that loan growth has been quite strong? NIM, despite the pressure interest rate, has been

You have been able to defend the NIM and fees even though the first quarter is softer due to seasonality effects. It continued to grow by double digit, 25%. Given this strong performance, what could be even better to take the ROE to 15%? Thank you so much.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Tom, you wanna go ahead and talk about the,

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: First

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: ... oil and gas-related, exposure?

Samuel (Sam), Chief Commercial Officer, Bladex: Sure. I think it’s a great question. I think on a net basis, it’s much more of a tailwind rather than a headwind. The reason why is, for example, on the, let’s say, exposure that is more long-term, that tends to be linked to E&P investments. You know, we’re financing the lowest cost producers in the region, the most competitive fields and, of course, with the current, even though the oil prices are more on a spot basis rather than, let’s say long-term forwards, but they are very positive for them. I think it reduces the risk of the portfolio.

On the other hand, as I mentioned also for the trade business that is very short term, the size of the cargoes, the typical cargo is higher, so the demand tends to be higher. I think positive in that sense. Of course, part of our business is we’re taking risk on the importers of petroleum products, mostly in Central America. Yes, you could argue that that can be increase inflation in those countries and reduce profitability.

In that, those cases, we’re really dealing with for the most part, the most cases, national oil companies of very solid countries, which, let’s say it’s more beneficial that we’re financing bigger amounts than detrimental that can impact their, you know, their numbers, their credit quality. I think on a net basis, definitely positive.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: I think the short-termer of a portfolio and the ability to reprice and reposition quickly is the key. I mean, the focus for Bladex is not predicting geopolitics, but managing how shocks transmit into spread trade flows and inclined risk and we have the ability to do that and we’ve been showing that. Okay. Regarding the first question. Thank you.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Our next question comes.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: No, I think your second question was about.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Upside

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: upside on the ROE guidance. I guess it’s a balance, you know, between higher for longer and the margin pressures. I mean, you have, you know, both playing at the same time. Let’s see, you know, what ends up happening. I mean, it’s hard to predict at this point. Okay. Perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Daniel.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Okay. Our next question comes from Patrick Abraham with Bulwark Capital. Has the bank started looking at Venezuela as an opportunity for investment? What is your outlook for the country?

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Yeah. That’s a good question. I mean, Venezuela might represent an upside scenario for Bladex. It is not included in our projections of us today. I mean, we are very actively assessing the risks and the opportunities. Bladex used to be very active in Venezuela, in the oil and gas sector and also with FIs and LCs. I mean, Venezuela used to at some point to represent between 4% and 5% of our total portfolio. Today, our exposure is zero. We know the country well, and it’s more a matter of, you know, timing on when to go back in.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: Thank you. That’s all the questions we have for today. I will pass the line back to the Bladex team for their concluding remarks.

Jorge Salas, Chief Executive Officer, Bladex: Well, thank you all for your questions and your time today. We appreciate your continued interest in our bank. As the year started in line with our expectations, we remain focused on executing with discipline. Thank you again and have a good day.

Conference Call Moderator, Bladex: This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.