OFG Bancorp Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Digital Deposit Momentum Offsets Government Withdrawal, NIM Guided to 5.10%-5.20%

Operator: Good morning. Thank you for joining OFG Bancorp’s conference call. My name is Nikki. I will be your operator today. Our speakers are José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, and César Ortiz, Chief Risk Officer. A presentation accompanies today’s remarks. It can be found on the homepage of the OFG website under the first quarter 2026 section. This call may feature certain forward-looking statements about management’s goals, plans, and expectations. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties outlined in the Risk Factors section of OFG’s SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated. We disclaim any obligation to update information disclosed in this call as a result of developments that occur afterwards. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

After the speakers’ remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Fernández.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Good morning, and thank you for joining us. We are pleased to report our first quarter results. Let’s go to page 3 of our presentation. We started the year with a strong financial performance. Earnings per share diluted were up 26% year-over-year on 4% growth in total core revenues. This was driven by ongoing loan growth, high-quality credit performance, core deposit strength, expense, and proactive balance sheet management. Loans grew 5% year-over-year, and new loan production grew 9%. Reported core deposits declined 1%. Excluding the previously announced $500 million government deposit transfer, core deposits grew more than 4% year-over-year. This demonstrates how our strategies and operating model continue to deliver, supported by momentum in our businesses and disciplined execution across the franchise.

We further our commitment to capital management, repurchasing $44.5 million of common shares and increasing the dividend 17%. Despite growing geopolitical uncertainties and their effect on energy prices, Puerto Rico’s economy continues to grow, and businesses and consumers’ balance sheets are solid with high liquidity levels. Please turn to page 4. Our core digital strategy consists of three main pillars. The first is our service offerings. We’re targeting specific customer segments with accounts that meet their needs. Libre for the mass market, Elite for the mass affluent, and MyBiz for small businesses. This targeted approach is driving strong market adoption and deeper customer relationship. The second pillar is technology. Our omni-channel platform allows customers to interact with us seamlessly across all touch points. This is driving continued digital adoption, resulting in efficiency and savings that we reinvest in new ways to serve our customers.

The third pillar is intelligent banking. We’re leveraging data and real-time insights to help customers better manage their finances while increasingly seeing real customer connections being built through our digital channels. Please turn to page 4. As proof of our success, we’re driving innovation year-over-year. Retail digital enrollments are up by 10%, digital loan payments 5%, and virtual teller usage up by 7%. Net new retail and commercial customers each grew by close to 3%. The added benefit is that this enables us to free up more of our teams to provide personal value-added services, focus on sales to expand our market share, and develop new digital products and services. Now, here’s Maritza to go over the financials in more detail.

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: Thank you, José. Let’s turn to page 6 to review our financial highlights. All comparisons are to the fourth quarter unless otherwise noted. Core revenues at $186 million were approximately level. Total interest income was $194 million, a decrease of $3 million. This reflected lower average balances of cash and investment securities at lower average yields. This was partially offset by higher average balances of loans at higher average yields. First quarter interest income included $3.3 million from a PCD loan paid in full. There were two fewer days in the first quarter. This negatively affected interest income by about $3.1 million. Total interest expense was $40 million, a decrease of $4 million.

This reflected lower average balances of core deposits at lower average yields. This was partially offset by higher average balances of brokered CDs and borrowings at lower average yields. The two fewer days reduced interest expense by approximately $1 million. Total banking and financial service revenues were $32 million, a decrease of $0.6 million. This reflected favorable MSR valuation of about $1.3 million, while the fourth quarter included $2.3 million in annual insurance commissions recognition. The other income category was $0.2 million compared to a loss of $1.1 million. The change reflected the absence of several previously reported items from the fourth quarter. Non-interest expense totaled $95 million, down $10.3 million from the fourth quarter.

The first quarter included $1 million in merit raises, $0.7 million in payroll tax costs, $1 million in costs related to a capital market readiness and registration process, $3.6 million in business-related volume incentives compared to $3.1 million a year ago, and $2.5 million in cost savings. The fourth quarter included net $6.8 million in previously reported expense items. Income tax was $14.9 million compared to a benefit of $8.5 million in the fourth quarter. The first quarter ETR was 21.60%. Looking at some other metrics, tangible book value was $30.14 per share. Efficiency ratio was 51%, return on average assets was 1.78%, and return on average common equity was 16.4%. Now let’s turn to page seven to review our operational highlights. Average loan balances were $8.2 billion, up $50 million from the fourth quarter.

This reflected increases in Puerto Rico and U.S. commercial loans, partially offset by lower balances in residential mortgage, auto, and consumer. Loan yield was 7.87%, up 14 basis points. Excluding the first quarter loan recovery, loan yield was 7.71%, down two basis points from the fourth quarter. New loan production was $609 million. This mainly reflected an increase in auto loan production. Year-over-year, new loan production increased 9%, primarily reflecting increases in new commercial loans with auto moderating as anticipated. Average core deposit balances were $9.6 billion, down 4% from the fourth quarter. This reflected the $500 government deposit transfer to wealth management early in the first quarter. By the end of the quarter, this was partially offset by increases in retail and commercial deposits totaling more than $150 million across all categories, demand, savings, and to a lower extent, time deposits.

Core deposit cost was 1.29%, down 13 basis points. This was mainly due to the previously mentioned government deposit withdrawal combined with lower average rates. Excluded public funds cost of deposit was 1% compared to 1.02%. Also, reported average non-interest-bearing deposits totaled $7 billion in the first quarter, an increase of 1.41% sequentially and 4.55% year-over-year. Investment totaled $2.8 billion, down $55 million. This reflected principal pay downs and maturities. This was partially offset by purchases of $49.2 million of mortgage-backed securities and residential mortgage securitization of $23.5 million. Average borrowings and brokered deposits total $929 million compared to $787 million in the fourth quarter. The aggregate rate paid was 3.98%, down five basis points. By the end of the first quarter, balances were down to $747 million due to intentional runoff, compared to $897 million quarter.

End of period cash at $636 million was 39% lower due to the government deposit transfer. Net interest margin was 5.36%, reflecting the previously mentioned $3.3 million interest recovery and lower cost of deposits and borrowings. César will provide more detail about credit quality in a moment, but first let me summarize the quarter. We demonstrated year over year loan growth and production in line with expectations, continue to expect low single digit growth with our expanding presence in commercial, more than offsetting a declining auto. Our digital-first strategy is continuing to lead to more customer, digital, and debit card transactions. Digital-first also helped grow deposits in line with our strategies. We continue to anticipate growth this year with our Libre, Elite, and MyBiz accounts. We now expect net interest margin to range from 5.10%-5.20%.

This updated range assumes no additional rate cuts in 2026 compared to 2 cuts previously expected, and incorporates the exit of the large remaining government deposit later this year. Noninterest expense were maintained within our expected run rate. We remain on track to keep expenses in a range of $380 million-$385 million this year. Based on our first quarter results, the estimated tax rate for 2026 is anticipated to be 22.3%, excluding any discrete items. We were very active returning capital to shareholders. We will continue to be selective and opportunistic, balancing shareholder returns with disciplined growth. Now, here, César.

César Ortiz, Chief Risk Officer, OFG Bancorp: Thank you, Maritza. Please turn to page 8. Before getting into the details, let me start with the key highlights for the quarter. Our thesis that higher customer liquidity in the first quarter drives better claim metrics was reinforced. We saw that most clearly across the retail portfolios, where early-stage and total delinquency trends improved sequentially, consistent with normal seasonality. Net charge-offs totaled $21 million, down $5.5 million, reflecting normal portfolio activity with continued improvement in retail loss trends. Net charge-offs reflected $3.9 million from a final settlement of a previously reserved U.S. loan, while the fourth quarter included $4.8 million related to a non-performing loan sale. The net charge-offs rate was 1.05%, an improvement of 27 basis points from the fourth quarter. The auto net charge-off rate declined sequentially to 1.52%, an improvement of 29 basis points.

The consumer net charge-off rate also improved to 4.40%, 15 basis points better from the fourth quarter. Provision for credit losses was $22.5 million, down $9 million from the fourth quarter. This reflected $17.5 million from increased loan volume, $3.7 million in added reserves for a previously reserved commercial loan, and $1 million for newly classified small commercial loans. Allowance coverage remains strong at 2.48% of loans and reserve levels continue to appropriately reflect the risk profile of the portfolio. Looking at other retail credit metrics, early and total delinquency rates declined meaningfully from the fourth quarter to 2.2% and 3.4%, respectively. These improvements were broad-based across the retail portfolios, with auto, consumer, and mortgage all showing better early-stage performance. The non-performing loan rate was 1.47%, down 12 basis points. Retail non-performing loan rates improved sequentially in auto and consumer, while remaining stable in mortgage.

Overall, retail credit behavior was consistent with the seasonal improvement we typically see in the first quarter, supported by higher customer liquidity and strong employment conditions in Puerto Rico. Turning to commercial, the non-performing loan rate declined to 2.36% from 2.50% last quarter, reflecting sequential improvement. Commercial asset quality outside of one specific trade continues to perform as expected. As we discussed last quarter, the commercial portfolio continues to include a single-name telecommunication exposure that moved to non-accrual late last year. This exposure remains well understood and idiosyncratic and does not represent a broader trend within the commercial portfolio. Overall, credit continues to perform well. While we remain mindful that there are various geopolitical and economic headwinds that may increase the cost of living or inflationary pressures in Puerto Rico, the first quarter performance benefited from strong employment conditions and higher seasonal customer liquidity.

Credit metrics remain well controlled and within our risk appetite, and the portfolio is performing in line with our expectations and risk framework. Here’s José to wrap up.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Thank you, César. Please turn to page nine. The Puerto Rico economy continues to perform well. Business and consumer liquidity levels are strong and unemployment is at historically low levels. Public reconstruction funds, private investments, and new onshoring projects continue producing economic tailwinds.

As César mentioned, we are closely watching geopolitical macroeconomic uncertainties and their impact on the island, particularly with higher energy prices and overall inflation. Against this economic backdrop, OFG remains very well-positioned. Our digital strategy is driving unique customer experiences, attracting deposits, and growing our customer base steadily. Our culture of continuous improvement and investments in people, technology, and automation are producing tangible efficiencies. We continue to have a solid commercial loan pipeline, stable credit trends, and strong risk management and discipline as a liability. All these factors, combined with Puerto Rico’s level of business activity, positions us well for continued growth. Before I end my prepared remarks, I want to highlight the recognition we received in the first quarter, where we were honored with a 2026 Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award. For us, this recognition goes well beyond employee engagement scores.

It reinforces a culture we’ve been intentionally building for many years, one that emphasizes agility, openness to challenge, and innovation. At OFG, our teams are encouraged to question how things have always been done, to move quickly in responding to customer and market needs, and to continuously improve how we operate. That mindset enables faster decision-making, more innovation across our digital and operating platforms, and better execution in a dynamic environment. This recognition highlights how our people, culture, and strategy are united by a shared sense of purpose, driving meaningful progress for all our stakeholders. It is this commitment to purpose that empowers us to consistently achieve strong long-term results while making a positive impact across all our stakeholders. With this, we end our formal presentation. Operator, please open the call for Q&A.

Operator: Thank you. If you have a question at this time, please press star one on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, press star two. We’ll take our first question from Brett Rabatin with StoneX. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Brett Rabatin, Analyst, StoneX: Hey, good morning, Maritza and José Rafael.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Hi, Brett. Good morning.

Brett Rabatin, Analyst, StoneX: Good. Wanted to start just on the margin, even excluding the $3.3 million, that would’ve made it about 5.24%. That was obviously better than anticipated. When I look at the cost of deposits, if I heard correctly, 1%, excluding the government deposits in the quarter. It seems like things turned out better than expected on the margin. I know the guidance is for a slightly lower level from here, but just any thoughts on the potential positives for the margin relative to the guidance, whether it be loan pricing, or any other factors? It seems like you’re probably getting close to a bottom here on funding costs.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Brett, before I let Maritza give you the specifics, let’s just be clear here. For us to provide guidance on the margin is a little tricky given the uncertainty on when and how much of the large government deposit will exit, and how those funds will be replaced. When we give a guidance on the NIM, we’re using the most conservative guidance possible because we just really don’t want to promise something that we really don’t want to not deliver on. Bear that in mind. We still have a significant deposit from the government that has been telegraphed to us that it will depart sometime. We don’t know if it’s tomorrow, or if it’s next year.

Replacing those deposits, we certainly bet that our business teams, the commercial team as well as the retail team, as they did this first quarter, will deliver, and deliver substantially better than what we expected in the first quarter. It definitely has a lot to do with the economic background that we’re living in Puerto Rico and sometimes we undermine that in our own forecasts given the 22 or 23 years that we’ve operated in the island. Bear that in mind before I pass the answer to Maritza so she can give you the specific details.

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: Yeah. Thanks, José, for that color. As I mentioned that for the first quarter, definitely the fact that deposits increased at a higher rate than expected, it was a very good momentum for us. The reality is that going forward, we don’t see, thinking about the rate scenario that we’re managing with no cuts. We don’t see much of a flexibility to push down more the cost of deposits. So we will continue to see deposits at the same level as we saw during the first quarter. The other element that is embedded within the range that I provide is the asset composition, because we will continue to see gradually commercial book having a higher proportion as auto continues to go down, as I shared with you in the prepared remarks.

That means we also have some impact in the loan yield that during this quarter went down 2 basis points. We’re seeing the asset sensitivity and the liability sensitivity somehow compensating between the two of them and seeing the NIM that we saw during the quarter keeping it stable, maybe 5 basis points down, 5 basis points up. That’s why we’re giving the 5.10%-5.20% range.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Guidance.

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: Guidance. For the quarter, if we exclude the recovery, it was 5.25, and we will need to manage liquidity through the year as José was mentioning. That’s why we’re giving that base case scenario as a range.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: You guys know us. We’re going to be conservative on our guidance in all the guidance that we provide. We’ve been doing that for many years. That’s kind of where we stand, Brett.

Brett Rabatin, Analyst, StoneX: Okay. Can you remind me, José Rafael, how much of the government deposit piece is left? It sounds like you’re unsure of the timing, but just any thoughts on-

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Around $600 million on the one deposit. Remember the other $500 went to our broker-dealer, so we’re getting a little bit of a fee there. That’s where it stands right now.

Brett Rabatin, Analyst, StoneX: Okay. Then on credit quality, I heard the comments and totally, if you look at the numbers, it makes sense. There’s some seasonality related to early-stage delinquencies. There was some nice improvement this quarter. Was there anything else that might have been driving the improvement other than seasonality and customers having higher liquidity during one Q? Are you seeing any other broad-based things that were improving credit?

César Ortiz, Chief Risk Officer, OFG Bancorp: Well, back in 2022, at the late stage of 2022, we adjusted, we improved the underwriting standards to make sure that we didn’t book higher because that was record-breaking period. We wanted to make sure that we used that moment to improve our portfolio quality. Now we’re seeing the results of those improvements in the credit quality, where the auto portfolio is 91% prime. We are starting to see the benefits in the credit metrics of those adjustments that we did back in the 2022 year.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yeah. When you think about it, Brett, the seasonality of the vintage that is coming due in 2026 is one that already has 80%+ in prime. We expect to have lower loss content in the vintages that are becoming seasoned in the next couple of years. That’s part of an additional kind of element of the consumer credit portfolio.

César Ortiz, Chief Risk Officer, OFG Bancorp: Yep.

Brett Rabatin, Analyst, StoneX: Okay. Just the last one for me around just the broad macro. I saw this morning that construction in Puerto Rico, it was slightly off in January, maybe February. All this stuff going on with higher oil prices, inflation. Just wanted to hear anything you’re seeing in terms of macro in Puerto Rico and maybe opportunities or challenges.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yep. You’ve heard me before talk about Puerto Rico economy, and it remains very constructive, very positive. Puerto Rico is probably in its best economic position in many decades. If you think about it, right now, Puerto Rico has only 30% debt to GDP. Puerto Rico has the lowest levels of unemployment in 70-some years. Puerto Rico receives around $4 billion-$6 billion in reconstruction funds a year and will continue to receive them for the next 7 years. Puerto Rico is benefiting from onshoring of medical devices, pharmaceutical, and leveraging that infrastructure that has been in place for many years. Remember, Puerto Rico’s manufacturing is around 45% of the entire economy in the island. That is also helping. I think Puerto Rico, going back to our history, we are back in the limelight in terms of our geopolitical geographic positioning.

You saw it when the military went into Venezuela. It all came from Puerto Rico, and they’re increasing their military presence in the island. When you look at all that, it’s just a very good economic backdrop that will certainly have to face threats. Those threats will come from the geopolitics that is going on around the world and the inflationary pressures and the United States potentially going into a recession, and we’ll get some of those effects. Puerto Rico is in a much stronger position today than several decades ago to embark on those challenges. When you think of the quarter-to-quarter or month-to-month changes in economic data points and stuff, yeah, they’re real.

At the same time, what we’re seeing on the ground is high levels of liquidity. Strong interest in building infrastructure, strong private investments, and we’re meeting with commercial clients. I had lunch yesterday with commercial clients that are really putting money to work in the island in different industries. I think the next several years in Puerto Rico are going to continue to be a pretty steady growth. That’s what we’re seeing, Brett. We’re seeing a pretty solid, positive economic environment that is not exempt of threats and it’s not exempt of risks. I think we’ve been managing them for many years and we’re confident that we continue to grow our client base, we’ll continue to grow our loans and our deposits. We have been doing the last several decades being very strategic, being very intentional, and again, as I said, highlighting our team.

Our people are really focused on trying to be the challenger bank in the island and gaining market share out of it. That’s kind of my 10 cents that turned out to be more than 25 cents.

Brett Rabatin, Analyst, StoneX: Well, I appreciate all the color, and it has been good to see the on-shoreings. Thanks.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yep.

Operator: Thank you. We will move next with Arren Cyganovich with Truist Securities. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Arren Cyganovich, Analyst, Truist Securities: Thanks. Good morning. The deposit growth surprised me to the upside with the government deposit that you had guided coming out. You had pretty strong growth in the quarter to cover that, where I thought it would actually come in under the borrowing side. Maybe you could talk a little bit about, you mentioned that Libre and Elite and MyBiz all contributed. Are you seeing any particular growth in any one of those particular products? Were you doing anything special to drive that growth in the first quarter?

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yep. I agree with you 100%. The three products are the driving force for us as an offering. Very targeted, very focused. We don’t have 50 different deposit accounts. We have one for mass, one for mass affluent, and one for small business. That’s how we keep our focus of our team members. We also have excellent benefits for each of those accounts. That is what’s driving the adoption and driving the account opening and driving the customer growth. It’s all across the board. What we saw with Libre in this quarter and Elite on the retail side showed increase in deposits. Libre is non-interest bearing. Mostly a digital account type of thing where you can open it online if you want to. We continue to see great adoption there, growing client base on a monthly basis steadily.

On the mass affluent, we also saw great growth too in terms of deposits. We continue to see steadily those are higher balances. We continue to see steadily the penetration of different services within the Elite. What I mean by that is we are seeing more and more Elite customers deepening the relationship on the lending side within Oriental, with the OFG. On MyBiz, it’s our flagship. Our team members go out there and we do have a very good solid cash management offering and the platform is very good and solid compares to the one that banks in the States have. Customers are starting to identify all those benefits and we’re seeing the results. Certainly all of that has to do with the economy too. There’s a lot of liquidity, so that helps.

I don’t want to underestimate the power of our strategy and how we’re executing on it.

Arren Cyganovich, Analyst, Truist Securities: Great. That’s helpful. Slide 5, you’ve always kind of talked about the digital first aspect of your banking and the statistics are pretty impressive. What are you doing or any particular new investments that you’re looking at from the technology side where you can kind of continue to improve upon those statistics?

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: We’ve made investments throughout the last several years and some of what you’re seeing today is the deployment of those, or the benefits of those investments. We continue to invest. Right now the biggest focus for us as we finalize our data kind of management and making sure that we have the data readily accessible so for us to be able then to continue to extract insights for our customers and to improve their lives and give them value add. That’s something that we’re already doing and we are expanding that and we have a team working on it for many years now. That’s something that we’re focusing on. I think the benefits of artificial intelligence are first and foremost on the efficiency side.

When you heard Maritza talk about expenses, you see the guidance being flat versus last year as we talked about there in the fourth quarter. We continue to see good opportunities for us to leverage AI and bring efficiencies to the bottom line for 2027 and beyond. The other side is value add to our customers. How do we make their life simple? Those are the things that we’re investing in right now. It’s tricky, and we’re probably going to hit a good investment here or there in terms of the deployment to our customers, and we might miss some. That’s kind of how we operate. We do bet on the innovation. We think banking will require innovation going forward, and Puerto Rico is way behind on that innovation curve, and OFG is the one who’s driving that innovation in Puerto Rico.

Arren Cyganovich, Analyst, Truist Securities: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. We will move next with Kelly Motta with KBW. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for the question. Just a real quick one. Just a point of guidance clarification from Maritza. That 5%-10% to 5.20% margin, just wanted to clarify, is that for the full year or the balance of 2026 quarters, say?

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: Yeah. It’s for the full year. I already shared a little bit on how we’re seeing and why we’re seeing that range. José also provided how tricky it is to forecast the timing of the big government deposits transfers. That considered that and the fact that we are not seeing cuts during the year.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Got it. That’s really helpful. Then similarly, I thought a real strength of the quarter was the core deposits. I know Puerto Rico has, I believe, a government tax rebate. Just wondering if you saw any positive impacts from that in 1Q, or if not, just if you could help us out with the timing of where you expect that. Thanks.

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: That’s usually at the end of the quarter. We saw a little bit at the end of the quarter, certainly. I think that plays out throughout the first half of the year. We see the child tax credit. We also see the tax refunds in general, and that plays out throughout the first half of the year.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Great. That’s really helpful. Maybe to turn to capital. You guys announced a pretty meaningful dividend raise earlier in the quarter, and you guys were also more active with the buyback with the new authorization out. Capital looks very healthy here. Can you remind us any guideposts or thoughts around the capital size of things? Thanks.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yep. Everything starts with how do we deploy our capital management. We want to deploy it first and foremost in our business here in Puerto Rico. If there are some opportunities for us to deploy it in a growing balance sheet, we will certainly do that, and that’s kind of the first level of thinking. We also certainly see the buyback as a way for us to continue to return capital to shareholders. We’re methodical about it and opportunistic, and we’ve shown it in the first quarter and will continue to be so during the rest of the year. The dividend, we look at it also, and we feel very confident about the earnings power that we have and how we manage the capital with close to 14% CET1.

I think it was a little lower this quarter given the buybacks, but it’s around 13.75 CET1. We feel that part of our capital management strategy is to deploy back capital to shareholders, and we will continue to do so, Kelly.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Okay, great. That’s helpful. Maybe last ticky-tacky question for me, just modeling based. I appreciate the color on margin. You had the interest recovery. Just looking at your average balance sheet, it looks like there was a jump up in PCD interest income. Just to confirm, was that where that interest recovery came in?

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: Yes.

Okay. Great.

Yes. It was a payoff of a loan that was within that group. Yes.

Kelly Motta, Analyst, KBW: Great. Thank you for confirming. I’ll step back. Really nice quarter, guys.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yeah. Thank you, Kelly.

Operator: Thank you. We will move next with Manuel Navas with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Hi. How much do the taking out of Fed rate cuts help that NIM guide? If we did get one rate cut, what would you expect the impact to be?

Maritza Arizmendi, Chief Financial Officer, OFG Bancorp: Well, thank you, Manuel. We continue to be asset sensitive, but the reality is that a 50 basis point cut will have a very low impact, less than 1%. The reality is that we are taking that into consideration in this new guidance because we were expecting two cuts mid-year and then at the end of the year, and that’s no longer impacting the commercial book. That’s why it is impacting positively the guidance that we provide, and we move it like 10 basis points, not necessarily fully related to the change in the expectation on rate cuts. Also it’s a combination with the fact that the funding mix is better than expected because of the inflow that we received during the first quarter. It’s encouraging us with the perspective that we had for the rest of the year.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: We are expecting core deposit to continue growing, so that will help funding mix in front of the potential exit of the government deposits. That’s what is embedded with that guidance.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: I appreciate that. The success you’re having with the new account types, as long as they keep growing, they can replace borrowings and that should only benefit your funding. Is that kind of?

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yeah.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Your drive? You’re home?

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yep. It also has another component that we don’t talk about it often, but it’s also the large commercial book and business that we have. We do have some good size commercial accounts that have been longstanding clients of ours that also are benefiting from higher liquidity levels too.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: Great. On that front, I know your loan growth is commercial led this year, a little bit less on the auto side. How do pipelines look? Any update to the mix-

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yeah.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: The mix of loan growth from last quarter? It seems pretty consistent, but just trying to check in on.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yeah.

if there’s going to be a seasonal improvement in growth.

Yeah, we do have a pretty good pipeline, and we are continuing to stick with our guidance of low single digits simply because, not because we don’t feel comfortable with the commercial pipeline, but more importantly because we are modeling a reduction on the auto business, auto loan book that is hard to predict given the landscape here in Puerto Rico. We’re very happy with the business on the commercial side. We continue to grow it. We continue to have a very strong pipeline, Manuel.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: I guess my last question is on credit. Is this kind of improvement in past dues, which is somewhat seasonal, could that drive a bit lower net charge-off levels for the year? I think we’re looking at closer to 1%+.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: We talked about the 1% last quarter, too. I don’t want to project this quarter because it’s a better quarter because of the seasonality, as you mentioned. I would stick to my 1% through the year, and hopefully it’s going to be better because we mentioned already the improvements of the FICO quality of the portfolio, which may equate into a better charge-off rate. But as of now, I would say 1%.

Manuel Navas, Analyst, Piper Sandler: I appreciate it. Thank you.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Yep. Thank you for your question.

Operator: Thank you. Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment while we queue. At this time, there are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Fernández for closing remarks.

José Rafael Fernández, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, OFG Bancorp: Thank you, operator. Thanks again to all our team members, and thank you to all our shareholders who are listening. Have a great day.

Operator: Thank you. This brings us to the end of today’s meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.