Banco Macro Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Net Income Surges 131% as Asset Quality Deterioration Signals a Potential Peak

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. At this time, we would like to welcome everyone to Banco Macro’s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. We would like to inform you that the first quarter 2026 press release is available to download at the investor relations website of Banco Macro, www.macro.com.ar/relaciones-inversores. Also, this event is being recorded, and all participants will be in a listen-only mode during the company’s presentation. After the company’s remarks are completed, there’ll be a question and answer session. At that time, further instructions will be given. It is now my pleasure to introduce our speakers. Joining us from Argentina are Mr. Jorge Scarinci and Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Nicolás Torres, IR. Now I will turn the conference over to Mr. Nicolás Torres. You may begin your conference.

Nicolás Torres, Investor Relations, Banco Macro: Good morning, and welcome to Banco Macro’s first quarter 2026 conference call. Any comment we may make today may include forward-looking statements which are subject to various conditions, and these are outlined in our 20-F, which was filed to the SEC and is available at our website. First quarter 2026 press release was distributed yesterday, and it’s available at our website. All figures are in ARS and have been restated in terms of the measuring unit current at the end of the reporting period. As of 2020, the bank began reporting results applying hyperinflation accounting in accordance with IFRS, IAS 29, as established by the Central Bank. For ease of comparison, figures of previous quarters have been restated applying IAS 29 to reflect the accumulated effect of the inflation adjustment for each period to March 31st, 2026. I will now briefly comment on the bank’s first quarter 2026 financial results.

Banco Macro’s net income totaled ARS 139.8 billion in the first quarter of 2026, 28% or ARS 30.2 billion higher than the sum posted in the previous quarter and 131% or ARS 39.2 billion higher than a year ago. In the first quarter of 2026, the annualized return on average equity and the annualized return on average assets were 10% and 2.4% respectively. Excluding restructuring expenses, ARS 4.9 billion after tax, the first quarter 2026 net income would have totaled ARS 152.9 billion, and the annualized ROE and ROA would have been 10.9 and 2.6% respectively. In the first quarter of 2026, operating income before general and administrative and personnel expenses totaled ARS 1.23 trillion, 3% or ARS 43.6 billion lower than the fourth quarter of 2025 and 16% or ARS 169.2 billion higher than the same period of last year.

In the first quarter of 2026, operating income after general, administrative and personnel expenses was ARS 569.8 billion and 15% or ARS 73.8 billion higher than the fourth quarter of 2025 and 24% or ARS 108.6 billion higher than a year ago. The bank’s first quarter 2026 net interest income totaled ARS 975.2 billion, 7% or ARS 59.7 billion higher than the fourth quarter of 2025, and 27% or ARS 207.2 billion higher year-on-year. This result is due to a 5% decrease in interest income and a 21% decrease in interest expense. In the first quarter of 2026, interest on loans represented 72% of total interest income. In the first quarter of 2026, the bank’s strategy to remain short in US dollars proved successful.

The combination of the short dollar position together with the long futures position and the allocation of the ARS generated by the said sale of US dollars resulted in a net gain. The bank’s first quarter 2026 interest expense totaled ARS 485.7 billion, decreasing 21% or ARS 132.7 billion compared to the previous quarter, and 27% or ARS 104 billion higher compared to the first quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, interest on deposits represented 93% of the bank’s total interest expense, decreasing 22% or ARS 129.1 billion quarter on quarter due to a 470 basis point decrease in the average rate paid on deposits, while the average loan price of deposits increased 1%. On a yearly basis, interest on deposits increased 24% or ARS 87.1 billion.

In the first quarter of 2026, the bank’s net interest margin, including FX, was 25.3%, higher than the 21.7% posted in the fourth quarter of 2025 and the 23.2% posted in the first quarter of 2020. The first quarter of 2026, Banco Macro’s administrative expenses plus employee benefits totaled ARS 349.8 billion, 22% or ARS 101.5 billion lower than the previous quarter due to lower employee benefits, which decreased 28%, and lower administrative expenses, which decreased 9%. On a yearly basis, administrative expenses plus employee benefits increased 3% or ARS 9 billion. Employee benefits decreased 28% or ARS 89.6 billion quarter on quarter. Compensation and bonuses decreased 61% or ARS 74.8 billion. In the first quarter of 2026, the bank recorded ARS 19.9 billion restructuring expenses related to early retirement plans and severance payment provisions.

On a yearly basis, employee benefits increased 3% or ARS 6 billion, and excluding the restructuring expenses, employee benefits would have decreased 8% or ARS 18.7 billion quarter-on-quarter and 6% or ARS 13.9 billion year-on-year. It is worth mentioning that in the first quarter of 2026, Banco Macro reduced its branch network by 24 branches down to 420 from 444 in December of 2025 and reduced its headcount by 3%. In the first quarter of 2026, the result from the net monetary position totaled ARS 349.8 billion loss, 15% or ARS 46 billion higher than the loss posted in the fourth quarter of 2025, and 1% or ARS 4.4 billion lower than the loss posted one year ago. Higher inflation was observed during the quarter, 158 basis points above the fourth quarter of 2025.

Inflation was 9.44% in the first quarter of 2026, compared to 7.86% in the fourth quarter of 2025. In the first quarter of 2026, Banco Macro’s effective income tax rate was 34.3%. In the first quarter of 2025 to 2026, Banco Macro’s total financing decreased 9% or ARS 1.1 trillion quarter-on-quarter, totaling ARS 10.63 trillion, and increased 5% or ARS 458.9 billion year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2026, ARS financing decreased 9%, while U.S. dollar financing decreased 6%. It is important to mention that Banco Macro’s market share over private sector loans as of March 2026, reached 8.2%, decreasing 40 basis points compared to December of 2025.

On the funding side, Banco Macro’s total deposits decreased 7% or ARS 993.7 million quarter-on-quarter, and increased 10% or ARS 1.22 trillion year-on-year, totaling ARS 13.99 trillion and representing 76% of the bank’s total liabilities. Private sector deposits decreased 8% or ARS 1.1 trillion quarter-on-quarter. In the first quarter of 2026, peso deposits decreased 4%, while US dollar deposits decreased 7%. Banco Macro’s market share over private sector deposits as of March 2026 total 7.9% unchanged from the previous quarter. In terms of asset quality, Banco Macro’s non-performing total financial ratio reached 5.4%. It is worth mentioning that Banco Macro’s non-performing total financial ratio under expected credit losses, Stage 3, plus 90 days past due loans deteriorated 84 basis points during the first quarter of 2026, totaling 3.64% versus 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The final non-performing ratio is affected by mandatory classification of customers under central bank rules, taking into consideration customers’ behavior across the financial system. Banco Macro’s non-performing total financial ratio, excluding mandatory classification of customers, increased 109 basis points, reaching 4.73% in the first quarter of 2026 versus 3.64% in the fourth quarter of 2025. Consumer portfolio non-performing loans deteriorated 168 basis points up to 6.92% from 5.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025. While commercial portfolio non-performing loans deteriorated 66 basis points in the first quarter of 2026, up to 134% from 0.68% in the fourth quarter of 2025. The coverage ratio, measured as total allowance under credit losses over non-performing loans under central bank rules, reached 109.79% in the first quarter of 2026.

Had the coverage ratio been 90%, which is similar to the coverage ratio of other private banks in Argentina, net income in the first quarter of 2026 would have totaled ARS 219.7 billion, representing an adjusted ROE of 15.7%. Banco Macro continued showing a strong solvency ratio with an excess capital of ARS 4 trillion, 32.4% capital adequacy ratio and 32.4% Tier 1 ratio. The bank’s liquid assets remain at an adequate level, reaching 78% of its total deposits in the first quarter of 2026. The bank seems to make the best use of this excess capital. We have accounted for another positive quarter. We continue showing a solid financial position. Asset quality remain under control and closing model. We keep on working to improve more our efficiency standards, and we keep a well-itemized deposit base.

At this time, we would like to take the questions you may have.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Okay. At this time, we are going to open it up for questions and answers. If you would like to ask a question, please press the Q&A button at the bottom of the screen, or to ask questions on audio, click on Raise Hand. You will receive a request to activate your microphone. Our first question comes from Brian Flores with Citi.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi: Hi, team. Good morning, and thank you for the opportunity to ask question. The first one is the usual one we have. If you have any revision on guidance, we know some of your peers have revised growth a bit in both loans and deposits. Just checking with you if the previous ranges you provided are still valid. I wanted to maybe do a double click on asset quality. We saw still obviously some NPL iteration, and we know you kept the coverage ratio at healthy levels. I just wanted to check with you if, going forward or you’re already seeing better trends in terms of provision and customer behavior. Thank you.

Nicolás Torres, Investor Relations, Banco Macro: Hi, Brian. This is Jorge Scarinci. On your first question about guidance in terms of growth, loans or deposits, for the moment, we are maintaining the guidance that we gave last quarter. What we are seeing basically is that the first quarter, when you look at growth in loans, there was a decline. There was an increase in real time when you compare that on a yearly basis. Something to mention here is when you have a look at advances, sorry, overdraft, that is one of the components of our loans. This line is usually used as a way of allocating excess liquidity. As of March 2026, the market share in this line was 14.6%, well below the 18.1% market share that we posted one year ago. This is quite affecting and that’s why the 5% growth on annual basis.

However, when you have a look at other lines like pledges, personal loans, discounted documents or mortgages, they are growing above 20% on a yearly basis. Because of this, and also.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Because of what we’ve seen in April, credit demand, both in ARS and in USD, and what is going on in May, that we are seeing a recovery in loan demand. That’s why that we are maintaining our guidance for loans. Similar trend with the deposits. We are maintaining the guidance on the deposits, even though on a quarterly basis, there was a decrease. We are seeing some upward trend in the current quarter onwards. In terms of your second question, asset quality, I think that is worth mentioning here that even though there was a deterioration that we’ve seen in the whole portfolio that reached 5.4%, we are still showing the best NPL, so total loan ratio among our peers. Also when you look at the coverage ratio, that is almost 110%, this is also a ratio that we are showing the highest among our peers.

We commented in the press release that if we would be going down to a level of 90% of coverage, and that is the average of our peers, the adjusted ROE for the quarter, of course, annualized, would have been 15.7%. It is also worth mentioning that what we saw between February and March, and also between March and April, there was a positive behavior on the consumer Stage 3 trend. So what we saw is that February apparently was a kind of a peak for the Stage 3 consumer, and having March and April showing better trends or positive trends there. Also we saw in terms of commercial, that the deterioration speed was slowed down in both months.

Going forward, we are also maintaining our cost of risk guidance, and we believe that we are close to the peak on this deterioration of asset quality trend that we have seen in the last 12 months. That’s it, Brian.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi: Perfect. 5.2 or approximately 5.2 cost of risk, real ROE close to 8%, right? Just confirming with you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Yeah. I was talking about guidelines for growth in terms of loans and deposits and also in terms of asset quality. Cost of risk, yes, it’s going to be, I think, more than between five and a half and six. In terms of profitability, it is pretty clear that we posted, I would say, the best quarter among Argentine banks, and it was slightly above the annualized ROE guidance that we gave last quarter. Because of what we are seeing in terms of growth in this second quarter should be another good quarter for the bank. For the moment, I think that we are going to be maintaining the ROE guidance of area 80% on the adjusted ROE, that is without the non-recurring items that we are showing in the quarter. We would like to wait another quarter to see if we are going to increase our ROE guidance.

For the moment, ROE guidance is the same 80% area for the adjusted ROE.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi: Super clear. Thank you, Jorge.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Welcome, Brian.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Tito Labarta with Goldman Sachs.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi1: Hi, good morning, Jorge and Nicolás. Thanks for the call and taking my question. I guess following up on the ROE guidance in particular, more if we look at the trends, right, of cost of risk is likely to come down as asset quality maybe stabilizes. You had some good NIM performance in the quarter, mainly due on lower funding costs. Do you expect that to revert where NIM should come down for the rest of the year? Can you sustain this level of NIM, which would then imply perhaps upside risk to that ROE guidance? Just maybe thinking how the NIM should evolve from here and impact profitability. Thank you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Hi, Tito. In terms of NIMs, we are seeing going forward, I think a small contraction. I would say that the NIM for the first Q was slightly above the one that we were expecting. I would say that the average of the year should be quite similar than the average of last year. I think that is one of the reasons that could be, at some point, compensating the level of maintaining the same cost of risk going forward. That’s why we are maintaining this ROE guidance. Again, we want to be here a bit conservative and wait one more quarter to see or to crystallize if the bottom line is performing better than expected.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi1: Okay. No, that’s clear, Jorge. Thanks for that. Maybe just to follow up there. The pressure on NIM, would it come because you expect Funding costs to go up, or you think there’ll be some pressure on the asset yields as rates have come down, also because you’re growing loans faster than deposits? Could that also put some pressure on NIM, just to understand where the NIM pressure could come from? Thank you.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Yeah. What we are seeing is that inflation levels should be going slightly down on a monthly basis going forward. That is going to bring nominal interest rates slightly down. I would say that we could be seeing slightly more pressure from assets yields compared to the funding cost that is also going to go down, but a bit more pressure on the asset side.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi1: Okay. That’s clear. Thank you, Jorge.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Ernesto Gabilondo with Bank of America.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Hi. Good morning, Juan, Jorge, and Nicolas. Congrats in your results, and thanks for the opportunity to ask questions. My first question will be a follow-up on Brian’s questions on asset quality. You mentioned in the press release you made a recalibration of your model based on the behavior of the customers of the system, and that this was required by the Central Bank of Argentina. In Mexico, we follow a similar practice. In the first quarter, the Mexican banks also created higher provisions based on expected losses of the system, and they were considering the asset quality deterioration of the fintechs. Having said that, I asked to your peers in your conference calls if this practice is followed in Argentina, and they say no. It came to my surprise that you were the only one implementing it during the quarter.

Can you elaborate on why are you implementing it and the other banks don’t, and especially as it was required by the regulator. Also, you are the only bank with an adequate reserve coverage ratio above 100%. The others don’t. I also just want to understand if you are conservative in your ratio or you are just following the international standards. Thank you.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Ernesto, this is Juan. Thanks for your question. Let me take this one. As you saw in the release, we are quoting three metrics of delinquency. 5.4.7, and 3.6. Okay? 5.4 is the more acid one, which includes the loans that are delinquent with us, plus the loans with us that are not delinquent, plus delinquencies outside Banco Macro. That’s the most acid one. Is the one that Central Bank uses for reporting. There’s the second indicator, 4.7, which is the loans that are delinquent with us, plus the loans that are current with us on the same customer. Basically, what you do is you include in your delinquency ratio assets that are current in your books, but that are attracted by assets with the same customer that are delinquent. Stage 3 is the methodology that we use for provisioning.

The cost of credit that you see in our results is driven by the Stage 3 delinquency calculation. That Stage 3 delinquency calculation is driven by our model, which is in alignment with accounting standards and includes actual delinquencies, plus indicators of risk of some loans that might be current but are higher risk, for example, because of its score range. Okay. That’s the three distinctions. It’s important to define that our cost of credit, the provisions that we book in our results, is driven by the Stage 3 calculation. In our case, for the first quarter 2026, 3.64%. In that metric is where Jorge mentioned that for the consumer book in Stage 3 metric, we’ve seen from February to March and from March to April, two consequent months of reduction.

We have not seen yet reduction on the commercial book in this stage 3 metric, but we have seen a slowdown in the speed of deterioration. Have I made a complex topic clear, Ernesto?

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: No. Super careful. Just wanted to understand that in these plus indicators of risk, you are being more conservative than the other banks, or it’s just that your loan mix is showing you to recognize higher provisioning? Just wanted to understand this.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Yeah. Sorry, we missed that second part of your question. Bottom line, the short answer is yes, we are being more conservative. This does not, in our view, have to do with the outlook. It has to do with how conservative we are in our coverage. That conservatism is reflected in two ways. One is the model itself. Each bank has its own model. The model needs to comply with standards, but it might vary. That’s one thing, the model itself. The second one is the recalibration. The recalibration is something that, by regulation, banks need to do at least once a year. What you do when you recalibrate is see the last 12 months and recalculate the probabilities of defaults.

When you are in an upward cycle of delinquency, every time you recalibrate and you take a look to the last 12 months instead of the last previous 12 months, naturally, the probability of default for each of the clusters of the model increases. What we’ve done is, because the regulation says that you need to recalibrate at least once a year, but you are free to recalibrate if you want every month. We have been more conservative and done more frequent recalibrations to keep our coverage adequate, because if not, what happens is, by the end of the year, if you don’t do the recalibration early on, if you are in an upward cycle of delinquency, you may have a hit. Bottom line, again, we are being more conservative, both on the model design itself, but also on the periodicity of recalibration versus our peers.

The difference is significant. As you’ve seen, the average of our peers is in the 90%, and we are almost 110. Naturally, we should expect to, as delinquency reduces, to reduce the coverage as the recalibration starts reflecting those improvements. That’s how we see it, Ernesto. Is that clear?

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Yes, very clear. Thank you so much. I just have also a follow-up. Just if you can repeat your guidance for loan growth and deposit growth for this year. I know that you are not changing it, but just to double-check how was it before. Also another question in terms of your OpEx growth. Can you also remind us how should we think about the recurring OpEx growth for this year, excluding the restructuring costs? My last question is on your earnings expectations and ROE evolution throughout the year. I know you are right now at 11% and that you mentioned that you will wait for the second quarter to see if you can improve your guidance. How should we think about the seasonality of the ROE? The second quarter should be a little bit lower and then should be trending up.

Just wanted to understand how should we think about the earnings and the ROE evolution throughout the year to meet your guidance?

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Ernesto, in terms of the guidance for growth, we are still maintaining the loan growth guidance of 42% nominal growth for the year and 34% nominal growth in deposits for the year. That is the guidance that we are maintaining in terms of growth.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Sorry, in real terms?

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: It depends the inflation that you have in your model, but we have an inflation level of 28%.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Perfect.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Second question, in terms of expenses going forward, it is pretty clear, and we have explicitly commented before that we are in a process of making the bank more efficient, even though we were showing excellent efficiency levels. We are in the process of becoming more efficient. Honestly, the idea is to continue at least second quarter with the mid-parts of the third quarter. It depends on how this evolves, but in the way that we are reducing the number of employees and the number of branches. Of course, we do not have exactly the numbers going forward, but a very important proof is that when you look at expenses on a yearly basis, we are in a negative in real terms.

The idea is to continue going forward in the following quarters to show slightly negative numbers in terms of the evolution of expenses in real terms. If you allow me, Jorge, this is in line also with the guidance we gave by the end of last year, the fourth quarter last year, regarding this matter, that you should continue seeing in our quarterly results restructuring costs and continued reduction in operational costs in real terms. You’re seeing it again in the first quarter, and we expect that trend of investing in creating sustainable saves going forward in the next quarters.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay, just for me to understand, if we exclude the restructuring costs, should we expect OPEX a little bit declining or relatively flat this year?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: If you are excluding this, going forward, the idea is to keep on showing a negative real rate of growth.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay, understood. Perfect.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Actually, I’m just quoting the comments in the release, but if you take out the restructuring costs, our recurrent costs would have decreased 6% year-on-year, which Jorge mentioned before. We expect that trend of reduction in real terms of cost, excluding restructuring, to be maintained.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Okay. This could be a little bit messy because also in the fourth quarter of last year, you created some non-restructuring costs now. Just wanted to understand if we should be thinking on a yearly basis about this 6% decrease, or it could be also considering fourth quarter also created some of this.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: That is something that we are showing the first quarter, and we might be showing the second quarter to continue reducing expenses in real terms. That’s the idea on what Juan was commenting.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Perfect.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: To be specific, we do not provide guidance to this granularity level. We provide guidance on volume growth and ROE, trends in terms of guidance, but not specifics at this granularity level. We said that you would continue seeing reductions. You are, and you will.

Ernesto Gabilondo, Analyst, Bank of America: Perfect. No, thank you so much. Just the last question on the seasonality of the earnings and the ROE.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Yeah. You are asking me to answer more like an analyst than a CFO. Honestly, I think that’s your work. You are the specialist here. Going forward, we want to see if the trends that we are seeing the second quarter materialize in another good second quarter in order to have more elements to be more positive and increase ROE guidance. I think that’s the seasonality on the ROE. Always, the fourth quarter is the good one, and it will depends on many macroeconomic variables what happen in the second and third.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Let me put it another word, guys. We’ve had an encouraging first quarter in comparison with our guidance. We’ve said that we are expecting another encouraging quarter for the second quarter. What we are saying is, we are not changing previous guidance because it may be too early. We are optimistic based on what we’ve seen in the first quarter, which is encouraging. Jorge mentioned slightly above guidance. I think that was a bit conservative. Actually, 8% guidance was adjusted ROE, and our adjusted ROE for the first quarter is 11.6. It’s encouraging. We are seeing encouraging numbers for the second quarter. Of course, we cannot quote forward-looking specifics. In essence, what we are saying here is we want to be cautious before we update. Okay?

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Yuri Fernandes with JP Morgan.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi2: Hey, guys. Good morning. Hi, Juan, Jorge, Nicolas. I would like to ask more a macro question on how you are seeing Argentina today, right? I think February was bumpy. March, the data was pretty good. How are you feeling, Juan, Jorge, Nicolas, like the economy right? Are you seeing a recovery? Are you seeing, I don’t know, more demand? On top of that, I know we already had some questions on asset quality, but if you have any early delinquency indicator, right, how are you seeing April and May? When we go to your new NPL formation, the new bad loans, they are still a little bit up, but you are doing more provisions, and they are kind of stable, right? They are growing, but they are growing less.

My question is, I know it’s hard to talk about credit peaks in Argentina, and I think you are being good in being conservative on your figures, but I’m just trying to get two callers here. One, if the economy is improving and you are seeing that, two, if it is recovering, the economy is also translating to these early delinquency NPLs, kind of somewhat peaking. I can ask a second topic after this question. Thank you.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Hi, Yuri. Yes, I think that the economy is showing some sign of recovery. When you look at industrial production indices, they are up on a monthly and yearly basis.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: What we are seeing is that the harvest at this time of the year is, again, reaching record levels. I would say that the massive consumer sectors that were showing bad performance, the negative numbers that they are showing are less negative. I think that there are some hints that the economy is recovering, slowly but recovering. What we are seeing, and again, I think that we commented this before, is that we are seeing some good trends in the consumer stage 3 between February, March, and April. In terms of the commercial portfolio, it is still deteriorating, but the speed is lower than the one that we saw before. I think that the recovery of the economy is going to have a positive impact in terms of delinquency. The million-dollar question here is when this is going to impact the delinquency trend.

We still don’t know if this is going to happen in May or June, or this will happen the third quarter, but for sure, the recovery of the economy is going to have a positive impact in terms of the delinquency cycle.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi2: No, super helpful. If I may, another one just on deposits. I know there is seasonality in the first quarter, and this explained the quarter-over-quarter drop. On year-over-year, checking accounts and savings accounts, what you call the transitional deposits, right? The cheaper funding, they are growing less. I think they are now 41% of total. They were 48% one year ago of your total private deposits. Why is that? Why deposits, especially the cheaper ones? I know inflation has been coming down, so I would expect those deposits that have some kind of cost of opportunity to not decrease. Just checking if you have any color why the cheap deposits, they were a little bit weaker this quarter. Thank you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: You said it before, it’s holiday seasons in Argentina. I think it’s quite reasonable and logic that in terms of deposits, there were no growth, and in terms of transactional deposits, there was a decline. That’s why we do not keep only the trend that we’ve seen in the first quarter because it’s seasonally always the lowest quarter in terms of trend of deposits going forward. We think that this trend is going to turn around, and we are going to show some increase in pesos and dollar deposits. As I mentioned before, the 34% nominal growth in total deposits for the bank for the year, keeping the guidance.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi2: Okay. No, thank you very much.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Welcome, Yuri.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Carlos Gomez-Lopez with HSBC.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez, Analyst, HSBC: Hello, Juan, Jorge, Nicolas. Thank you very much for taking my question. Two questions. One is, you have a securities gains of ARS 70 billion on your bonds amortized cost. Just so that we understand, that is a voluntary sale of bonds that had appreciated. It should not in itself be recurring. It’s the normal operation, and you have bond gain this quarter. I just want to make sure about that. Second, can you tell us about the rest of your amortized bond portfolio and whether you, at this point, have a gain or a loss in that portfolio? Finally, what do you expect for the currency by the end of the year? Thank you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Hi, Carlos. How are you? For the first part of your question, the ARS 70 billion gain that we posted the quarter was not a repricing of the bond portfolio. It was a sale that we made on part of the bonds that are due in June 2027. The market price was above the accounting price, that is reflecting the ARS 70 billion. Also, we bought, with those pesos, longer duration and higher yield bonds that are due in September 2028, also tied to inflation. Sorry, second question. Can you repeat me that?

Carlos Gomez-Lopez, Analyst, HSBC: Yeah. The unrealized gain or loss in your, essentially, your held-to-maturity securities.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Unrealized gains?

Carlos Gomez-Lopez, Analyst, HSBC: Or loss.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: No. Basically are more gains than losses. Honestly, I do not have that number here. I can give it to you later, even though we are not disclosing that as a public information. I try to get it, Carlos.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez, Analyst, HSBC: Thank you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Third question was? Your third question?

Carlos Gomez-Lopez, Analyst, HSBC: It was the exchange rate. What do you expect for the currency by the end of the year? Thank you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Basically, we work with two or three different local economies when looking at inflation or FX prices. I think that the consensus for the market is a devaluation of the currency that is below the inflation level. The ranges of a devaluation of the currency is between 20%-22% for the year, when inflation is between 27%-28%. A number that is ranging between 1,700-1,800 by the end of the year. That is what the consensus of the economy that we are working with have.

Carlos Gomez-Lopez, Analyst, HSBC: Very clear. Thank you so much.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Welcome.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Pedro Offenhenden with Latin Securities.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi0: Hello, Juan, Jorge, Nicolás. Good morning.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Good morning.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi0: I wanted to ask on your loan growth guidance for the year, how should we think it, how the split between ARS and USD loans? If so far in the second quarter, you already are seeing some rebound, maybe, in any specific product, given the more stable funding rates in this quarter?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Hi, Pedro. How are you? Yeah. What we are seeing is in the second quarter, more recovery in USD-denominated loans than in ARS, even though both are positive. Going forward, we are seeing that in this year, USD loan growth, in terms of the number, is going to outweigh a little bit the ARS, even though the bi-monetary portfolio is going to be about 42% nominal, as we were commenting as the guidance that we gave before.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi0: Okay. Thank you, Jorge.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Welcome.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Matias Cattaruzzi with AdCap.

Matias Cattaruzzi, Analyst, AdCap: Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Hi, team. I have a quick follow-up on the loan growth guidance. The prior guidance that you gave us on the fourth quarter 2025 earnings call was 20% loan growth for the year, and now you told us 42% nominal. Having in mind 28% inflation, is it a lowering on the guidance?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Hi, Matias. No. The guidance that we gave last quarter was between 15 to 20 real, and now we are now speaking in terms of nominal, so it’s pretty the same.

Matias Cattaruzzi, Analyst, AdCap: Okay. Great. Then a follow-up on regulation. Do you see room for further easing reserve requirements in coming months? How do you see the second part of the year for the banks? Will the growth in returns for the sector come with a lowering of NPLs, of provisions, and an increase in loans, or will it come also with a tailwind from regulatory environment?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: In terms of regulations, I think that part of the increase in the reserve requirements were turned around by the last part of last year. Going forward, I think honestly, it’s something that we do not know. It’s an instrument that the Central Bank has in order to inject additional liquidity. Honestly, it’s hard to say that we are going to see reductions in the reserve requirement scheme going forward. In terms of how we are seeing the rest of the year, it’s what we have been talking in this conference call. What we are seeing is that the recovery in the economy that we are seeing, and also this is extrapolated on the increase in loan demand that we are seeing the second quarter. We expect at some point this to positively impact on the delinquency trend.

At some point, this is going to result in relatively lower provisions going forward. I think that the rest of the year might be, and of course, I want to highlight the might, be good for the industry.

Matias Cattaruzzi, Analyst, AdCap: Great. One last question about dollar-denominated mortgages. Do you have any comment on that? How’s the business going? Is it going to be a stronger part of Banco Macro’s business, the US dollar-denominated business with non-US dollar-producing clients?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: That gray line is basically for ABC1 clients. It’s dollar mortgages, five years. It is evolving, but the increase that we are seeing there is marginal. It’s not impacting on the loan portfolio at all. The amounts are small, relatively speaking. They are evolving, but they are not making big difference in the evolution of the loan portfolio of the bank.

Matias Cattaruzzi, Analyst, AdCap: Great. Do you expect dollar loans to gain traction throughout the year besides mortgages?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Besides mortgages, yes, because what we are seeing is that sectors like energy, oil, gas, mining, agribusiness are very strong, and those are the ones that might be demanding US dollar loans. With what we are seeing in April and May is some recovery in loan demands in US dollars. Going forward, we expect this trend to continue.

Matias Cattaruzzi, Analyst, AdCap: Great. Thank you so much.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Welcome.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Our next question comes from Agustin Pacheco with Banco Mariva. Sir, you can ask your question.

Agustin Pacheco, Analyst, Banco Mariva: Sir. Hi, can you hear me?

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Yes.

Agustin Pacheco, Analyst, Banco Mariva: Perfect. I would like to ask about deposit performance, which appears to have outpaced both broader system trends and peers, particularly in USD deposits. What were the main drivers behind this outperformance? As system-wide deposits continue to recover, do you expect Banco Macro to keep gaining share?

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Hi, Agustin. The idea is that if we want to keep on growing in our loan portfolio and gaining market share going forward, of course, deposits are the main source of funds of the bank. Depending on domestic rates, depending on loan demands, the idea is to continue growing in deposits in both pesos and dollars going forward. This is not a straight upward line. It could have some ups and downs depending on market conditions and depending on the quarters. On a medium long-term basis, yes, the idea is to continue gaining share in deposits.

Agustin Pacheco, Analyst, Banco Mariva: Perfect. Thanks.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Welcome.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Next question from Camila Azevedo with UBS.

Camila Azevedo, Analyst, UBS: Hi, everyone. Thank you for the space for questions. I have two from my side. First, on capital and dividends. You have close to ARS 4 trillion in excess capital with a coverage ratio near three times. Can you please update us on your capital allocation priorities? M&As, buybacks or additional dividends beyond what’s already been approved. My second question would be on your recent acquisition of Banco Sáenz. It is still pending the Central Bank of Argentina approval. What is the expected timeline, and how do you plan to integrate it into the Personal Pay digital ecosystem operationally? Thanks a lot.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: Thanks, Camila. Thank you, Camila. On your first question on capital, if you have been following Banco Macro trajectory, the bank has always had as a strategic strength keeping a strong capital position, both to manage the bank through the cycles and as we are doing now, and as you see now, keeping strong results and strong balance sheet despite a delinquency cycle that the system is digesting, but also to be ready to take opportunities of growth, both organic and inorganic. We remain positive for the outlook of Argentina and the possibility of Argentina materializing loan growth, which in terms of loans to GDP, still presents one of the most attractive opportunities in the region. We are still at a level of 11% loan to GDP. When you see peer countries in the region above 30%, 40%, 50% and up to 70%.

As we remain positive and optimistic on that opportunity, we want to keep a strong capital position to support growth. Also, we believe that there are and there will be, or there might be inorganic opportunities to invest. To be specific, we have done that with the Itaú acquisition a couple of years ago and more recently with investment in our complementary digital business, Personal Pay and Banco Sáenz, which we expect to succeed and demand capital going forward. This is despite or irrespective of additional possible opportunities that concentration in the system may present. As you know also, compared with the other countries in the region, the atomization of the system is still there. There’s more concentration in other geographies. I think all in all, we are

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Comfortable with this capital position because of, first, the optimism in the evolution of the economy and the system and the potential for organic growth, to support the recent inorganic investments that we’ve done, Personal Pay and Banco Sáenz, and also to be ready for additional potential opportunities that may arise if the concentration in the system continues. That’s on capital. The other thing is, as you know, in terms of dividend payment, we have been constrained by the Central Bank regulation limiting dividend payments to 60% of the announced results for last year. That’s another factor to consider. In terms of Personal Pay and Banco Sáenz, we have presented the filing for the Central Bank approval. We are transiting the process of approval as expected. I will not put specific timelines for the regulator.

The regulator has its procedures, its reviews, and these processes typically take some months. Our central scenario is that we will be ready to start operating the integrated business of the Personal Pay wallet, supported by this dedicated bank-as-a-service platform through Banco Sáenz, by the first quarter next year. This depends on obtaining Central Bank approval in the remainder of this year. That’s our expectation, our central scenario. Again, it will totally depend on the regulator, and we don’t want to impose any pressure or timelines to them. In the meantime, we are working in parallel, of course, without entering in any gun-jumping risks, in everything that we can do in parallel, so that when we get the Central Bank approval, we are as advanced as possible and up to speed as possible to integrate the businesses as fast as possible.

We are already working in the technological fronts, in the people fronts, in the risk management fronts, developing the capabilities that we need, so that when we have control of the bank, subject to Central Bank approval, we can integrate it as fast as possible.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: That’s clear. Thank you.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Welcome.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: Next question from Brian Flores with Citi.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi: Hi, team, and thank you for the opportunity to make a follow-up here. Very quickly here, Jorge, I know, I think it was Carlos’ question on the securities at amortized cost. We know this portfolio is still relevant, right? And you were opportunistic based on what you mentioned, the market price was higher than your carrying value. Just wondering if from a strategic perspective, we could expect that if market conditions improve, you could be opportunistic and seize these opportunities as they come along, right? What I’m trying to say is that this is not like a sacred part of the book. You could actually deploy or redeploy capital as you see fit, right? Just wanted to check if you have this flexibility, or rather you have a more fixed mandate in your head. Thank you.

Juan, Senior Management, Banco Macro: Yes, Brian. We are always, as every bank in Argentina, is very on top of the market and trying to find opportunities. I think that what we are seeing is that if you want to get maybe higher returns, you have to go maybe longer duration. The idea is to continue looking at the market, and if there is another opportunity, we are going to go for it. Again, this is something that we cannot forecast, but because it’s going to depend on market conditions, on market prices. We always try to get advantage of those conditions. I think that in past quarters or past years, we show that we are very accurate on managing the trend of the markets. The idea is to continue doing that.

Brian Flores, Analyst, Citi: Super clear. Thank you.

Jorge Scarinci, Chief Financial Officer, Banco Macro: You’re welcome, Brian.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: There are no more questions at this time. This concludes the question and answer session. I will now turn over to Mr. Nicolás Torres for final considerations.

Nicolás Torres, Investor Relations, Banco Macro: Thank you all for your interest in Banco Macro. We appreciate your time and look forward to speaking with you again. Have a good day.

Moderator, Conference Call Moderator: This concludes today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.