Popular, Inc. (NASDAQ:BPOP) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 26, 2022 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Paul Cardillo - Investor Relations Officer

Ignacio Alvarez - Chief Executive Officer

Carlos Vázquez - Chief Financial Officer

Lidio Soriano - Chief Risk Officer of Corporate Risk Management Group

Javier Ferrer - Chief Operating Officer

Conference Call Participants

Brocker Vandervliet - UBS

Timur Braziler - Wells Fargo

Brett Rabatin - Hovde Group

Gerard Cassidy - RBC Capital Markets

Alex Twerdahl - Piper Sandler

Kelly Motta - KBW

Operator

Hello everyone, and a warm welcome to the Popular, Inc. Q1 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Simona, and I'll be coordinating your call today. [Operator Instructions].

With that, I have the pleasure of handing over to Paul Cardillo, Investor Relations Officer at Popular Inc. Please go ahead, Paul.

Paul Cardillo

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With us on the call today is our CEO, Ignacio Alvarez; our COO, Javier Ferrer; our CFO, Carlos Vázquez; and our CRO, Lidio Soriano. They will review our results for the first quarter and then answer your questions. Other members of our management team will also be available during the Q&A session.

Before we start, I would like to remind you that on today's call, we may make forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements are set forth within today's earnings press release and are detailed in our SEC filings. You may find today's press release and our SEC filings on our web page at popular.com.

I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Ignacio Alvarez.

Ignacio Alvarez

Good morning, and thank you for joining the call. We began the year with a very strong quarter, achieving a net income of $212 million. Our results reflect the continued recovery and economic activity, our diversified sources of revenue and prudent risk management.

Please turn to slide three. Our quarterly net income of $212 million was $6 million higher than the fourth quarter and $51 million lower than the same quarter of 2021, which included significant reserve releases.

The sequential variances driven by lower expenses and a lower tax rate partially offset by a lower benefit in the provision for credit losses, lower net interest income and lower fee income.

During the quarter, loan growth was solid and broad-based both geographically and across all loan segments. Commercial loan grew during the period of both BPPR and PB despite the continued run off of PPP loans.