Banco Latinoamericano de Comercio Exterior, S. A. (NYSE:BLX) Q4 2022 Results Conference Call February 28, 2023 11:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Carlos Raad - IR
Jorge Salas - CEO
Ana Mendez - CFO
Sam Canineu - Chief Commercial Officer
Operator
Good morning everyone and thanks for joining our Fourth Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Before we begin our presentation, allow me to remind that certain statements made during the course of this discussion may constitute forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to materially differ, including factors that may be beyond the Company's control. For a description of these risks, please refer to our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and our earnings release.
Speaking on today's call is our CEO, Jorge Salas; and our CFO, Ana Mendez. Also joining us today are some of my colleagues from the executive team that will be available for Q&A.
With this, let me turn the call to Jorge. Please go ahead.
Jorge Salas
Thank you, Carlos. Hello everyone and thank you for joining. Today, we will discuss our fourth quarter results and take the opportunity to summarize the progress on the execution of our first year, of our five year strategic plan. Let me start by reviewing the highlights of 2022 and then I will turn the call to Ana, our CFO who will explain the fourth quarter results in detail.
Finally, I'll make some closing comments related to the outlook for 2023, how we're navigating the current environment and provide some guidance. Let me go straight to Slide 3 please. Amid geopolitical tensions, record high inflation and a global slowdown Bladex delivered very strong results. In 2022, we managed to grow our loan book as much as 18% during the year, increase our margins and maintain a very robust asset a quality.
Our NII was up 71% year-on-year, net interest margin increased almost 40 basis points. And fees, both syndication and letter of credit fees were up 8% year-on-year. The results, net income for the year is almost 50% higher than last year, return on equity is almost 300 basis points higher than last year and perhaps more importantly the trend as we will see now is very positive.
Behind these results, there is a renewed management team that is carefully executing a well thought out strategy designed to capitalize the strong upside potential of our unique business model while taking advantage of the current macro scenario. Economic activity in Latin America exceeded our expectations and remained resilient last year.