Bancolombia S.A. (NYSE:CIB) Q1 2023 Earnings Conference Call May 11, 2023 9:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Juan Carlos Mora - Chief Executive Officer

Laura Clavijo - Chief Economist

Jose Humberto Acosta - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Yuri Fernandes - JPMorgan

Ernesto Gabilondo - Bank of America

Julian Ausique - Davivienda

Carlos Gomez - HSBC

Tito Labarta - Goldman Sachs

Andres Soto - Santander

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to Bancolombia's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Ashia [ph] and I'll be your operator for today's call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded.

Please note that this conference call will include forward-looking statements, including statements related to our future performance, capital position, credit-related expenses and credit losses. All forward-looking statements whether made in this conference call and future filings and press releases or verbally addressed matters that involve risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there are factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in such statements, including changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products by other companies, lack of acceptance of new products or services by our targeted clients, changes in business strategy and various other factors that we describe in our reports filed with the SEC.

With us today is Mr. Juan Carlos Mora, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Mauricio Rosillo; Chief Corporate Officer; Mr. Jose Humberto Acosta, Chief Financial Officer; Mr. Rodrigo Prieto, Chief Risk Officer; and Ms. Laura Clavijo, Chief Economist.

I will now turn the call over to Mr. Juan Carlos Mora, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Juan Carlos, you may begin.

Juan Carlos Mora

Good morning and welcome to Bancolombia's first quarter 2023 results conference call.

The results for the quarter show an overall good performance. Net income was COP1.7 trillion, driven by the bank's capacity to generate strong income on the loan and securities portfolios that offset higher operating costs on the back of peaking inflation, high interest rates and credit deterioration. As we will further elaborate after posting strong GDP growth in 2022, the countries in which we operate are now facing an economic slowdown. Particularly, Colombia is facing a deceleration in private consumption, adding pressures to an already challenging macro backdrop scenario with falling but still high deficits. The Central Bank in Colombia increased the reference rate up to 13.25% in its effort to control a peaking inflation that reached 13.3% as of March.