Credicorp Ltd. (NYSE:BAP) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 9, 2024 9:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Milagros Ciguenas – Investor Relations

Gianfranco Ferrari – Chief Executive Officer

Cesar Rios – Chief Financial Officer

Reynaldo Llosa – Chief Risk Officer

Carlos Otello – Chief Financial Officer-Mibank

Conference Call Participants

Ernesto Gabilondo – Bank of America

Olavo Arthuzo – UBS

Sergey Dubin – HL

Carlos Gomez – HSBC

Beatriz Abreu – Goldman Sachs

Yuri Fernandes – JPMorgan

Andres Soto – Santander

Operator

Good morning everyone. I would like to welcome all of you to the Credicorp Limited Fourth Quarter 2023 Conference Call. A slide presentation will accompany today's webcast, which is available in the Investors section of Credicorp's website. Today's conference call is being recorded. As a reminder, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. There will be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of today's presentation. [Operator Instructions]

Now it is my pleasure to turn the conference call over to Credicorp's IRO, Milagros Ciguenas. You may begin.

Milagros Ciguenas

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Speaking on today's call will be Gianfranco Ferrari, our Chief Executive Officer; and Cesar Rios, our Chief Financial Officer. Participating in the Q&A session will also be Francesca Raffo, Chief Innovation Officer; Reynaldo Llosa, Chief Risk Officer; Diego Cavero, Head of Universal Banking; Cesar Rivera, Head of Insurance and Pension; and Carlos Otello, CFO at Mibank. Before we proceed, I would like to make the following Safe Harbor statement. Today's call will contain forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. And I refer you to the forward-looking statements sections of our earnings release and recent filings with the SEC. We assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect new changes events – new or change events or circumstances.

Gianfranco Ferrari will start the call commenting on the highlights of our 2023 results and the milestones achieved by our main businesses, followed by Cesar Rios, who will comment on the macro environment, our financial performance, and provide our 2024 guidance. Gianfranco, please go ahead.

Gianfranco Ferrari

Thank you, Milagros. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We met market expectations for the fourth quarter and achieved resilient full-year results in the face of one of the most challenging environments of the last 25 years, excluding the pandemic. Despite the challenge faced in 2023, Peru's current prospects stand considerably stronger than they did just 12 months ago. At the start of 2023, we were navigating disruptive protests and enduring political stability. The first quarter also had an inflation rate of 8% and a high reference rate of 7.75%. Additionally, the country faced Cyclone Yaku and braced for the projected impact of a severe El Niño Phenomenon for this summer. However, as the year ended, Peru demonstrated its inherent resilience by effectively managing inflation, maintaining low level of public debt, and sustaining high levels of international reserves.