Lufax Holding Ltd (NYSE:LU) Q3 2024 Results Conference Call October 21, 2024 9:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Xinyan Liu - Head of Board Office and Capital Markets
Yong Suk Cho - Co-CEO & Chairman of the Board
Peiqing Zhu - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Betty Li - CLSA
Judy Zhang - Citi
Yada Li - CICC

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Lufax Holding Third Quarter 2024 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] After the management's prepared remarks, we will have a Q&A session. Please note this event is being recorded.

Now I'd like to hand the conference over to your speaker host today, Ms. Liu Xinyan the company's Head of Board Office and Capital Markets. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Xinyan Liu

Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Our financial and operating results were released by our newswire services earlier today and are currently available online.

Today, you will hear from our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Y.S. Cho, who will provide an update of the recent developments and the strategies of our business. Our CFO, Mr. Peiqing Zhu, will then provide more details on our financial performance and the business operations.

Before we continue, I would like to refer you to our safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to this call, as we will be making forward-looking statements.

With that, I'm now pleased to turn over the call to Mr. Y.S. Cho, Chairman and CEO of Lufax, please.

Yong Suk Cho

Thank you for joining us today for our third quarter 2024 earnings call.

During the third quarter, while Puhui loan demand remained weak as small business owners continue to face a complex macro environment, we saw ongoing growth in our consumer finance business. We are hopeful that policy stimulus measures introduced by the Chinese government in late September will help improve the macro environment and have a positive impact on our business performance in the long run. Meanwhile, we plan to stay vigilant and prudent in the execution of our business strategies in light of the increased risk exposure on the 100% guarantee business model.

Before we discuss the business details, let me share some updates on the macro environment. In the third quarter, the macro environment remains challenging for small business owners. The SME development index declined by 0.3 points quarter-over-quarter to 88.7 in September. The Business Conditions Index published by the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business also declined from 49.3 in June to 46 in September, suggesting persistent challenges faced by small business sector. On the other hand, we are encouraged by signs of mild recovery in the consumption sector during the third quarter as the CPI showed improvement from 0.2% in June to 0.4% in September.