Grupo Cibest S.A. Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to CIB's 3Q '25 Earnings Call. Thank you all for dialing in. This is Sherif El Etr from CI Capital Research team, and we're happy to be hosting today's call. From management, we have with us Mr. Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, CEO and Executive Board member; Mrs. Yasmine Hemeda, Head of Investor Relations; and Nelly Zeneiny, Investor Relations Manager. We will start off with a summary of 3Q '25 performance, and then we will open the floor for questions. I will now hand over the call to management.

Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. This is our customary disclosure statement. This call is intended for investors and analysts only. As such, if any media representative has gained access to this call, kindly hang up now. Certain information disclosed during this earnings call consists of forward-looking statements reflecting the current view of the bank with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors can cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the bank to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including worldwide economic trends, the economic and political climates of Egypt, the Middle East and changes in the business strategy, along with various other factors. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may materially vary from those described in such forward-looking statements. The bank undertakes no obligation to republish revised forward-looking statements to reflect changed events or circumstances. And that ends the disclaimer statement. I'll now hand it over to Ms. Yasmine Hemeda to give a brief overview of the financial performance.

Thank you, Nelly. Good afternoon, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings call, and thank you, CI Capital for hosting it. I'll give a brief overview of the macroeconomic backdrop. Then I will give a brief on the quarterly financial results. The macro picture continued its steady and broad-based improvement across all fronts, and this was mainly supported by disciplined monetary policy. On the inflation front, the rate dropped to 12% as of September 2025, which allowed the CBE to further cut the policy rate to reach 21.5% by end of October, bringing the total rate cuts since March to 625 bps. This in and of itself has further improved the macro landscape, creating additional room for more cuts throughout the remainder of the year while still maintaining a real interest rate of around 10%. The decoupling of the sovereign rate persisted, continuing to offer the banks lucrative returns on their excess liquidity and helping mitigate the natural NIM compression, which is typically associated with a declining interest rate environment. On the currency front, the exchange rate has remained within a 6% to 8% trading band throughout the past period with the EGP strengthening slightly versus the dollar, hovering around the 48%, 48.5% range. But more importantly, foreign currency availability has remained consistent, supported by record highs in remittances, tourism and exports over the past period and dollar sales were surging across the system. And if this says anything, it underscores the market's confidence that the current exchange rate reflects the fair value of the EGP. As a result of this favorable and improving macro environment, CIB delivered another very strong set of results. Loans witnessed a growth of around EGP 119 billion, translating to a growth of 30%, which was driven by local currency loan bookings of 38%, together with foreign currency loans growing by 17%, with corporate loans growing by 34%, of which around 40% came in the form of CapEx and with the bank's share of lending to SMEs recording 25.4%. This fed into strong growth in the sustainable stream of noninterest income with fees and commissions income growing by 22% year-over-year. On the funding side, the bank's deposit gathering strategy continued to yield results. Total deposits recorded EGP 1.04 trillion, growing by 8% or EGP 75.3 billion year-to-date. And more significantly, the healthy share of CASA to total deposits grew from 55% last year to 60% this year. Local currency deposits added 11% or EGP 61.3 billion, while foreign currency deposits grew by 10% or USD 787 million. Consequently, our loan-to-deposit ratio reached 49.7% by end of period, up from 39.4% last year and recorded 52.3% upon further accounting for securitization deals with the local currency portion reaching a record high of 66.6%. This resulted in local currency NIMs recording 13%, showing balance sheet resilience despite the aforementioned interest rate cuts. Costs were tightly kept under control with improved efficiencies leading to a cost-to-income ratio recording 14.3%, up from 12.2% in 2024. CIB's new recalibrated ECL calculation was approved, resulting in a one-time release of a total provision amounting to EGP 13.1 billion. The release provision amount has been transferred to a special reserve in shareholders' equity through the bank's P&L statement, hence, crediting a before tax amount of EGP 13.1 billion to the P&L and to the provision balance sheet line. It's worth noting that in line with CBE's instruction, this reserve will not be recognized in the bank's capital base or CAR or distributable profits and cannot be utilized or distributed without prior consultation with the CBE. With this recalibrated model, which more realistically and accurately reflect potential credit losses and the quality of the loan portfolio, coverage of NPLs remains at a very comfortable level of 281%. And more relevantly, coverage of the risky performing portfolio profits for the 9 months 2025 reached EGP 62.1 billion. And after adjusting for the one-off reversal, year-to-date profits reached EGP 50.5 billion. ROE recorded 45.9% and upon excluding the one-off provision release, it's 37.7%. Throughout, the bank maintained a strong capital position with a CAR of 30% and a CET1 ratio of 26% by end of third quarter 2025. Finally, our results this quarter reflect more than just a strong financial performance. They demonstrate the strength, the resilience and the disciplined execution that defines CIB. We remain focused on enabling growth and opportunity for our clients, our people, our shareholders, while maintaining the financial strength and solid fundamentals that underpin our leadership and success. With a clear strategy and a strong balance sheet, we will continue to invest in technology, talent and trust to ensure we continue to deliver sustainable long-term value and support the broader economy. On that note, I'll hand it over to Mr. Omar El-Husseiny, our Chief Global Markets, to give a brief on the past quarter.

Thank you, Yasmine. Good morning and good afternoon, everyone. Just a few updates. From a market and balance sheet perspective, our focus remains disciplined growth, expanding quality assets while protecting spreads and liquidity. This reflects solid pricing discipline and balanced mix between loans and sovereigns on the asset side and CASA and term deposits on the liability side. On the credit front, we continue to see healthy growth from the private sector with lending activity broadening across sectors that wasn't there during the past period of time, namely petrochemicals, chemicals, automotive manufacturing and port development, though at a slightly slower momentum than tourism and food industries. Year-to-date, we have added around 99 new credit commitments, including 55 during the third quarter alone, signaling both growing business confidence and CIB role in financing new investment cycles. On the noninterest income side, because we know that will be part of the questions that will be asked. On the trade finance volume, it has been increased by more than 30% year-on-year, yet profitability declined due to higher concessions offered among strong foreign currency inflows, particularly from households, tourism and exporters. This dynamic reflects our strategic decision to prioritize client relationship and flow retention during a time where we have excess foreign currency liquidity. Finally, the synergies across the global markets, treasury, GTB, financial institutions, enterprise and capital markets, debt and capital markets continue to strengthen our base of recurring fees, proving how far our integrated markets platform has evolved during the past period of time in a key growth and liquidity engine for the bank.

Thank you, Omar. On that note, we will now open the floor to Q&A.

We have a question from Waruna from SICO Bahrain.

Am I audible?

Yes, it is fine.

I have four questions that I'd like to ask one at a time. First, regarding loan growth, you mentioned that local currency loan growth was very strong at 38% year-to-date. However, I believe foreign currency loans are slightly down for the same period. What are your expectations for loan growth in both foreign and local currencies for this year and next? Do you anticipate maintaining similar momentum? My second question concerns the government sovereign yields that have helped support your margins as corridor rates decline. What yields are you seeing on treasury bills? Are long-term government bond yields also proving resilient? For my third question, I’d like to ask about the net interest margins. So far this year, NIMs have remained robust at around 9%. Can we expect this trend to continue for at least one more quarter and into next year? Lastly, regarding the IFRS ECL model, it appears that for the corporate segment, the provision is around 1.5% for Stage 1 and about 16% for Stage 2. These figures seem to have been revised down based on new assumptions. Can we expect these percentages to remain consistent going forward, and how should we model this in the future?

Thank you, Waruna. I'll address one question before turning it over to our CFO and our Chief Global Markets to provide additional insights. Regarding loan growth, there appears to be a slight slowdown in the foreign currency segment, primarily due to repayments. This is quite common as much of the foreign currency lending originates from the tourism sector, which tends to prepay during prosperous times. While it may seem there’s a deceleration in growth compared to local currency loans, foreign currency lending is still growing. However, prepayments may make the growth appear slower, potentially in single digits relative to local currency growth. For 2025, we remain confident in our guidance of a blended growth rate between 20% and 25%. Local currency loans will experience significantly faster growth. We anticipate maintaining the current mix of working capital and maintenance CapEx, which will persist for the rest of the year. Foreign currency loan growth will primarily continue to derive from the exporting sectors and the tourism industry, as previously mentioned. I will now pass it over to Mr. Islam Zekry, our CFO, to discuss the IFRS model.

Just a quick note on foreign currency growth as well. When you look at the quarter-over-quarter results in foreign currency, you'll see the numbers are relatively flat. The decline you're observing is due to the appreciation of the Egyptian pound during the third quarter. Adjusting for this, the numbers remain flat considering the repayments Yasmine just mentioned. In terms of NIM sensitivity, we experienced cuts of 500 to 600 basis points recently, which affect our local currency NIMs by nearly 60 basis points. The impact is not linear, indicating the strength of our balance sheet. Additionally, we have made significant efforts on the retail side to increase the proportion of current account savings, or cheaper deposits, which now make up around 66% of local currency deposits and 60% of the overall deposit base. This relates to the IFRS question.

IFRS, the run rate for the provision...

So technically, when you look at the numbers as we speak after the release, the average cost of risk to the total outstanding deposits went down from 8.2% to 7%. This is 1% slight higher, less than 1% higher than the average of the market. The coverage ratios went down from almost 300%, 3x to almost 2.8 or 280%, which is when the model starts maturing over time, we expect some adjustments on the long run. But you need to keep in your mind that the instructions of the Central Bank and the regime of the IFRS around relaxing or revising the TTCPD or the through the cycle, the probability of default process mandating us to keep monitoring the models for the coming couple of years. And within the couple of years, we may witness sort of adjustments here and there going forward.

And on the government bonds yield side, we had a discussion a couple of quarters ago when we said last year, we started to extend the duration on the asset side back again to the concept of mixing between assets between loan growth and securities and sovereign securities. Last year, we started to extend the duration on the asset side in the anticipation of interest rates coming down. And the majority of it was being held at the amortized cost and not through fair value through OCI. And that's not only on the local currency that has been as well on the foreign currency side. So we have been extending the duration on both local currency and foreign currency at the fixed side throughout sovereign bonds throughout our portfolio.

Okay. What is the split between the local currency and the foreign currency concerning bonds?

I'm very sorry, can you repeat that? The line was cutting a bit.

No. My question was what is the breakdown between local currency and foreign currency bonds, government bonds. Can you provide that?

So yes, so now we have around $3 billion on the foreign currency side. And on the local currency, we have around EGP 150 billion, EGP 160 billion.

Okay. And the reason I'm asking is that there was a significant increase during the third quarter regarding government bonds. I was curious if you were reallocating a lot of...

Especially on the foreign currency side because there have been lots of opportunities that we saw in order to extend our duration on the foreign currency, especially with the Fed cutting rates. So we wanted to do same as we did on the local currency side, same as the foreign currency to extend the duration on the bond side, and it has been the diversified portfolio, ranging from U.S. treasuries to other investment-grade bonds.

Okay. To conclude, what is your guidance on NIM on a blended basis for this year and next year? Assuming there is another 600 basis point cut next year, what do you expect for NIMs?

So for 2025, NIM will remain almost flattish as compared to 2024 on a blended basis. So what we're aiming towards is around 9%, 9.1% for the full year. That's for this year. Next year, again, I mean, like Mr. Islam mentioned earlier, I mean, it's not a linear relationship. There are a lot of moving factors. But because of what we have been doing, fundamentally speaking, on the cost side of the NIMs of bringing down our average cost of funds by growing the CASA portion of our deposit base reaching the 60% that he mentioned earlier, so that whatever happens on the asset side, we secure a healthy enough margin on the liability side. So like we mentioned earlier that typically with a declining interest rate environment, there is definitely or there were going to be natural compression in the NIM. But because of what we have been doing, this compression will be more of a gradual one. So you won't see the 13% on the local currency front dropping to 3% or 4% overnight. It will take time. And I mean, it's too early now to guide for 2026. We're still in the process of putting together our budget. Once the budget is finalized and approved by the Board by end of the year, I'll be able to share the guidance on all fronts with the investment community at large.

So what you said was like local currency, what the sensitivity you said was 600 basis point decline...

It was not 600, it was 60 basis points.

No, no, I'm saying the 600 rate cut resulted in only 60 basis point decline, right?

Yes.

The local currency NIM is currently 13% after 9 months.

Year-over-year, this was a 9-month...

9 months year-to-date is 13%. And what is the foreign currency NIM?

2.6%.

2.6%.

Our next question from Rahul Bajaj from Citi.

Rahul Bajaj from Citi has two sets of questions on similar topics. Firstly, regarding the sovereign portfolio, he acknowledges strong margins in the third quarter and the benefits of sovereign rate decoupling. He asks if this decoupling is expected to continue as rates decrease or if sovereign rates will align with market loan yields over time. He also recalls prior mentions that loans are generally more profitable for COMI due to cross-selling opportunities and asks if the current decoupling and declining loan yields might mean that sovereigns are becoming more profitable compared to loans, or if loans still hold that advantage. His second set of questions pertains to the ECL model after the recalibration. He notes that the created reserve is currently not part of capital and inquires whether there is any discussion with the Central Bank about these reserves potentially qualifying as core capital in the future. Additionally, he seeks clarity on what the normalized cost of risk levels might be going forward and whether a similar increase in the fourth quarter cost of risk, which has historically occurred, should be expected in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Thank you, Rahul, for the set of questions. Those have been the discussions in the ALCO during the past period of time. So we are at the end of the day, a commercial bank. So our primary goal will be always getting the loans, especially for the auxiliary business. And to answer your question, it's still profitable to book loans than sovereigns. That's from one side. The other side is decoupling. Decoupling is happening, and it will continue during the coming period of time at a lesser magnitude, of course. But definitely, the market is discounting. So when we compare, shall we book a loan or shall we buy some papers, the market is already discounting further cuts in the interest rates on the local currency. So when we compare, we see the auxiliary business versus the expectation of interest rates. And one of the things that we always think about our ability as a bank to pass through the cut in interest rates to our clients on the deposit side.

Regarding the accounting treatments of the ECL, yes, the instructions upon the release decision of the Central Bank is not to consider it part of the capital base or part of the distribution statement end of the year. However, reserve is reserved accounting-wise. It's part of our coverage. And regarding the discussion with the Central Bank, again, according to the IFRS 9 regime and the Central Bank guidelines over there, we'll keep monitoring those models for the coming 18 to 24 months. And then all the possibilities are there. Anyway, they are part of our equity right now as a reserve, but all the possibilities are open once we get the assurance about the stability of the models and the resulted probability of defaults out of those models within the coming 24 months.

I had one more question, which was on the normalized levels of cost of risk. And should we expect a fourth quarter spike as we usually do?

Let me give you an idea about the cost of risk within CIB. So before the release, the average cost of risk was at the original range of 8.2%. After the release, that released almost 1%. So we are at the range of 7% as we speak. The average industry is 6%. So there are 90 basis points specifically different CIB higher than the average...

We have a question from Darren Smith.

Congrats and team on the great results. Just a quick question. Can you hear me, sir?

Yes, Darren. We can hear from you.

I have a quick question. Regarding the release of other provisions amounting to EGP 5.1 billion, can you clarify what that reversal entails?

That's the provisions on the contingent business. You have the direct amount, which is 7, seen as a separate line. Then, as part of other operating income or expense, there are the contingent provisions.

Let me elaborate here a little bit. So the total release is EGP 13.1 billion, okay? So that's the total amount released. A part of this is almost EGP 8 billion, which is direct loan loss provision that will be reversed part of our credit impairments accounting-wise when you follow my statements, our statements. The contingent provision is part of our noninterest income. So there is a release of EGP 5 billion over there. That's why we are the EGP 13.1 billion in 2 different accounting lines when you look at our financial statements. Sorry, that's the IFRS presentation standard, and that's the first that we are following up. So they are in 2 different lines.

Understood. And these are both obviously related to the ECL model. And that contingent business, are you talking as letters of credit? Or what's in there?

Yes, for your reference, you can find it as part of the earnings release under a total provisions line, which combines both the direct and contingent for your convenience.

Okay. And can I just follow up on one of the last questions around the cost of risk. I don't think I fully understood because I think you referenced you said 8.2% cost of risk and maybe the way we calculate is different, but I'm taking the provision charge on the income statement over your gross loans, and it's a fraction of 8% each year. Can you just clarify where you're getting that 8.2% from?

Darren, the reason is due to IFRS and various accounting factors that can be complex. However, to simplify, we should view the cost of risk as follows: if we annualize the first half of our provisions, taking into account the EGP 700 million we recorded, we are looking at a full-year estimate between EGP 1.4 billion and EGP 1.5 billion. This should be seen as a more normalized run rate for our impairment charges going forward, which would result in a cost of risk of approximately 0.5% to 0.7%.

Exactly. That's okay. That's how I would use it. And just to confirm, and that's compared to last year, you did about EGP 4.5 billion, and you're saying it should be around...

It should be around EGP 1.4 billion, EGP 1.5 billion.

And you think that is a normal level for at least a couple of years. Is that...

That we don't get a nuclear war or anything basically. I mean, hopefully, this should be the normalized run rate.

Fantastic. Okay. Congrats on getting that ECL model approved and a phenomenal set of results.

It's a long time in the making, we've been talking about it for like 3 years now.

That's nice to see. And I can't wait to see the dividend announcement later this year.

I mean I have the CEO here. I'm putting him on the hot seat. I'm telling him, you promise people, so you need to deliver on that.

We have a couple of questions in the Q&A box. There are 2 questions from an indiscernible source. One question inquires about the profit from currency swap deeds revaluation, which increased from EGP 15 million in September '24 to EGP 187 million in September '25, following a loss of EGP 395 million in Q2. Could you elaborate on the main drivers behind this swing?

So this one is not the currency swap, it is the interest rate swap. So we do hedging because we're expecting interest rates to come down. So we did lots of hedging on the asset side and the liability side. And as soon as the forward curve is starting to come down in anticipation of interest rates to go down, so we're making more money on this specific item.

Perfect. The other question is there is an increase of about 35% in administrative expenses for the 9 months '25 versus same period last year. Could you give us a bit more color on the key components behind that growth?

Yes, of course. There is nothing unusual about this; it's just part of the normal process. I will explain some of the factors that might see larger increases. We had several contract renewals for agreements that expired in mid-2025, which were originally signed in 2022. These renewals incorporate new rates reflecting the exchange rates against the EGP, due to devaluations and inflation we have observed in the past 2 to 3 years. This is one aspect. Additionally, we completed numerous IT projects and infrastructure developments that began capitalizing in the third quarter of 2025, which will require accounting for depreciation. Lastly, we have seen an increase in our loan portfolio, leading to higher stamp duty and regulatory costs. However, aside from these, there are no significant one-off items to note. Importantly, our cost to income ratio remains well below the 25% threshold. We have repeatedly stated that we not only have the capacity but also the intention to invest, expand, and pursue various initiatives to support our growth objectives and digital transformation going forward. Fortunately, we have ample room to do this while keeping the cost to income ratio manageable for stakeholders, the Board, and everyone involved.

And when you recast for the FX impact, the devaluation specifically, so the cost growth will be the 17% growth year-over-year. That's the normalized number for the currency devaluation.

We have another question from Schwab asking if he could repeat the question regarding the provision coverage on the performing risky portfolio.

It's 7.7% which if you remember, it used to run at around 14%. So I mean, it was brought down as promised to 7%. We always said that we will maintain that ratio between 7% to 8%. So now it's at 7.7%.

There is another question asking if there will be any more provision release going forward.

We hope so. But the idea is this is not like an annual event. It's one of a time. But the idea is according to the regulation, we are for the coming 18 to 24 months, we are reviewing our models. External auditors are mandated to make a quarterly review and report, I think, on an annual basis also to the Central Bank to give the comfort level on those releases. But for the time being, that's the process.

We need to recognize that there was a time when risks felt akin to an accident, unpredictable. Those unpredictable risks are behind us now. Both the Board and management feel confident that we will not encounter those issues again. Currently, the economic situation and the monetary and exchange policy are much more stable. I believe the regulatory authority, specifically the Central Bank, aims for predictability, which has significantly reduced the risk premium in the market. Observing the market closely, it's clear that sellers of various products, whether cars or food, used to set their prices with a 30% to 40% markup to account for the unpredictability in policy and exchange rates.

Even for the CDS...

Even for the CDS, those unpredictabilities are now diminishing. I see that there is no longer any overpricing of products due to the unpredictability of risk, which aligns with how our customers are experiencing the economy. This is reflected in the ACL model. I've been advised not to frame it this way, but the assumptions we are using for expected risk factors are very different from what we had five or three years ago.

There's another question asking about the higher funds utilization rate this quarter, along with a significant decrease in cash balances. Could you please explain what's driving these changes?

I can't recall if this is on the local currency or foreign currency. But anyways, it's a spot balances. At some point of time, we keep cash balances in order to meet the client demands or loan growth. So for instance, we might have a loan booking on the 1st of October, and we keep the cash on the 30th of September in order to meet the client needs in terms of the loan growth. And in case it's a foreign currency, it's exactly the same, either on foreign currency loan bookings or we're just buying securities. So we keep the money at our nostro until the settlement of the transaction.

I need to keep in mind that our loan to deposit ratio in local currency increased from 50% to 66% in this specific book. This is part of the utilization. The other factors are cash operations and Central Bank cash operations.

We have a question from Shalom.

Can you hear me?

Yes, hi.

I have a question again on the bond portfolio, fixed income portfolio. Could you give us an idea what part of the OCI portfolio is hedged against the interest rate risk? And what could be the potential size of the portfolio subject to recycling in case the rates drop to capitalize on the interest rates change?

So you're talking about the foreign currency part or the local part?

Both. But let's start with the local.

So I would say 100% of the local and foreign currency is for hedging purposes against interest rates going down. That's my plain answer to your question.

Could you repeat, please?

So I was saying either on the local currency or the foreign currency, 100% of what we're having either on fair value OCI or amortized cost is for hedging purposes against interest rates coming down.

So if I correctly understand this, in case the rates drop, so the magnitude of the gains from the mark-to-market will be limited in that case, right? Or if I have correct understanding?

It's for hedging purposes, it's not for trading purposes. If it's for trading purposes, then as soon as interest rates will be coming down, we'll be making more money, then we'll go just sell it and realize the profits. But as long as...

I see. And what is the part of the portfolio that could be subject for recycling for like selling to realize the gains, let's say, from the fair value OCI portfolio?

So based on our business model in the bank, fair value OCI and amortized costs are for hedging. So we cannot recycle those until we face a severe liquidity crunch in our balance sheet, then we will have to go and liquidate the part on the fair value OCI.

We have another question from Mohammed. There are a couple of inquiries in the Q&A box. Saurav is asking if you could provide an update on the guidance for 2025 and share some insight for 2026.

Thank you for your question. So I mean, let's work it bottom up. So we are still on point to record EGP 70 billion on a normalized basis because obviously, now we're at EGP 62.1 billion, which includes the reversal. And if you normalize for this EGP 13 billion, so basically, this EGP 50.5 billion should read 70% by year-end. Loan growth, we covered it, we're expecting on a blended basis between 20% to 25%, again, driven by stronger growth on the local currency side and strong enough single-digit growth on the foreign currency front. And with that loan growth, you should expect healthy growth in the fees and commissions line that will feed very positively into the noninterest income line as well. Costs will remain tightly under control, again, very much under 20% for the full year. NIMs will remain flat as compared to 2024. We are guiding for a blended NIM of around 9% for the full year. ROEs, I mean, it should remain well above the 37% mark, again, on a normalized basis. What else? Loan growth. Deposit growth, we're set to close the year with 10% to 15% growth on the deposit side. Most of the growth will be coming from CASA, current and saving accounts. We're always targeting that at least 55% to 60% of the new acquisitions will come in the form of CASA.

We have one more question in the Q&A box. Selma is asking how is the CIB positioning for potential EGP volatility and what are the expectations for interest rate normalization in 2026?

I mean I'll take the interest rate part. So since the beginning of the year, thus far, we saw cuts of around 625 basis points, which is in line with the market consensus. If you remember, when we talked at the beginning of the year, we were guiding along with all of the other macro economists that we are to see between 6% to 8% cuts on the policy side throughout 2025, of which we saw this 625 and we're expecting to see 200 basis points more throughout the remainder of the year. I think for 2026, we'll see the remaining balance. So I mean, if we saw since the devaluation hikes of around 12%, if they cut 825 basis points in 2025, then the rest will be cut throughout 2026. So by end of '26, interest rates should go back to the pre-devaluation level. I'm not sure if I get it correctly. How do you mean how is CIB positioning for potential EGP volatility? Are you talking from a capital perspective? I mean, what are you talking about or what do you mean exactly? Until you answer, I mean, if you're asking about from a capital perspective, I'm sure you know that, I mean, as per the CBE, all banks should be 100% matched in terms of tenure and currency. So I mean, we have to be 100% matched from an assets and liabilities perspective. But we do have as any bank, I mean, because our capital is denominated in EGP. So I mean, we have this chronic sort of mismatch, which we moved very early on to hedge when we ventured to get the Tier 2 subordinated debt. And we're now at a position where for every EGP 1 depreciation, this would eat up around 20 basis points off of the CAR.

And in case the second part of the question is related to the FX positions. You know that as per the Central Bank regulations, we can go long or short up to 10% of our capital base, which we are maneuvering based on the market conditions, our expectations, foreign currency inflows and outflows and client needs, either they are on the trade finance or repatriation or delays.

Thank you. Since there are no further questions, would management like to make any closing remarks?

Thank you, everyone, for dialing in. I mean we're very happy to report yet another strong quarter, and we look forward to reporting the full year, and it will not fall short from what we promised as always. Thank you so much, and looking forward to talking to you all soon. Thank you.

Thank you, CIB management team, and thank you all for attending CIB's 3Q '25 earnings call hosted by CI Capital.