February 5th, 2026

The call presented a strong operational and financial progress story: recurring net income, ROAE, digital adoption, SME share gains, NII and capital markets growth, and a high‑performing insurance business were prominent positives. Management is investing heavily in technology and transformation (22% higher tech spend) which supports medium‑term productivity gains but kept near‑term operating expenses elevated. Capital (CET1) is being actively managed but faces regulatory/prudential headwinds and the bank signaled possible short‑term volatility from elections and market expectations. Overall, the highlights — material earnings growth, improving efficiency, robust digital and SME traction and strong insurance results — meaningfully outweigh the lowlights tied to higher OpEx, capital monitoring and some product‑level tradeoffs.

Company Guidance

The company reiterated 2026 guidance for continued revenue and balance-sheet growth: expanded loan portfolio growth roughly in the mid-to-high single digits (management cited ranges around ~8.5%–10.5% and referenced ~9.5% as a planning point), operating expenses guided to grow about 8% (with ~3% of that attributable to technology investments and the remainder roughly in line with inflation/personnel), CET1 capital expected to be around 11% through 2026, and interest on equity budgeted above BRL 15 billion. Management expects continued ROAE improvement from the Q4 2025 level of 15.2% and reiterated targets to raise scale and efficiency (efficiency ratio down to ~50% in 2025 with a medium‑term ambition of ~40% by 2028). Other explicit operational targets include growing digital retail from 19 million toward ~40 million clients in 2026, upgrading the affluent base to ~4.7 million (Principal ~800,000 clients and ~50 new offices), further SME penetration after reaching ~16.6% market share, and sustaining strong insurance performance (insurance growth/operations previously guided at ~16.1%, technical provisions ~BRL 446 billion); overall recurring net income in 2025 was BRL 24.7 billion (Q4 BRL 6.5 billion), which management expects to build on in 2026.