Akbank T.A.S. (BIST:AKBNK) Q2 2026 Earnings Call

0:00 Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our second quarter earnings call. This is Kansu speaking. I hope you are all well. Let me start with what has changed since our last earning call. First of all, the operating environment has proven more challenging than we had anticipated with continued geopolitical tensions, adding uncertainty to the global and domestic outlook. At home, the disinflation process is processing more gradually. The expected easing cycle has been pushed back, and macroprudential measures have been tightened further. At the same time, the continued rebuilding of the central bank's reserves remains an important source of confidence and reinforces the credibility of the broader policy framework.

0:52 For the banking sector, the implications are clear. Higher funding costs are likely to persist for longer, delaying the pace of margin recovery, while asset quality remains a key area of focus in restrictive operating environment. Take it all together. These developments have also pushed out the timing of sustainable real return on equity generation for the sector. The direction of travel remains intact, but the path is proving longer and more demanding than previously expected. Against this backdrop, we have revised our return on equity guidance for this year to 23 to 25% from high 20s.

1:42 Of course, Bruh will share all the details. Going forward, disciplined balance sheet management, strong capital, prudent provisioning and resilient customer franchise have become even more important. Our focus is therefore not only on managing the current environment, but also on ensuring that we are well positioned to capture the opportunities that will emerge as conditions eventually normalize. One of Akbank's case strengths has always been our ability to adapt. Our adaptability comes from disciplined strategic decision making rather than reacting to short term market developments.

2:34 As the operating environment evolved, we made deliberate choices to further strengthen our balance sheet and the resilience of our franchise. We continue to reshape our asset mix toward higher yielding assets while maintaining selective and disciplined loan growth and gradually reducing the share of securities in our balance sheet. While optimizing our asset mix, we maintained resilient provision buffers and remained prudent in asset quality. Our risk management is reflected in a 380 basis points reduction in our share of private banks' NPLs since the beginning of last year.

3:24 This includes a further 130 basis points improvement year to date. On the funding side, we continue to capitalize on the strength of our customer franchise. This enabled us to increase our zero cost demand deposit market share among private banks on a quarterly basis by 120 basis points through disciplined liability management. The strength of our customer franchise continues to drive resilient fee generation, with quarterly fee income covering all of our quarterly operating expenses and supporting strong operating leverage. Most importantly, our robust capital position of total capital, 16.4%, entire one off 13.3% provides the strategic flexibility to turn today's disciplined decisions into tomorrow's growth opportunities.

4:30 And on that note, before moving to the financials, let me briefly touch on how we are positioning Akbank for the near future. Our strategy is built around transforming how we serve our customers through a stronger advisory model, next generation digital capabilities, and a scalable bank wide approach to AI. We are redesigning our service model by expanding relationship led coverage where advice creates the most value. At the same time, we are making digital the primary service channel for our mass consumer and SME customers.

5:21 This allows us to serve more more customers while enhancing customer experience and productivity. Digital and AI go hand in hand. We are evolving our mobile application into AI powered financial companion and building integrated digital platforms that simplify banking for businesses. Our AI strategy is built to scale, integrated across the bank, and supported by a robust governance framework. Rather than deploying AI in isolated use cases, we are building a common infrastructure that allows us to embed AI across the bank from customer interactions and relationship management to back office operations and software development.

6:23 This enterprise this enterprise wide approach gives us confidence that AI will become a meaningful driver of both productivity and future growth. Finally, we are continuing to strengthen our subsidiaries and ecosystem partnerships, creating additional growth opportunities beyond our core banking franchise. Taken together, these initiatives reinforce our ability to deliver sustainable growth, stronger returns and long term shareholder value. I will now pass it over to Ebru to walk you through our results in more detail. Following that, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

7:11 Ebru, over to you. Thank you. Thank you, Kambe. As you have just mentioned, while the long term direction remains intact, higher funding costs have are delaying both margin recovery and the sector's real ROE generation. In the first half of this year, our net income was up by 38% year on year to $34,333,000,000 and resulting in an ROE of 22.2% and an ROA of 1.9%. During the same period, our revenues increased by 45% year on year to 140,000,000,003 and $20,000,000 Net interest income expanded by 95% year on year, driven by our agile balance sheet management and relatively lower funding cost environment compared to the same period of last year. Our strong customer franchise continued to drive resilient fee generation, delivering 35% year on year fee income growth and fully covering quarterly OpEx.

8:06 However, as the higher for longer rate environment proved more persistent than anticipated, we revised our NIM guidance to reflect a slower margin recovery. While resilient fee income, disciplined cost management, and strong asset quality continue to support earnings, the slower margin recovery has translated into a downward revision in our full year ORE guidance from high 20s to 23% to 25%, as you just mentioned. Now let's dive into the quarter's financial performance and key drivers, starting with the balance sheet. As Kamanbe highlighted, we remain disciplined in our lending strategy, prioritizing risk adjusted growth while optimizing maturity and enhancing yields in our target segments. We continue to restructure our asset mix, increasing higher yielding assets while gradually reducing the weight of TL securities in our balance sheet, a strategic shift that has been underway for the past few years.

8:59 This strategy has translated into a meaningful shift in our asset mix, with the share of TL loans in total TL assets rising by seven percentage points to 59% since 2024, while the share of TL securities, excluding corporate bonds, has declined by three percentage points in the same period. Most importantly, we have achieved this without compromising our prudent approach to asset quality while preserving strong coverage ratios. Our selective TL loan growth focus has contributed to the 8% year to date growth in TL loans and noteworthy market share gains in business loans among private banks. As a result, we remain committed to our full year TL loan growth guidance of over 30% shared at the start of the year.

9:48 Turning to our loan mix. We maintained a well balanced and strategically diversified loan book across segments. Portfolio resilience is underpinned by the strong diversification, with no single sector accounting for more than 8% of our business loans. We continued to proactively monitor sector specific risks and take early actions where needed, actively managing portfolio concentrations to preserve strong asset quality. Meanwhile, we continue to grow our FX loan book, delivering 3% year to date growth in U. S. Dollar terms despite a more restrictive operating environment. While tighter regulatory caps led us to modestly revise our full year foreign currency loan growth guidance to high single digit, execution remained strong.

10:36 We delivered a 30 basis points quarterly market share gain and continue to progress towards our twenty twenty eight strategic ambitions. Moving on to securities. We remain dedicated to actively repositioning our securities portfolio, aligning with the evolving macroeconomic environment while enhancing the yields. On the TL side, we increased the share of TLRF index bonds by six percentage points since the end of twenty twenty four while reducing fixed rate securities by seven percentage points to improve carry in a higher for longer interest rate environment. During the same period, we increased the share of foreign currency securities in total securities by eight percentage points to 35%, primarily through timely buildup of NIM accretive euro bond investments.

11:27 As a side note, we maintained our leading position in blue chip corporate bonds, representing around 8% of our TL securities. So overall, our timely, yield focused portfolio actions have continued to support margins while positioning us for a resilient performance going forward. On the funding side, our strong customer franchise has continued to support deposit cost optimization while providing flexibility in meeting central banks' ratio requirements. We achieved 130 basis points year to date increase in TL demand deposit market share among private banks while maintaining a healthy 55% share in sticky, low cost TL time deposits, reinforcing the strength and the stability of our funding base.

12:18 Looking ahead, our well structured balance sheet and sound deposit mix are expected to support gradual and sustainable NIM improvement. Let's move on to the wholesale funding side. Our transaction since the beginning of the year reaffirmed international investors' confidence in our franchise despite heightened geopolitical volatility. During the quarter, we successfully completed a 500,000,000 Tier two issuance at an 8.25% yield with an order book exceeding $1,200,000,000 demonstrating continued strong investor demand. We also exercised the call of the outstanding tier two, maintaining our consistent track record. Our diversified funding strategy continues to provide us with reliable access to international funding markets across different market environments.

13:11 Moving on to the profitability. Let's start with the net interest margin. Heightened geopolitical uncertainty and tighter funding conditions continue to weigh on margins during the quarter. However, our proactive and disciplined balance sheet management helped contain the pressure to some extent. As a result, swap adjusted NIM declined by a moderate 25 basis points to 3%, primarily reflecting higher TL funding costs. Looking ahead, we expect a more gradual margin recovery as monetary conditions are likely to remain tighter for longer. We believe our disciplined balance sheet management and strong deposit franchise position us well to navigate this environment. But still, taking all into consideration, we have revised our year end swap adjusted NIM guidance to 3.2% to 3.5% range from around 4% levels.

14:09 As a side note, during the quarter, we valued our CPI linkers at 30%, and every 1% change in CPI has six bps NIM and 40 basis point ROE impact on a full year basis. Our fee income increased by a robust 35% year on year in first half, keeping us well on track with our full year guidance of above 30%. Our diversified fee income base, supported by broad product offerings, continues to strengthen earnings resilience and visibility. We remain focused on expanding recurring fee streams through customer centric innovations and deeper engagement. Looking ahead, we will continue to leverage our digital capabilities and AI driven hyper personalization to further expand our fee income base.

15:01 Strong fee generation and disciplined cost management have drove our fee to OpEx ratio back above 100% with cumulative ratio reaching 94% for the first half of the year. OpEx growth was up 37% year on year in the first half and expected to moderate toward the full year guidance of low 30s, thanks to our continued focus on cost control and operational efficiency. Accordingly, we remain confident in achieving our full year fee to OpEx ambition of around 100%. However, net interest income dynamics continue to be key determinant for our cost to income ratio, which remained around 52%, leading us to revise our full year cost to income ratio guidance to high 40s from low 40s.

15:53 Looking ahead, we remain focused on disciplined cost management while leveraging AI to further improve scalability and efficiency. Moving on to asset quality. As expected, early signs of asset quality deterioration have become more visible across the sector, reflecting the broader macro environment. Against this backdrop, we further strengthened our relative positioning, reducing our NPL market share among private banks by 130 basis points year to date, building on the significant improvement we achieved last year. Our loan book is a reflection of our disciplined underwriting standards and well diversified portfolio with Stage two plus Stage three loans contained at 11.5% of gross loans and restructured loans remaining limited at 4%.

16:44 At the same time, we continue to strengthen our reserve buffers with total provisions reaching nearly 85,000,000,000. Accordingly, our coverage ratios remain solid with growth coverage at 3.8% and Stage two plus Stage three coverage at 28.1%, reinforcing balance sheet resilience. Excluding currency impact, net cost of credit stood at two twenty basis points during the first half of the year, broadly in line with our full year guidance, while NPL ratio remained stable at around 3.5%. We continue to enhance our collection capabilities through AI powered voice agents, which was just launched during second quarter.

17:31 Early signals indicate improving customer engagement and increased our promise to pay rate significantly. This supports a more proactive, scalable and data driven collection model, reinforcing our disciplined approach to asset quality management. Looking ahead, we remain confident in our ability to navigate the evolving macro environment with cost of credit and NPL dynamics remaining well manageable within our full year guidance. Moving on to capital. Our strong capital base remains a key strategic advantage, providing the flexibility to navigate cycles while continuing to pursue disciplined growth. Our total capital, Tier one and core equity Tier one ratios have improved to 16.4%, thirteen point three percent and eleven point three percent in second quarter, respectively.

18:26 These were supported by risk return focused loan growth, continued RWA optimization and the gradual easing of the quarter specific adverse effects in the first quarter, including operational risk adjustment and dividend payment. In addition, improved market sentiment and better bond pricing enabled a partial reversal of mark to market losses in second quarter. As for sensitivities, a 10% depreciation in TL results to around 25 basis point decline in our capital ratios, while the impact diminishes for larger foreign currency movements. Similarly, 100 basis point increase in TL interest rates has around five basis point impact, highlighting the limited sensitivity and strength of our capital.

19:15 Overall, our solid capital buffers provide competitive advantage and a strong foundation to deliver sustainable profitable growth going forward. On this slide, you may find a summary of our first half performance as well as our revised guidance, which I did share with you in detail throughout the presentation. As previously highlighted, headwinds related with geopolitical developments, which resulted in the rate cycle to pause, has shifted NIM expansion to second half of the year with a more gradual pace than initially expected. While resilient fee income, disciplined cost management and strong asset quality continue to support earnings, the slower margin recovery has translated into a downward revision in our ROE guidance.

20:05 As reflected in our first half performance, we continue to make solid progress towards our 2028 strategic targets, which we showed at the beginning of this year. And last but not least, before moving on to q and a, I'd like to share that we are extremely proud to have surpassed our 800,000,000,000 sustainable financing target for 2030 ahead of schedule, reaching $841,000,000,000 by the end of the second quarter. Looking ahead, we will continue to raise our ambition and set new targets in sustainable finance later this year. This concludes our presentation. Now moving on to Q and A session. Please raise your hand or type your question in the Q and A box. And for those of you who are joining us by telephone, please send your questions by e mail to investor.

20:50 Relationsakbank dot com. The first question comes from Ashwath. Ashwath, please go ahead. We have unmuted you. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you loud and clear. Thank you very much for the presentation. I just have three questions. The first is on the NIMs. So I guess the exit rate is around slightly lower than your full year revised guidance on your NIM. So when do you first expect some of the rate cuts or potentially normalization in the policy rate to begin? That will be my first question. The second question is around the the cost side.

21:44 Are there any initiatives in place beyond the ones you mentioned in terms of AI, etcetera, in order to rein in some of that cost growth or OpEx growth, especially if, for example, the top line growth does not pan out to be as positive as anticipated with the rate cuts into the back end of this year? And the last question is on asset quality. So currently, I understand it's slightly ahead or above your full year guidance of around 200 basis points. How confident is the bank in being able to maintain that 200 basis points net cost of risk excluding currency, especially if, for example, rate cuts or the normalization in policy rate does not happen sometime this year?

22:34 Thank you. Hi, Akbank. This is Turkic. Thank you very much for your questions. To start with the net interest margin side, as you already mentioned, so like the the second quarter was like the exit from second quarter was like in weekly terms close 3%. And still, we are in July preserving our cumulative NIM at around 3%. So bank can expect, like, gradual improvement in the net interest margin to meet our guidance. Definitely, it will go ahead and then with Central Bank's decisions after Central Bank has skipped the last MPC meeting and kept 40% unchanged. Probably, the next tick date would be, like, the m next MPC meeting in September, where we can expect that Central Bank again returns, turns back into one week repo funding, like, in in effective terms of 37%.

23:33 If the global environment also allows, maybe it's also possible that they make this move before September. But apart from this this move, like equalizing the weighted average cost of funding to the policy of 37, I think there will be limited room for further rate cuts towards the end of the year. But anyway, with this expected normalization, the Central Bank funding rates and which were also, to some extent, observing some like evening on the deposits pricing side. We expect that we expect gradual improvement in the net interest margin towards the end of the third quarter and maybe mainly in the fourth quarter that we can reach this guidance revised guidance we've shared. And hopefully, like if this environment allows more to the 3.5% sites.

24:33 So that's how we see the net NIM trajectory for the time being. With regard to cost, you know, up Akbank has has always this front muscle, like, to maintaining cost discipline whenever needed. And so we are always looking at all areas in our OpEx where we can, like, make some savings, also taking into consideration efficiency and also without hurting hurting our, like, customer business. So this is an ongoing process. So it's not like a onetime action. So therefore, actually, all these actions, we believe that we can meet the more 30% year on year growth guidance for full year. With regard to cost of risk, yes, as of today, we are slightly above two percent, which we've guided for full year.

25:28 But also, we're always revising our like lending processes whenever needed, we make these changes in the lending criteria. And also, in the first six months of the year, we have also kept our provisioning also quite strong, which may also give some like flexibility to us in the second half of the year. So therefore, actually, as of today, we feel confident meeting this revised guide unchanged guidance, sorry, for cost of risk. But as I said, to repeat myself, we are always listing to our decision criteria, like maturity profile profile, etcetera, etcetera.

26:15 So that's how we are responding to this uncertain environment. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome, Ashwa. Next question comes from David, Toronto. Please, David, go ahead and ask your question. Good afternoon. Thank you for the presentation. My colleague has already covered most of my questions. I just have one on capital. Capital has become a bigger investor focus again, I think. Could you update us on the IRB process and the potential c two one benefit? And given the slower pace of capital generation, would you consider to, lower payout this year to preserve capital? Thank you.

27:03 Thank you very much, David. Yes. We are in the process of our IRB application. So probably, maybe somewhere next year. This also depends on the BRSA BRSA permission and the process on their side as well. But we can expect, like, around 2% uplift to our capital ratio, both at t one and CET one as well as capital ratio. All of them will be similarly impacted. But having said that, when I look at the, like, capital, I think it's the evolution of Akbank in the second quarter despite the, like like, moderate profitability and, like, moderate profit internal profit generation, still we were able to slightly improve our capital ratio.

27:56 Just recall, in the first quarter, we had all these onetime impacts, like pay dividend payout, op risk adjustments, mark to market losses. So op risk and dividends payout was onetime, and there has been some reversal on the mark to market side. So the and also the ongoing optimization of RWA has helped us to, like, slightly improve our capital decrease ratio. So with the profitability projections we have and also the growth projections within the growth capital of the Central Bank, I think we can preserve this capital ratio at these levels. And probably it's too early to talk about the, like, pay dividend payout for next and the status of Central Bank BRSA, sorry. But just to recall, you know, the the impact of payout on capital, like, for full year is quite, like, limited.

28:52 We didn't cost the limited payout ratios. Therefore, but we can maybe discuss more detail towards the end of the year or maybe beginning of the year, next year. Next question comes from Mehmet Sevin. Mehmet, please unmute yourself and ask your question. I had one question on the NPL balances. It seems the collection performance was very strong in the second quarter, effectively offsetting most of the increase in gross inflows. I was just wondering what's driving this and whether you see this as sustainable going forward.

29:41 And my second question is on the fee outlook. You've kept the guidance at above 30%. Technically, you are within the guidance, but I was wondering if there is realistically upside to that number, whether you're expecting some maybe easing or slowdown in the second half. Hi, For NPL side, actually, there was, like, a a big ticket collection, the second quarter, like, for which also, like, we had to make some interest equal and some interest collection, which has also, to some extent, increased both sides of the API mode for the second quarter.

30:29 But in net API formation terms, it's actually similar to the first quarter. So this, like, big ticket collection is also impacting this, like, maybe some synthetic increase on both sides of the NPL collection as well as the API formation. With regard to fee outlook, hopefully, we can do better than that. So, like, maintain the third 4% or maybe even grow higher than that, but that will also depend on the, like, growth in the sector, like, constantly cost the growth caps, loan growth set, which is also, like, lending is also it's significant driver of the commission income generation.

31:16 But definitely, you know our strength, we will do our best to further improve the fee income and also like meet this 100% fee to OpEx ratio target we have by the end of the year. That's very clear. With regard to payment system side, maybe what could be the maybe like the potential downside risk, like, the the caps on the payment system side. But I think, considering the almost no change in the interest rate environment, we can skip it for the time being. Super. Thanks, You're welcome. Thank you, Mehmet. Next question comes from Jamar Demirtas. Jamar, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

32:05 Thank you for the presentation. My question is regarding the guidance side. Firstly, in your macroeconomic assumptions, what is the major risk you are taking regarding the know the oil prices? In your base scenario, is high oil price a reason for this cautious stance related to inflation, or do you see other factors that would affect the economy in the second half of the year? And the other question is about your TL growth, loan growth and FX loan growth, it's you didn't change it. You maintained TL loan growth at higher than 30% and loan growth also maintained almost the same.

32:59 Is it consistent with the macro outlook you're assuming? Could you further elaborate that? Thank you. Hi, Jamalbi. With regard to macro assumptions, actually, since we already, like, six months have passed and, you know, like, we have more, like like, visibility in front of us. Yes. Maybe oil prices may change, but on average, I think also in the system, there's some, like, visibility. So therefore, we expect the the the volatility with regard to inflation outlook. Like, maybe, like, okay. It's maybe maybe 29 or 31, but, really, a plus minus 30% is, I think, a reasonable assumption for time being. And considering the, like, positive real rates policy of sentiment, this is also why we've kept the policy rate at 737% of by the end of the year. Your second question was what? Yeah, loan growth. Yeah, loan growth and FX loan growth. But already, are at 18%.

34:12 And maybe just to recall the growth caps on the SME side is in eight week terms. SME side, like the cap is at 4.5%, GPL 3%. And also considering some like business we are generating in exempt areas, I think like achieving 30%, 30% plus is, I think, it shouldn't be an issue. With regard to FX loan growth, yes, the the growth caps are much tighter there. But since the the notional is so low and even like maybe a one one single ticket, which is exempt from growth cap, like, may support the it create some further growth. So their fraction is, like, three percent first half realization.

35:01 High single digit, maybe, like, 8%, something like that. Their fraction, again, the so probably we will be ending here around these levels, I can say. Thank you. And as a follow-up regarding the NPL, you keep your NPL guidance at 3.5%. And based on your scenario, your cautious scenario, do you see an upside risk to that factor rather than a downside considering the very tight conditions in real sector overall? I just like to hear about that. Thank you. Thank you, Roj. I think maybe we should more focus on the cost of risk side because NPL is also like is driven by the notional volume as of by the loan growth, exchange rate, TL equal in terms of total loan book. So, therefore, actually, we feel cough confident with regard to the cost of risk of 2200%.

36:03 And probably, we can also manage the NPS at at 3.5, Like, depending on the appetite and stock are, like, preferences, we may also utilize NPL sales, which we've done in the first half of of this year as well. So therefore, actually, the focus is more really on the cost of risk side. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Jamal. And the next question comes from Simon Nelis. Simon, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Hi. Thanks very much. Just another follow-up on the NPL. I mean, we've seen some large restructuring defaults in the sector. Just wondering if you've had exposure. And if not, how how have you avoided these? And and do you see more stress?

36:52 It doesn't seem like you expect much more stress going forward. I'm just curious why that's the case. Do you think these recent events are kind of more specific to those corporates? Thanks. Hi, Simon. Again, this is. Yes. Our restructured portfolio is at a at a very similar level. So with regard to sector, like, dynamics, like, don't have that much of, like, insight to that. But in our portfolio, we didn't we didn't experience something like that. Mhmm. Because the rule set is quite, like, clear, which we have to apply. So, actually, we will be, like, the managing portfolio at a, like, the similar philosophy for the remaining remaining part of Jira as well. And maybe if I could ask about a specific client. I don't know if you'll be able to respond. But just on Bestel, is there what are you involved in that restructuring, and is there anything you can share on that?

38:01 No. No. We are not we don't have this exposure. No. No. We are not part of structuring, you know, process. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you, Simon. We have a written question, basically from Musafa Kemal Karakuse. How do you expect the recent loan growth caps to affect the pace of loan book repricing? Definitely. Like, it's it's it's putting, like, some limitation. But since the, like, since the the the global change in the first quarter of this year, Like, currently, we are more like the focus of the bank is more like growing the bank more the loan book more on the short term side. So in order to not to increase the duration mismatch.

38:58 And actually, when I look like the back book of yield of our loan book, we were able to increase its track by around 30 basis points till the end of the second quarter, while we were also able to, to some extent, also improve the deposit cost as well. So therefore, actually, maybe in this way, can also touch the spread side. So loan to deposit spreads on TS side, we've seen some, like, improvements in the last one or two weeks with this repricing in shift of the bank. But definitely, the growth gap is putting pressure.

39:45 And like also, it's just it may also sometimes impact the market dynamics as well on the exempt loss so that the banks are acting more competitively. But we take part when the price the pricing makes sense or refrain to to compete if we if we see the price is not is not adequate enough. Okay. And the last question comes from Thomas. Thomas, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Yes. Hello. Hope you can hear me. Lots of questions has been addressed by my colleagues, and I appreciate all your all your input and insight and guidance. I just have one follow-up or two follow-up questions.

40:30 One is on NPL, and I understand this is the new NPLs are driven mainly by retail sector. Correct me if I'm wrong. And if if it is driven by corporate, do you see any any any any specific industry sector that are more vulnerable in current current environment? And do you see any more stresses moving in the sector? And the second one is the second one maybe is more medium term because I think everybody understand that 2026 is not the time when Turkish banks will return to real ROEs, and this is all deferred to 2027 and beyond possibly. But would you would you would you be able to discuss your inflation expectation for 2027, 2028 possibly? Let's say, the very much high level, especially now in in in in terms of the expected elections in Turkey in two years time more or less or maybe earlier, and there's a potential, you know, fiscal losing to to boost the GDP ahead of and how this would impact inflation ROEs as well.

41:29 Thank you. Hi, Thomas. With regard to NPI information, yes, actually, like, since since last year, actually, or maybe since the end of twenty four. Like, MPI formation is mainly happening on the, like, retail side, consumer, credit cards, unsecured lending, as well as, like like, as part of SME. To make sense, maybe m part of SME. But on the corporate side, like, we haven't seen a, like, widespread NPL formation or, like, stress. And as with regard to Akbank, as you can also see on the screen, Like, we have a really, like, diversified portfolio and stuff. And just also to call in every sector, like, there are good companies and bad companies and or not so good companies, let's say. And this is actually, like, an art in a way like that you, as I said, like, play around with your duration profile, collateralization, etcetera, etcetera, by making business with your customers.

42:34 But I I can't really specify one single sector or there is something really stress building up. This is with regard to your first first question. With regard to second question, definitely, like, all that's what has happened, like, in the last three, four months of the year has delayed, like, the macro expectations we had. Maybe it's a bit too early, like, talk about '27 and '28. Like, it's mostly depends on the, like, the timing of the elections. But definitely, like, we are expecting, like like, further, like like, this this this inflation process, like, to evolve in the country. The pace will be important. Maybe, as I said, we can discuss about, like, in about more detail, like, towards the end of the year. Also, when we have also a more visibility in the Gulf Region, which will also impact, especially the oil price.

43:31 But definitely, this real ROE generation has been postponed into '27. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Welcome. Thank you. I believe this ends all the questions that have been asked. And I leave the floor to you, Kambe, for closing remarks. Thank you. Thanks a lot again. Before we close, let me leave you with one final thought, actually. As we look ahead, I can tell that our top three priorities remain clear. The first one is supporting our customers secondly, managing our balance sheet with discipline and the last one is delivering sustainable profitability.

44:16 So the decisions we are making today from our balance sheet strategy to our investments in our service model, digital capabilities and AI are not about the next quarter. They are about building an even stronger Akbank for the years ahead. We will continue to grow selectively, preserve the resilience of our balance sheet and build on momentum of our customer franchise. At the same time, we are taking a scalable enterprise wide approach to AI because we believe it will fundamentally enhance how we serve our customers and operate as a bank.

45:02 Before we finish, I really would like to thank all my colleagues at Crozatbank. Their commitment, energy and a focus on our customers are what make our progress possible every day. Finally, thank you for joining us today, as always, and for your continued interest and trust in Akbank. We look forward to keeping in touch. Have a great day. Thank you very much. Thank you, Kambe, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. Please do reach out to Investor Relations team. We're here at your disposal. I look forward to seeing you all soon, and have a wonderful summer. Bye bye.