{"id":70037,"date":"2026-08-13T10:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/70037\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T10:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T10:26:09","slug":"banco-santander-chile-bsac-q2-2026-earnings-call-highlights-record-profitability-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/70037\/","title":{"rendered":"Banco Santander Chile (BSAC) (Q2 2026) Earnings Call Highlights: Record Profitability and …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article first appeared on GuruFocus<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Net Income: CLP382.6 billion in Q2 2026, up 40% Q-on-Q and 40% year-on-year. <\/p>\n

Return on Average Equity (ROAE): 31.5% in Q2 2026 and 27.2% year-to-date. <\/p>\n

Total Loans: CLP41.4 trillion, up 1.2% year-to-date and 1.3% quarter-on-quarter. <\/p>\n

Total Deposits: CLP32.4 trillion, increasing 6% year-to-date and 4.5% Q-on-Q. <\/p>\n

Net Interest Income (NII) and Readjustments: CLP1.11 trillion in the first half of 2026, up 7.4% year-on-year and 27% Q-on-Q. <\/p>\n

Net Interest Margin (NIM): 4.7% in Q2 2026, with year-to-date NIM at 4.3%, up 16 basis points year-on-year. <\/p>\n

Fees and Financial Transactions: CLP452 billion in the first half, growing 4.9% year-on-year. <\/p>\n

Efficiency Ratio: 31.6% in the first half of 2026. <\/p>\n

Operating Expenses: Decreased 4.3% year-on-year, with total core expenses down 3.5%. <\/p>\n

Cost of Risk: 1.38% year-to-date, with quarterly cost of risk at 1.22% in Q2 2026. <\/p>\n

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs): 3.4% of loans. <\/p>\n

Impaired Loans: 7.5% of loans. <\/p>\n

BIS Ratio: 16.4% as of June 2026. <\/p>\n

CET1 Ratio: 11.1% as of June 2026. <\/p>\n

Customer Funds: CLP48.3 trillion, up 7.1% year-to-date and 4% on the quarter. <\/p>\n

Total Clients: 4.8 million, with 2.7 million active clients (56% of total). <\/p>\n

Release Date: August 05, 2026 <\/p>\n

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Positive Points <\/p>\n

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC<\/a>) delivered exceptionally strong profitability in Q2 2026, with net income up 40% QoQ and YoY, and ROAE reaching 31.5% for the quarter. <\/p>\n

The bank’s efficiency ratio improved to 31.6% in H1 2026, positioning it as the most efficient bank in Chile, with operating expenses down 4.3% YoY. <\/p>\n

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC<\/a>) maintains a solid capital position with a BIS ratio of 16.4% and CET1 at 11.1%, about 200 bps above the regulatory minimum. <\/p>\n

The approval of the National Reconstruction Plan, including corporate tax cuts and investment incentives, is expected to support economic growth and loan demand in the medium term. <\/p>\n

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC<\/a>) saw positive loan growth dynamics in Q2, with total loans up 1.3% QoQ, and expects mid-single-digit growth for the full year, supported by government mortgage subsidies and better commercial demand. <\/p>\n

Negative Points <\/p>\n

The macroeconomic environment remains challenging, with inflation at 4.3% and expected to rise to 4.4% in 2026, while GDP growth forecast has been revised down to around 1%. <\/p>\n

Unemployment has risen to 9.3% (seasonally adjusted), which could pressure asset quality and consumer lending demand. <\/p>\n

Cost of risk guidance was slightly increased to 1.35% for 2026, with NPLs and impaired loans showing moderate increases. <\/p>\n

Getnet’s payment fees declined in Q2 due to increased competition and margin pressure, which may continue in the near term. <\/p>\n

The bank’s effective tax rate is expected to remain elevated in the near term, with a normalized rate of 18-20% only after the tax reform is fully implemented over several years. <\/p>\n

Q & A Highlights <\/p>\n

Q: What is the bank’s updated guidance for 2026, and what drove the change?A: Cristian Vicuna, Director of Strategic Planning and Investor Relations, stated that the bank now expects loan growth in the mid-single digits, a NIM of around 4.1% (up from ~4%), noninterest income growth in the mid-single digits, an efficiency ratio in the low 30s, and a cost of risk of around 1.35%. The key change is driven by higher inflation, which has supported NIM and profitability. Consequently, the bank expects to generate a return on average equity (ROAE) of above 24% for the year, up from the initial 22%-24% target. <\/p>\n

Q: How should we think about the evolution of the effective tax rate given the new tax reform and high inflation?A: Andres Sansone, Chief Economist, explained that the current tax rate is 27%, and the new reform will gradually reduce it to 23% between 2027 and 2029. However, the high inflation scenario is currently resizing the equity tax book, pushing the effective tax rate into the low teens. On a normalized basis, after the reform is implemented, the bank expects an effective tax rate in the high teens to very low 20s (around 18%-20%), but this will take a couple of years to materialize. <\/p>\n

Q: What is the bank’s view on a sustainable, normalized ROE, and what regulatory tailwinds could support the sector?A: Cristian Vicuna noted that the bank has delivered ROEs above 20% since Q2 2024 and aims to push slightly above 20% in normal years, though it might dip to the high teens during periods of slow GDP growth. On regulation, Andres Sansone highlighted the National Reconstruction Plan as the most important positive development, along with the extension of the FOGAES mortgage guarantee program. Patricia Perez, CFO, added that a new market risk-weighted asset model could reduce the industry’s market risk RWAs by roughly 36%, which for Santander Chile would represent around 75 basis points of CET1, though the timeline for adoption remains uncertain. <\/p>\n

Q: What is the loan growth strategy for 2026 and 2027, and which segments will drive acceleration?A: Cristian Vicuna stated that loan growth for 2026 will be in the lower part of the mid-single-digit guidance (around 4.5%). However, for 2027, with normalized inflation and GDP expansion, the industry should see mid- to high-single-digit growth. The bank expects to capture a fair share, with the middle market corporate segment and consumer lending (credit cards) being key areas of pickup. The recent government announcement to expand the mortgage interest rate subsidy program is also expected to support mortgage origination. <\/p>\n

Q: Can you expand on the competitive pressures affecting Getnet’s payment fees, and is the Q2 decline a trend?A: Cristian Vicuna explained that increased competition in the payments industry has forced players, including Santander, to reduce margins on fees, especially in the mass market and retail segments. This happened sooner than expected. However, the bank remains confident that figures will pick up in the second half of the year as large corporates increase usage of the platform. The decline is seen as a normalization rather than a long-term trend. <\/p>\n

Q: How are you thinking about asset quality and provisioning levels going forward?A: Cristian Vicuna stated that credit risk is expected to remain stable for the rest of the year, with cost of risk staying in the 1.35%-1.4% area. The bank is improving inflows of new lending while addressing legacy portfolio issues. NPL metrics should start to decelerate growth in the coming quarters, and new origination is showing better performance metrics. The bank expects stable news on this front with marginal improvements into 2027. <\/p>\n

Q: What are the pockets of opportunity for loan growth in Chile, and how is Santander positioned to benefit?A: Cristian Vicuna identified several areas: consumer lending (credit cards and installment loans) has room to recover after the pandemic-era prepayments; the mortgage portfolio is expected to benefit from government support programs (the expanded FOGAES guarantee and VAT exemption), with Santander having captured 17% of the existing subsidy program; and the corporate sector is expected to see a sizable stock of investment projects over the next 4 years, which should cascade down into SME and consumer demand. <\/p>\n

Q: Is there any progress on easing interest rate caps to allow banks to serve the mass market segment more profitably?A: Cristian Vicuna clarified that there is no formal institution currently discussing changes to interest rate caps, despite some media articles and vocal support. If the economics of mass market lending changed, it would force the industry to review penetration in that segment. Santander was the first to close its consumer lending units when caps were reduced in 2014, and the industry followed. If rates change, the bank would review the economics of that business, but nothing formal is happening yet. <\/p>\n

For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Net Income: CLP382.6 billion in Q2 2026, up 40% Q-on-Q and 40%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[144,308,3922,8195,284],"class_list":["post-70037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-banco-santander","tag-banco-santander","tag-banco-santander-chile","tag-cristian-vicuna","tag-efficiency-ratio","tag-santander"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}