The bank's hedging portfolio, some lending growth from 2025 onward, and the recovery of fees from capital-light businesses (advisory, payments, asset management, and bancassurance) that the bank is focusing on will help to partly reduce the impact on margins of the repricing down of assets. Meanwhile, cost containment measures will also contribute to sound pre-provision profits. The bank's cost-to-income ratio will slide, but will hover around a still very strong 40%-44%. Finally, the sizable €1.7 billion overlays of provisions that the bank still holds provide it with flexibility to record limited credit provisions, although at about 40 basis points (bps) we anticipate them to be higher than the less than 20bp guidance provided by the bank. The successful implementation of
