- The financial holding indicated that the Peruvian economy more than likely grew around 1.5% YoY in the last quarter, which is the first positive print after four consecutive quarters of decline.
- Gracias al crecimiento de Yape, este negocio se encuentra en vías de alcanzar el punto de equilibrio en el 2024. At the end of the first quarter, Yape hit the 11.5- million mark for active monthly users.
- In March of this year, Credicorp published its Annual and Sustainability Report 2023, which provides details on its progress in integrating sustainability in its businesses.
Lima, May 10, 2024.- During its quarterly presentation to investors, Credicorp, the leading financial group in Peru with a presence in Colombia, Chie, Boliva, Panama and the United States, explained its advances in digital transformation and sustainability, which are pillars of its long-term strategy.
Credicorp Group, which is comprised of BCP, BCP Bolivia, Mibanco, Mibanco Colombia, Grupo Pacífico, Prima AFP, Credicorp Capital and Krealo, presented its results for the first quarter of 2024, during which it registered net income of S/ 1,511.7 million (close to US$406.4 million) and an ROE of 18.2%. During the same period, a dividend of S/35.0 was paid per share for Credicorp’s common shares. This represents growth versus the S/25.0 per share reported in 1Q23.
César Ríos, CFO of Credicorp, highlighted the solid operating and financial results obtained by the holding despite the recent downgrade of Peru’s sovereign debt rating. «Our results reflect the progress made in Yape’s monetization initiatives; an uptick in transactions; and disciplined cost control. Our resilient margins, disruptive initiatives and efficiency measures have put us in good stead to drive profitable and sustainable growth as loan demand gradually recovers throughout the year,” he said.
The holding revised its outlook for Peru’s economic growth upward from 2.5% to 3% in 2024. He indicated that the economy is expected to have grown around 1.5% in the first third of the year, which constitutes the first positive print after four consecutive quarters of decline. In the primary sectors, the group mentioned the noteworthy dynamism of the mining sector.
Digital Transformation and Yape
During the presentation, Credicorp reiterated that it will continue investing in technology for its core businesses and disruptive initiatives to maintain a competitive advantage and ensure sustainability. Gianfranco Ferrari, CEO of Credicorp, indicated that Yape’s current strategy focuses on incorporating new functionalities that respond to user’s needs in addition to monetizing the application’s use.
Yape, which continues to progress toward its goal to reach breakeven in 2024, registered 1,127 million transactions in the first quarter of the year- 23.4 million of which were made through the service payment functionality. The application also registered 35.6 million payments through QR at POS.
Sustainable Impact
Among the milestones reached in the first quarter of 2024, Credicorp published its Annual and Sustainability Report 2023, which provides details on its progress in integrating sustainability in its businesses. Below, we describe the main advances reported in the framework of the Sustainability Program.
In line with Credicorp’s commitment to financial inclusion, Yape, which now has more than 15 million users, continued to affiliate microbusinesses in intermediate-size cities and smaller population centers in the regions, and is now present in 12 departments. Additionally, 72.9 thousand people obtained their first loan in the financial system through the mobile wallet; 43% of this pool were women.
Thanks to its “Agente Móvil”, BCP conducted more than 15 thousand transactions in locations in the departments of Arequipa, Cusco and Moquegua. Additionally, its Financial Education initiatives on the Business front continued to promote improvements in the financial behavior of 64 thousand clients. In the case of Mibanco, more than 114 thousand clients received training through different education strategies such as the Basic Digital Advice Program, Mujeres Poderosas (Powerful Women) and SMEs. At Prima AFP, the educational web “Ahorrando a Fondo” registered 26 thousand sessions at the organic level this quarter.
As a next step in its effort to monitor the group’s sustainable financing, the holding highlighted disbursements of sustainable loans and its efforts to label transactions. In the first quarter, BCP delivered a total of US$ 148 million in green loans.
