BNP Paribas Bank Polska S.A. (BNP) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] We don't really know who's on the other side. We can see the screen, but we're speaking to a screen. And we now have to learn about new situations. We have to try to feel quite comfortable even though the original impression is a little bit odd. So I would prefer for us to sit in a single room and talk face-to-face. But we're not able to follow this option because of the level of infections with COVID-19 here in Poland. What awaits us today? We have the agenda. So I'm going to say a few words about the most important things, the key highlights. We'll talk about the macroeconomic environment. This will be done by [ Mihail Dobula ] and Jean-Charles Aranda, our CFO, will walk us through the group financial results. Then we'll talk a little bit about the outlook. And I don't think we're going to talk about the business segment performance. They're, of course, present in the materials but if you have any questions, we'll do our best to respond to any questions you may have. And so now if we look at the most important information, the key highlights are -- we have 3 blocks of information, I'd like to speak to them individually, and then I'll dwell upon them. So this was a very distinct quarter, which was a full pandemic quarter. We had the lockdown for the very beginning -- from the very beginning. The most important thing was to provide safety to our employees and to our customers. Of course, continuity of the business operation was very important. Our network was fully available and poised to serve our customers throughout the pandemic, even though it wasn't a simple thing to do. And our people who work in the branches will be our local heroes. If we look at the head office, we were working remotely, and we'll come back to that in a few moments. We've been supporting the economy by participating in credit moratoria. We have the shield from the Polish Development Fund, PFR, and this is a very important tool to support the economy. We've subscribed for bonds from PFR as well as from BGK Bank. And so we've been trying to support the medical community as well as other persons in need. If we look at our business activity, we can say that April was clearly the worst month we remember. So the activity of our customers fell dramatically. And there were a large number of reasons to be pessimistic. We saw some recovery in May, that recovery was strengthened in June. And then as we move into July, in August, we're clearly on a rebound. So if we look at our customers' activity, we can see the letter V as opposed to letter U in terms of our recovery. We see our deposits have grown both here and across the sector. If we look at corporate loans or SME loans, we can say that the demand was low. Our customers have received quite a bit of liquidity from the PFR shield. And so as they had lower business activity, they didn't have as many needs for loans. And if we look at our results, I think that the bank has passed the exam in terms of the first quarter of dealing with the pandemic, and we've been able to operate quite efficiently in this new set of reality. We've been able to maintain our revenue. We'll talk a little bit about what else happened later. We see 3 new rounds of the cuts in the rates. And so we have the synergies planned for this year. So we continue to do that, having in mind the taking over of Raiffeisen Bank Polska. And so we have a number of initiatives with respect to cost savings to ensure that our costs are under control. They are under control. The cost of risk are at the similar level to in Q1. Of course, they're substantially higher because of the pandemic than would be normally the case. What's important here is to continue supporting our clients, be empathetic, listen to them closely and make rational decisions in terms of accepting risk. The second thing is digitalization. So there is digital transformation, which we've accelerated, and this is something that we intend to continue. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. So we have a little bit more detail in terms of what I discussed. I don't think it's too clear -- important for me to walk through all these figures. You can see that if we look at the credit moratorias, both the private ones and the PFR, the bank was open, it was active and we were utilizing fully digitized processes. So the statutory more time doesn't really have much interest amongst customers. Customers took advantage of the private moratorium. And so a little bit, contrary to expectations, many fewer customers have applied for these credit moratorias under the statutory conditions. So I mentioned to you about our branches, the fact that they were fully ready to serve customers at the head office. We're working remotely. From the very beginning of the pandemic, we switched to this model. And so a large percentage of our people work remote. They have split teams in the office. We're monitoring the system very closely. And so in the recent weeks, the level of infection you've seen doesn't encourage us to talk about coming back to the offices. When they come back to the offices, it will not be the same ever as it was prior to the pandemic. And so we believe that there's going to be a much more clear component of remote work in the future. And so we believe that remote work is the right way to go and banking from home, we were active in terms of our communication to ensure that we would be able to persuade our customers. And at the same time, we improved our processes and digitalization to ensure that our banks could utilize their banking needs assuage their banking needs without having that physical contact with us. So as in Q1, we've been able to support the health service. It seems to me that we've been able to do something that was quite important. It's close to my heart. So we've been giving computers to small children because it was -- so laptops for children because it was very difficult for them to deal with going to school -- we're now in the vacation period. Officially, school should open in the fall. But various things can happen depending on what's going to flesh out with the pandemic. I mentioned that April was a tough month. And after that, we've seen gradual rebound in the trends. So you can see on Slide 7 here, what that actually entailed looking at a number of our key products, how commercially active we were with respect to these products, save for mortgage loans, which continue to sell very well regardless of where we were in the lockdown, in the pandemic. You can say that in every category, we had a trough in April. In May, we had a slight rebound, then the rebound in June was much more distinct, much more clear. So the bank was open to business and was actively looking for business. So we were able to do a number of big transactions, which we mentioned here on this slide. Generally speaking, our corporate investment bank line did very well in the quarter -- in the full first half of the year. We had some big structural transactions, complicated transactions, and we're pleased. I'm pleased to see that one of them is to basically underwrite the needs of wind farms as well as solar power farms, so PV farms. So if you look at the volumes, you can see them here on Slide 8. So if we look at the deposits, we can see the dynamic growth. These are primarily corporate deposits because basically, they had the funds coming in from PFR, and at the same time, they had lower economic activity. On the loan side, we do see growth for individual customers. This is as a result of the rebound we talked about on the previous slide. But if we look at corporate loans, we see a decline quarter-on-quarter. And it's similar to what other banks have experienced. So in some banks, they had bigger declines, others had smaller declines, but we're really close to the average there. So we see some slight growth quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year. And so we're coming back to the stream of looking for new customers and partners for the bank. So if we look at the profitability and revenue and costs. As you know, in Q2, we had net profit of PLN 219 million. This is quite similar to the results we saw in Q2 2019, higher than in Q1 2020. Of course, some of the nonrecurring events had an impact. And so without those one-offs, it would have been PLN 179 million. This is a good result. Of course, our ambitions, prior to COVID-19 talked about having a higher net profit. If we look at net banking income, it's a little bit down, and we can see the impact of declining interest rates. This is something that we'll continue to see in subsequent quarters. So we believe that these effect will stabilize around Q4, but it's very clear that the bank will lose as a result of the 3 subsequent interest rate cuts in terms of its interest income. We're trying to offset that by changing the interest on the liability side of the balance sheet as we look for new commission income and fee income. Costs are fully under control. We don't see any reasons to be disquieted. We're following our synergy path, and we're doing that consistently, steadily and methodically. So we're not undertaking any cost initiatives that would be considered a sudden or brutal or things that could impede our ability to follow our bank strategy, which is a growth strategy. If we look at the cost of risk, and it's more or less at the same level as in Q1 2020. Of course, it's substantially higher than in 2019. This is the direct impact of COVID. If you look at COVID alone, from the -- isolated from the regular business, so we have PLN 156 million in provisions. We'll look at provisions a little more closely in the latter section of the presentation. So let me remind you of the 5 pillars of our strategy. In each one of them, we have a number of valuable things we've been able to do. Digitalization is very important. It will continue to be important. We continue to develop our GO ecosystem. I think I've mentioned that we've launched video verification, which has made it possible to open a bank account on a totally remote basis. And so what's very important in terms of going paperless in the bank and at the same time augmenting the level of security, we're utilizing the Autenti platform to a greater and greater extent to sign contracts. So more than 70,000 contracts were signed remotely without paper -- on a paperless basis. And so this has a major ecological or environmental impact. So I won't walk through the other activities that we've done. The important ones are mentioned here. So the bank has, once again, become the winner of a ranking of responsible companies, CSR companies, not only in the banking sector, but in the overall general classification. And so this is something that really applauds our CSR activity, our commitment to the natural environment. And we will continue to follow this path in the future. Here, we have a little bit more information about the effects of accelerating our digitalization. We also see some figures about the growing utilization of remote channels amongst our customers. Once again, it's not the case that we're at the end of the digitalization path. This is something that will probably never end. But this is a very top or high priority for us. And the pandemic experience convinces us and not just our bank, that digitalization is of crucial importance, and we will continue to invest in this area. If we think about the importance of CSR and sustainable growth, I've already mentioned that. But here's a few more details. I really don't want to walk through the individual components. What I would like to refer to, however, is that we coorganized a green issue along with Polsat. I'm very pleased that our bank played a major role in that. As you know, we're not financing dirty energy but we're financing renewable energy. And we have the PV for consumers, and we're continuing to develop that quite strongly, and this is something that will be continued. Now we'll look at the macroeconomic environment, and I'll give the floor at this point to [ Mihail Dobula. ]

Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow, the Central Statistical Office will announce the initial GDP reading. So this will be the worst set of results in 30 years. We think the decline will be somewhere between 7% and 8%. As I speak about this, I think what's important to underline here is that the worst month, undoubtedly, was April for the overall economy, and all of the available hard data from the economy as well as market conditions, research indicate that starting from May, we see a rapid recovery in the economy. Moreover, this recovery is underway in -- and is continuing in Q3. This does bid -- or bode well for the state of the economy, and growth of GDP in Q3 will be much better than in Q2. As we speak about the recovery, we should remember that this is not something that's evenly distributed. Realistically, the production or the manufacturing sector is responsible for the rapid return to economic activity to a very decent level. Many sectors, especially the service sector, continues to have a very tough and demanding situation. This is something that will affect the labor market. At the same time, it will affect the investments of corporates and could, in fact, lead to the outlook for lending being hampered in subsequent months as well as quarters. What here could be a bit more optimistic as we look at subsequent quarters or years, stabilization of the overall situation on the financial market is clearly one of those things, both in terms of the level and the mix of market rates. But also if we think about the FX rates, if you look at the euro/PLN rate or the dollar/PLN FX rate, they were levels that were in place prior to the virus. The stabilization we see on the financial market is important. Because it does eliminate at least 1 risk factor in the corporate sector or all of the -- for the business sector. So thank you very much for your attention.

So now we'll go through the financial results, and I'll ask Jean-Charles Aranda. Thank you very much.

Good afternoon. In a nutshell, we had a good financial result at the end of June. Loans grew by 4.8% year-to-year. Deposits grew by 13.4% year-to-year. Our net result amounted to PLN 334 million, lower by 12% year-to-year. NBI grew by 2% year-to-year, supported by a few one-off in Q2. Cost, as stated by Przemek, are under control, minus 10% year-to-year, slight increase if we exclude the integration cost. Cost-to-income ratio significantly better than before. And in Q2, the cost of risk has been fully stabilized. In terms of capital ratio, liquidity ratio fully under control, and we are in a safe position. Going into more detail in terms of loans. So loans portfolio grew by 4.8% year-to-year, but decreased by 0.7% quarter-to-quarter. As for individual loans, the dynamic is there. The portfolio grew by 13.1% year-to-year, keeping on increasing quarter-to-quarter, plus 2.1%. As for the corporate loans, the situation is a little bit different, decreased by 0.2% year-to-year and decreased by 2.4% quarter-to-quarter. As for the individual loans, the dynamic is -- remained very strong in terms of mortgage loan. So no negative impact coming from the COVID-19. So plus 21.7% year-to-year and keeping on increasing quarter-to-quarter. As for the cash flow now, the good news is that we start recovering as from May, so it's very positive for the future. As for the corporate loans, the demand is low. And as you know, our customers received PLN 4.5 billion support from PFR. As usual, a few words about our CHF mortgage loan portfolio. The most important information is that we get 120 new cases quarter-to-quarter. And this is the reason why we booked additional provision in the amount of PLN 50 million. But overall, the number of court cases we get is relatively low compared to the market. The deposit grew by 13.4% year-to-year, quarter-to-quarter 7.8%. The dynamic is very strong on corpo side. Why? Because our customers, as previously stated, received more than PLN 4.5 billion from PFR. As for individuals, I remind you that we have been improving the cost of the deposits. As a result, we get a drop on optimal deposit, which is one of the factor. And the second one, which is a good news, is that our customers start reinvesting in investment product. So on the left side of the presentation, if we get a drop in Q1, we start recovering in Q2. So it's a very good news. It's going to have a positive impact in terms of fees. Structure of deposits or the share of the current account increased quarter-to-quarter. Loan to deposit ratio decreased to 81.1%. And we are keeping on improving the cost of deposits. In the context of overliquidity, significant overliquidity in the market and interest rate cut, the price has to be adjusted. And it's what we have started to do. The NBI grew by 2.2% year-to-year supported by a few one-offs in Q2. Excluding the one-off, the growth is 0.5%. Our challenge remains the impact resulting from the interest rate cut quarter-to-quarter, NBI decreased by 2%. Excluding the one-off by 2.5%. As for the net interest income, the margin decreased quite year-to-year. Due to the interest rate cut, we start seeing negative impact. On top, we get less revenue from the fair value unwinding. So quarter-to-quarter, net margin dropped to 2.65%. But in parallel, we are taking some action in order to minimize the impact of interest rate cut. So we still have some adjustment to be done in terms of pricing for the deposit and we are working on the margin on the loans as well. As for fees and commissions, so fees and commissions are stable year-to-year, with a change in the mix. So we get more revenue in terms of insurance, but we get less in terms of card. Quarter-to-quarter, slight decrease by 3.1%, mainly coming from the lower activity. In terms of net trading income, plus 15.6% year-to-year, quarter-to-quarter, 1.3%. We get a positive impact coming from the valuation of some securities. So Visa, Mastercard, BIK and KIR, which is explaining the increase in Q2. As for the net investment income, we have 2 different components. The first one is coming from the negative impact resulting from the revaluation of our preferential portfolio, but on top, we get the opportunity on the market, and we sell some securities. In terms of cost, fully under control. So year-to-year, we decreased by 9.9%. Excluding the integration cost, slight increase by 1.3%. We are delivering the synergy. I think it's visible in the figures we are provided. So we're on track, in line with the plan. And as a result of COVID-19 crisis, we have taken additional initiatives or we are accelerating in order to improve the picture and to absorb the shock. I will take a few words about the cost of risk.

So perhaps we should begin with the quality of the portfolio. And the development of the situation in 2020. And so we have NPLs up by 0.3% compared to the overall. We're talking about PLN 247 million as the nominal value, having in mind the fact that in the first half of the year, we didn't sell any assets with any type of loss of value. We usually do this in the fall and the spring of every year. So if we look at the individual segments, we can say that the corporate loans are stable, net of ag loans. So the impact is very limited. We see a similar situation in retail loans, the only segment where I would like to draw your attention, where we can see some growth. These are farmer loans. We're talking about micro-farmers and not SME farmers because in the SMEs, the nominal NPL level has been stable for roughly 1.5 years. Also during the COVID crisis, there was no impact whatsoever. If we look, however, at the ag sector, on a micro level, I'd like to dwell on this for just a moment and draw your attention to the fact that we had an NPL of PLN 61 million. We had some acquisitions taking place up until 2015. And this led to the determination of this value. Basically, over the course of the last 5 years, the growth in this portfolio as a result of acquisition is only EUR 176 million. This means that the growth pertains solely to the old portfolio. If you look at the NPL loans over the last 5 years, we're talking about a range of 3% to 5% depending on the quarter. So we can say that this is substantially below the total figure of 10%. And I would also like to highlight that 1/3, 30% of this portfolio is serviced on a regular basis. So that means that it's been classified as belonging to the NPL portfolio for reasons other than current service. So if we could look for just a moment at retail loans. What's important here is that when the pandemic was at its peak in April and May, the number of customers, both in terms of volume as well as in specific numbers that were undergoing restructuring as a result of defaults was lower than in the past. And the recovery of these loans on a percentage basis was higher. This is a result of the fact that some of the customers asked under the private moratorium for loan vacations, and this gives a correlation. So customers who asked for loan vacation had the toughest risk profile also prior to the COVID period. So if we gauge a little bit further. So in March, we started to propose these credit vacations or loan vacations. The biggest incremental growth was in April and May, which means that having a 3-month loan vacation, the customers were obligated to come back to repaying the principals as well as the interest in June and July. What we see and observe in the overall retail portfolio, I'm talking about micro business loans as well as cash loans as well as SME loans. The first customers who asked for the vacation in March, they had the toughest risk profile. But after 3 months, in June, depending on the segment or the product, the return to repaying their principal was somewhere between 89% and 93%. So that's the percentage of customers who started to pay their loans according to the original amortization schedules. So we also had customers who had better risk profile in April. So we see the return to regular servicing as somewhere between 95% and 98%. And so this is what we call the private moratorium. If we look at the public moratorium, and this is something that's been emphasized already during the course of today's conference. In terms of volume and risk, it's of limited significance. Customers to a very limited extent have utilized that. The exposure here is around PLN 13 million. So if I look at the cost of risk and comparing H1 2019 to H1 2020, we should take into consideration several factors. One of them is the provision for macroeconomic factors. Today, this provision covers potential future losses of BRL 156 million. The next important factor is the provision for PLN 400 million as a result of the individual method changes to multiscenario approach, and the other situation, because of the size of the bank and its development, we decided to increase the amount. So the difference is -- or the balance between where we use the portfolio approach and an individual approach for NPL loans. In the past, we utilized the individual method starting with exposures of PLN 1 million. Now we've bumped that up to PLN 4 million. Of course, we could have said that all of the loans between PLN 1 million and PLN 4 million with an NPL would be calculated utilizing the individual method and leave it the way it is, but we wanted to be consistent for the entire portfolio. And that has led to a situation in which we have a single one-off write-down, which is something that won't recur in the future. So having that in mind, our costs were around 103 basis points and so the COVID provision is EUR 156 million. So without that, our cost of risk was 62 basis points. What else was important, and this is something that I've already discussed, for some of our customers who had these loan vacations, we also froze the ratings for some of the retail customers and also the defaults, there weren't any defaults. But we assumed that some of these customers, as I said previously, will not come back to regularly servicing their loans. And we can see that a couple of percentage points of them haven't come back. But we have that allocated within our results. On top of that, we're participating in all of the programs run by PFR or the distribution of funds or the utilization of guarantees given by BGK Bank. So we have nearly PLN 4.2 billion of moratoriums for the private customers. And so in total, some PLN 6.8 billion in total, so PLN 2.6 billion for corporate. So having all that in mind and how these things are servicing, so it seems to me that we're very well poised and prepared for Q3 as well as for the overall second half of 2020. So thank you very much for your attention.

So now we can talk about capital situation. So capital situation is really safe, significantly higher than the minimum requirement. Last year, profit has been allocated to reserve. And in turn, we get the benefit coming from the reduction of the risk-weighted assets for SME. So all in all, the situation improved quarter to quarter.

So we're coming to the end of our presentation based on the slides we have here. A few words about our outlook, what we're going to focus on. As I said, our fast forward strategy continues to be current. We will focus on pursuing growth even though the overall situation is demanding. We'll be empathetic and listen to our customers, what their needs are, and we're going to look for growth opportunities to continue lending money. So the decline in interest rates means that we have to use some -- we have to refine some of the price parameters in various customer segments. So if you look at credit margins, they should reflect the risk profile. And in the current situation, we can say that, that risk profile has been increased. So there are some initiatives underway to look for additional commission income. So noninterest income. So we'll continue following our synergies in accordance with our schedule and the original assumptions. And so we'll continue optimizing our network, our branch network. And what also is important here is that we'll talk to our employees about a new working model, where remote work will be much more important. And so we've done some thorough research amongst our employees, and we have some very clear feedback about their expectations, which suggests, in short, that most of the employees prefer that remote work would be prevalent over office work. So we continue to work on processes, simplifying digitalization, robotization. So all of these things we've been concentrating on for several quarters. So the world has changed substantially and the foreseeability of what's going to happen in the near future is hampered. And so in the face of changes, we have to be able to react quickly with agility as we did when the outbreak of the pandemic took place. And so these skills and that acumen are very important, and we continue to hold them. We're far away from being great optimists, but certainly, the level of pessimism is much lower than was the case at the beginning of this situation, say, in March or April. So we've got some tough work to do. So I'd like to thank you for your attention, and we would now smoothly move into the Q&A session. So we have a mobile device here. So we have a large number of questions. And so basically, I'll be the emcee, and I'll read the questions, and then we'll decide who's going to respond to the questions, if that's okay. All right, then.

So the first question, do you have -- did you open a provision for the Smart City? So the bank did not do that. We believe that the level of provisioning here is adequate at the current stage. So I can remove the question as something that's been replied to. Does the bank intend to make changes in fees and incomes, fees and commissions? Yes, the bank intends to do so. So we're going to increase fees and commissions, where we believe this is something that should take place. The next question. In Q2, the number of canceled contracts for CHF has grown to 3 and at the end of the second quarter, you have 1 canceled contract. Does that mean the bank's opinion has changed on the cancellation of Swiss franc loans? I'm not sure what sort of knowledge you have about our previous opinion. This situation is as follows: that the bank is closely watching the case law jurisprudence, also looking at other market participants as well as our own portfolio. And it's totally clear that if we see more and more unfavorable judgments being handed down by the courts or a greater number of litigation, then we'll react accordingly with our provisions for the Swiss for the judgment given by this European court. So in which month will BNP see the lowest interest level? So our point of view is that Q3 will have -- we'll hit the trough, we'll fully consume the decline of interest rates. And then after that, we should see some stability. Naturally, we will continue to limit this impact by optimizing our deposit side, and we'll look at interest margins, and so on and so forth. So I can remove that question as one that's been replied to. So the next question, will the changes in commissions apply to institutional clients or retail clients? Basically, these changes will apply to all segments of customers as a rule. How has the footfall in the branches changed? Do you have a different opinion about the optimum number of bank branches? Well, it's clear that physical traffic in our bank branches is lower because we've given customers totally remote solutions. At the same time, customers have their own fears about coming to the branch as is the case with shopping galleries or centers. We believe that our bank branch model is the correct one. So we have branches that are going through a transformation. And they're small, they're light. And now we have to think about the pandemic methods. In terms of the specific number of branches, well, this is a process that's constantly underway. And so the number of branches is being reduced steadily. Has the bank -- will the bank implement a fully remote process for the sale of mortgage loans? That's a very interesting question. I don't know the response to that question, but certain elements of that process are already remote. Will it be able to function end-to-end in that way? I don't know, we'll have to wait and see. Now we have another question that's very interesting to me, I think. The bank, as one of the companies operating in Poland, has decided to take the floor on an important subject talking about -- you can't stop love, and this is with respect to the rainbow. So is it not a big risk for your reputation, when you speak out on subjects that are raising social awareness and are somewhat served? Well, I think our institution has to follow values, has to espouse values and stand behind those values. And so supporting diversity and social inclusion is one of those values and we believe in those values. This is not the first situation where the bank has reacted to disquieting signals. Here, we're talking about the LGBT community. You can remember that after what happened in Bialystok, so we put some emblems in our windows that we have a zone that's open to everybody. We should stand behind the weaker people. We should be against violence in any type of form. And to the extent we can, we should manifest what our convictions involve, we should stand behind our values. And we've done that with full determination that our bank is for everybody. Every customer is welcome here. We stand behind and are open to those people who are excluded. Diversity is not a matter of the rainbow coalition. It's about all people who have a more difficult situation or having to move uphill. They can be disabled people. They can be people who are older or sick. We believe that we want to give a clear signal that we stand behind and support people, and we're open to everybody, regardless of their political or religious convictions, this is a bank for everybody. And people who are weaker should feel safe here? Is there some risk here? Of course, whenever you take a clear position or behave in a clear way or make a statement, there's a risk attached to that. I think this is a risk that you have to know how to undertake because otherwise, we're going to be basically an organization -- a bland organization. And basically, our values would just be written on a blackboard and wouldn't really mean anything. And that's my full answer to the subject. Should we anticipate further decline in operating expenses from the level of the reported level. So to be brief, we will continue following our synergies. And we're going to manage the cost side cautiously. So if you think about costs, we should be close to the level we believed with a slight decline trend -- downward trend. At this point in time, we don't intend to have any deep cost cuts or brutal cost cuts, which could make it difficult or impossible to follow our growth strategy.

As we shared with you for a long time, we are transforming gradually the bank and it's visible in the cost. So we still have a lot to do. And in parallel, it's a view that when we are going to grow, we'll have additional banking tax to pay, additional BFG because the risk is there. So all in all, the goal is clear, is to keep on optimizing the setup, keep on digitizing the bank, which is going to deliver financial benefits. But on top, we will have additional costs.

So should we anticipate? Or do you anticipate that you will continue to be return to being active on the sales of NPL loans? Of course, we do anticipate that we'll come back to the market, and we plan these type of things in Q3 and Q4 that we want to return to the market of selling NPL loans. Do you expect that the demand for mortgage loans will stay? Was the sale of mortgage loans in Q2 something due to momentum? Well, we think that this demand will continue to flourish. And so low interest rates coupled with overliquidity means that we'll see more continued demand for apartments. Our residential units aren't just being bought for investment purposes, but for our customers to live in them. And so I think that's the case that we'll continue to see that demand. So we had dynamic growth in sales. But if you look at our market share, we're lower than others on the marketplace. Does the management Board -- will the management Board think about giving more preferences to remote work? And what would be the impact on the cost? Of course, we certainly are looking at that. We've investigated that. We understand the preferences. What's interesting, 84% of our employees who responded to the question. We're talking about 2,500 people. Well, 84% of them said that they prefer remote work. So 13% said that they wanted to have a fully remote work experience. Others said 1 to 2 days a week was 31%. And so for -- so if we -- and then 1 to 2 days was like 40%. So I mean it was ranging. So 84% of the people said that I want to work, to some extent, remotely, and I want to be in the office no more than 1 to 2 days, and that's the type of work we're going to propose to our employees. The outcome is that we know that the number of employees who work in our new headquarters as opposed to the number of seats or desks will be larger than we originally anticipated, meaning that we're going to be able to concentrate our operations in a smaller number of buildings. So that means this will have a positive impact, so coming to our office rents. The large majority of customer -- of employees think that they are much more effective doing remote work as opposed to office work. And the same is true of the self-assessment by members of teams. So we can see the effectiveness of remote work is no worse than office work. So this is a direction that we will undoubtedly move in. And the last question I have. So is the operating expense level in Q2 is it representative, if we look at the resolution of holiday reserves and provisions? To be honest, we were encouraging employees to take their vacation, to take their recreational leave. And so a percentage of that provision probably got released as a result, but this is not a major agenda item for us. It's linked to safety, COVID, and also the masks and the Plexiglass and all the other things that were involved. I don't see on the cost side, any type of phenomena that made that Q2 totally abnormal at an important scale. So ladies and gentlemen, the mobile device I have before me and I won't mention the manufacturer. Okay. Well, I see there's one more question that has appeared on this mobile device. Please give me your commentary on the increase in the free float of the bank. Has something changed? Can the deadline be extended for increasing the free float of the bank? So before Jean-Charles will say something, it seems to me that the questions about the free float, this question should be posed to our majority shareholder and not so much to us because I understand, we're talking about the agreements between the BNP Paribas Group and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. I think that's about it.

It is for the shareholders. Not for us. What is clear on our side is that we have to demonstrate that we have to be agile, we are able to adapt our bank in order to facilitate the commitment, but this is what we have to do because we have to work for all our shareholders. And now our job is clear. We have a new model, new bank, we are transforming and this is our job.

So ladies and gentlemen, I don't see any other questions. Oh, sorry, it seems that when you refresh the screen, you get new questions. We were supposed to be talking about the premium provision. We're talking about the costs for -- there's no major in terms of bonuses. There's no major impact in Q2. And there's no reason to apologize. So ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to thank you very much on behalf of our team. So be healthy, and we'll see each other, if you can even say that anymore in 3 months, and we'll probably unfortunately meet with you the same way unless the world suddenly changes for the better in the near future. So thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]