Banca Generali Aktie

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Banca Generali First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and General Manager of Banca Generali. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon, and welcome to our first quarter results conference call. As usual, let's start with a quick introduction.

The year started very well with both strong financial and commercial results. In particular, net profit was well supported by both recurring and variable components. The commercial results were very, very strong, thanks to an extraordinary job of the existing sales force. Probably more -- even more important, the two major initiatives of the bank, Insurbanking and Intermonte are going in line or above the expectation. In particular, Intermonte closed the first quarter of the year with an increase of 40% of the result and EUR 3 million of revenues driven by synergies. Today, we'll take the opportunity also to give you an update on ETF and present Investlinx as we are at the final phase in the acquisition of this small but strategic asset management in Ireland.

But as usual, let's start by numbers at Page 4 with net profit, overall net profit close to EUR 126 million. As I said, thanks to a strong contribution of recurring, a record high, EUR 93.5 million or 80% higher year-on-year. And also, variable net profit contributed positively, thanks to variable fees linked to the market, with a contribution of EUR 33 million to the total result. The net profit result is driven by all the revenues streams, in particular, net financial income, Page 5. You can see the overall net financial income at almost EUR 92 million, stable quarter-on-quarter and 4% higher year-on-year. This increase year-on-year is driven by solid net interest income, EUR 82.7 million or an increase of 4% year-on-year and solid trading gains, EUR 9.2 million or plus 6% year-on-year.

You can see also the total net interest margin, slightly higher at 2.02%, and we will comment the reason in the section linked to the balance sheet. But now let's go through the total gross fees, so Page 6. The overall gross recurring fees closed above EUR 300 million, first time ever, with an increase of 8% year-on-year, and the variable fees contributed positively for EUR 46.6 million. Even more important, we have more than EUR 13 billion of our Luxembourg assets close or in line with the high watermark level. So we do expect other positive contribution from performance fee in these weeks.

Moving on to the different components of gross recurring fees, Page 7. We start, as usual, with the representation of the investment fees, higher management fees, EUR 242 million; higher advisory fees, EUR 256 million with stable margins. You can see margin on management fees at 1.43%. Here, you have a positive seasonal effect due to less accounting base. As I said, the overall margins are stable. So it's all about a business of asset expansion. Page 8, here, we can see also the positive contribution of other fees, almost EUR 45 million or 17% higher year-on-year, with a stable contribution of banking fees, strong results in trading, brokerage commission, almost EUR 22 million and strong results from entry fees, in particular, structured products at EUR 16.2 million. So positive news from the recurring component and positive news from cost components.

If you go to Page 9, we can start from payout ratio. Everything is in line with our projection. So you see a slight decline in the fee expense on net interest income, just slightly above EUR 2 million in the quarter; ordinary payout, close to 36%; cost of growth, below 11%; and payout to third parties, just slightly below 6%. So here, the confirmation of how important it is to manage and to steer the network and to control the payout ratio.

Page 10, you have a new representation of operating costs. We simplified the representation, and we restated the historical series to include Intermonte. You see that the first quarter of this year closed slightly above the guidance 6% to 8%, so EUR 82.5 million, or 8.3%, which is basically driven by an acceleration of all major strategic projects. So investment linked to future growth. And bottom, you see non-recurring items is a stabilization, as I communicated in the previous conference call, at EUR 2.2 million. The sales personnel cost slightly increased to the -- linked to the hiring of the bankers from [ BGFM ].

As a result, Page 11, we see the level of operating cost on total assets at the lower level at 0.28% and we see a reduction also in the cost-to-income ratio adjusted by the volatile components and adjusted by Intermonte. So now, we are below 36%, and we do expect to see further reduction. So just to close this first part of the presentation, very strong operating profit, also excluding the performance fee, and this is driven by strong net recurring fees, double-digit growth. And I'm very positive also for this trend in the second quarter.

If we focus on total non-operating charges, you see a decrease to EUR 18 million, mainly thanks to a lower provision. And as I said, very strong recurring net profit at EUR 94 million despite also, let's say, including the negative effect of the temporary tax measures introduced by the budget law. A quick comment on tax rate. In line with our range, within 0.6%, 0.7%. So now let's move on to the balance sheet part of the presentation. So Page 14. You see a slight increase in total deposit, from 15.8% to 16.2%, a slight decline -- reduction in the cost of funding, from 0.72% to 0.68%. This is linked to the fact that in the first quarter, we haven't launched any specific commercial initiatives.

If we see Page 15, you see the slight increase in interest-bearing assets, 16.7% to 17.2%. And here, you see a slight increase of the yield on interest-bearing assets, from 2.68% to 2.7%. So a slight increase in the yield on the bearing assets and a slight decrease on the cost of funding imply the net interest margin at 2.02%. Page 16, capital liquidity ratio. You see total capital ratio and leverage ratio well above the regulatory level, and also including a payout in line with the past year, so at 85%. And liquidity and coverage ratio, net stable funding ratio, pretty stable, the first one, above 300% and the second, above 200%.

Now let's move on and let's focus on the first part of this presentation. Here, we changed the presentation just to give you more disclosure on the Insurbanking business and a different view on the managed solution assets. So let's start from Page 18. This is a new representation, as I mentioned, where, first of all, we represent, on one hand, the total assets of BG clients and on the other, the total assets in Insurbanking of Generali clients. Second, we present both the numbers at the end of the first quarter as well as an update at the end of April. So looking at numbers, you see a significant recovery of both assets, BG assets and Generali Insurbanking assets. In particular, BG total assets increased to EUR 116.7 billion, highest level ever. And the overall total assets in Insurbanking with Generali is at EUR 7.5 billion.

If you focus on the right part of the presentation, the different comments, bottom, you see an update also of the business with Alleanza Insurbanking is in line or slightly above expectation. You know we have two different components of this partnership. The first one is about an insurance wrapper distributed directly by Alleanza and managed by Banca Generali. Here, since inception, the overall gross premium are at EUR 107 million, of which -- EUR 170 million, of which 40% already invested in unit-linked and another 40% will be invested gradually in the next 3, 4 years.

So overall, asset allocation will be 20% traditional life insurance and 80% unit-linked managed by Banca Generali. This is distributed by 2,700 private advisers by Alleanza, while, as you know, the second part of the project, the banking the client, started with a pilot last part of the year. We consolidate all the digital procedures and processes, great feedback from the pilot from the pilot phase and starting the rollout. The rollout started in February. Now we have already opened more than 1,700 current accounts. The feedback are very positive. So here, I do see the feedback very, very coherent with the strategy from both the managers on the network as well as the private advisers.

As I mentioned in different moments, it's not if, but it's when and it's about training courses and communication, but the feedback, again, are very, very positive and strong. There is a strong commitment by everybody. So very positive news from the Insurbanking, but now let's focus on our core business with Banca Generali clients.

So let's move on to Page 19. And also in this case, you see a new representation. On the left side, you see the overall assets, EUR 116.7 billion and the overall contribution of assets under advanced advisory. And here, you include both assets under custody and asset management products. And you see that we are at 10.8% of total assets. On the right, you see the breakdown of the BG total assets by fee categories. So the assets under investment include, of course, the assets under custody and banking under advisory, the traditional life insurance and the managed solution.

Now managed solutions account for almost EUR 54 billion. We see stable traditional life insurance. Traditional life insurance accounts for more or less 20% of assets under investment. And then you see the component of the advanced advisory services invested in assets under custody at EUR 7.7 billion. That is a new record high. Next page, there is a deep dive of managed solutions. So the deep dive of the EUR 53.9 billion at the end of April.

And here, you see a focus on the so-called in-house products. In-house products is about the in-house fund, so Luxembourg funds distributed at the retail level, EUR 13.6 billion and then the financial wrappers at EUR 14.8 billion. If you compare the level at the end of April, EUR 28.4 billion, to the first quarter of last year, EUR 24.2 billion, you see a significant acceleration in the allocation of in-house products. Then you have a focus, the gray part, the lighter one, third-party funds, EUR 12.9 billion.

And finally, but not less important, the insurance wrappers. I'm very confident to see an acceleration of in-house products just because we are very close to the launch of a very innovative solutions, and the same can be said for the insurance wrappers. So in the next weeks, I do expect significant contribution from managed solutions compared to historical level.

Page 21, let's go through the net inflows. In this case, there is first representation of the first quarter and then a focus on the April numbers. Let's start by Page 21. Page 21, we see the traditional representation of total net inflows in terms of categories. We see EUR 700 million in assets under investment and an overall contribution of net inflows at EUR 1.9 billion. That is the highest level ever achieved by the bank. And you see a stable contribution of in-house products on the right.

Next page, so Page 22, there is the representation of first quarter results by acquisition channel. Here, you see the amazing job of the existing network, EUR 1.4 billion, and a constant contribution of net recruitment. In terms of numbers, 60 new financial advisers, with an acceleration of young talent FA to support the creation of new teams and the succession planning of the financial advisers. Then Page 23, there is a focus on the April numbers. And again, here, the acceleration is very, very strong, almost EUR 900 million, even once included a one-off inheritance claim of a non-Generali insurance policy for a total amount of EUR 150 million. So including also this EUR 150 million of a very poor insurance policy, we achieved the best April ever.

And you see that the assets under investment account for EUR 0.4 billion. If we look at the net inflows by acquisition channel, here, you see an acceleration of both existing sales force, EUR 0.7 billion, and recruitment. And I have to say that I never experienced in my life such enthusiasm for recruitment. We had several meetings, and I think that we will give you a very, very positive news in the coming months. So now, let's enter the last part of the presentation, so the business update and closing remarks.

As I mentioned before, this is an opportunity to present Investlinx. Investlinx is a very young asset management company. It was founded in 2021, is an independent asset manager and is based in Ireland and at the moment, is focused mainly on active managed ETF as regulated by, of course, the Central Bank of Ireland and more important, has been authorized to manage, on one hand, active ETFs, on the other, also UCITS fund and discretionary mandates. The positive news in this case is that despite short operating history, we already completed the start-up phase, and we already achieved the breakeven phase.

If you look at the current area of activity, two active ETFs. The first one is mainly equity, bottom-up approach, and the second one is a balanced solutions. Why it's so important for us, Investlinx, for the sustainability of the bank, for the acceleration of results. First of all, just because we have acquired a turnkey platform with a very limited execution risk. And now, we have two platforms of asset management, the first one in Luxembourg and the second in Ireland. And this gives us a great flexibility. So we have an established Irish manufacturing hub ready to distribute both active ETF and funds, complementary to our Luxembourg offer.

Last but not least, we work actively with ETF. If you go to Page 27, you see stocks and volumes. As of today, we have more than EUR 8.2 billion of ETFs as an underlying of financial insurance wrappers, as an underlying of funds, as well as an underlying of advanced advisory services. So ETF, considering just assets under custody, accounts for more or less 9%. And then if you look at the bottom of the page, you see that the traded volumes average over the last 2 years, including Banca Generali as well as Intermonte, we are above EUR 40 billion. So of course, part of the story is to internalize the part of the value chain in active ETF.

Roadmap, we are at the signing moment in these days. We do expect the closing at the end of June and the beginning of July, and we are almost ready to launch the first initiatives. And the distribution channels will be mainly two, direct distribution channels to our clients and to institutional clients through Intermonte and direct distribution as an underlying of our financial and insurance wrappers. So let's say that Investlinx has two major goals. The first one, to give more flexibility to our international asset management platform. And on the other hand, to integrate, internalize part of the value chain referred to the ETF business.

Page 29 and 30, we show the targets we already shared with you in the previous conference call. We have just given an update to the net interest income at Page 30 in the range EUR 335-345 million. So we increased the range by EUR 5 million due to the slight increase in the yield curve. And now, we are ready to hand over and to answer to all the questions. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Giovanni Razzoli, Deutsche Bank.

I have three actually. The first one is on the acquisition of the Investlinx. The rationale in my view is very clear and it's a very interesting deal. I think it will complement your product suite for your very sophisticated client base. So that is very clear. I would expect that some pushback on the market could be okay, but this -- the higher penetration of active ETFs may cannibalize the margin on your existing product mix, which I don't think is the case, but I would like to know what's your response to this potential pushback on the market.

Second question, you had EUR 170 million of product placement out of the insurance agreement with Generali Alleanza, which in my view is a very, very strong number. Is it fair to compare this amount with the EUR 0.7 billion of asset under management, asset under investment inflows in the Q1 and more specifically, to compare it with the EUR 0.1 billion of insurance wrappers inflows that you had in the Q1? Because if that is the case, this amount of inflows from the Insurbanking agreement is extremely good in my view.

And the last question is, another positive element in my view, is that you seem to have resumed to a very healthy trajectory in terms of recruits. We know that for Banca Generali, recruits of bankers is a key component of the growth strategy. I've seen that in the Q1, by the way, the recruits were concentrated on junior resources when compared with the past. So I would ask you to clarify if this is a change of strategy, if it's a temporary trend? And what is the pipeline for future recruits over the next couple of months? And what is the profile?

Thank you, Giovanni. First of all, the answer on the risk of cannibalization of ETF. I said that we are working very well with ETF, always -- which are more often used as the underlying of financial insurance wrappers to minimize the total expense ratio to the client. And in some cases, used also by our top bankers as underlying of advanced advisory services. So if you combine the fees of the advanced advisory services, part of the internalization of the margin of ETF and the brokerage fees, you would have an excellent margin. So I do not see risk of cannibalization, especially because we will focus on niche strategies and replacement of stocks in more common ETF. Second, the inflows, you are right. EUR 170 million of gross inflows provided by Alleanza is a big number, especially if you consider the volatility of the market and the geopolitical chaos in this moment.

So the enthusiasm of the network is very high, very strong, and there is a strong commitment. So I do believe that we will see positive surprise in the medium, long term just because the private advisers of Alleanza see the opportunity to increase, elevate their degree of professional and to cover also other parts of the portfolio of the clients. So this is very positive. If you compare the numbers of Alleanza with internal numbers, so the number of Banca Generali -- and the numbers of Banca Generali in terms of insurance wrappers were pretty low just because we are expecting the launch of the new platform, and the launch should be next week. So I think that we start -- we're going to see positive numbers as soon as May.

Third, on recruitment, I'm very positive. I'm very positive as I met several very senior bankers. So thanks to the acquisition of Intermonte, now we are able to attract very senior bankers with important entrepreneurs as clients. And I do see some of these conversations very close to have at the end and to join the bank. You say that the monthly data are normally, let's say, volatile, but the overall numbers of meetings and of interest from these meetings is at the highest level ever. So I think that you will see both, an increase in numbers as well as an increase of assets. The focus on the young talent is as important as the focus on the most senior one for the sustainability of the network. So it's very important to see the blue part of the bar increasing over time. Thank you.

Sorry, one clarification. You mentioned that in May, you're launching a new platform. I missed this comment here. What are the details of it?

We are launching an insurance -- a new version of our insurance wrappers for our clients. So the focus will be, again, also in BG, not only in managed solution -- in-house managed solutions, but also on the insurance wrapper. Just to say that in the bank, let's say that the inflows of the insurance are driven by new release of products and the new release of platforms. While for Alleanza, it is a blue ocean as it is the first time ever that they can present financial wrappers with an insurance wrapper. So first time ever, plenty of clients, great enthusiasm. This is a no-brainer for Alleanza, for Banca Generali, it's driven by innovation products.

Next question is from Gianluca Ferrari, Mediobanca.

A follow-up, Gian Maria, on Investlinx on the questions asked by Giovanni. You said Investlinx will be mainly used for niche strategies. But looking at the simple P&L you provided, I think there are very little number of employees, fund managers or analysts. So I was wondering who is providing the brain behind these new strategies you want to put out? And how scalable is Investlinx given the current structure? Linked to the margins question from Giovanni, those active ETFs are probably priced in the 0.8, 0.9 percentage points ballpark in terms of management fee.

And this is the underlying and advisory fee contract that, if I'm not mistaken, should be priced 0.5. So is it fair to say that it is still in the 1.3%, 1.4% ballpark, the overall gross margin of these products, and under wrappers, it's even more than that? The last one is a kind of curiosity on the one-off claim, the EUR 150 million, what does it mean non-Generali insurance policy? I suppose that all the Ramo Primo were G&A savings of Generali. So I don't understand what does it mean.

Thank you, Gianluca. Starting from the end, it's an old international insurance policy. So a few years ago, we worked -- we used to work with Utmost, then Generali decided to sell it. And so we have still a runoff portfolio, and this was the major position.

What is the impact in terms of revenues? You said very little. I presume it's kind of 10 basis points.

2 basis points. 2 basis points. The second -- and I say that I'm confident to retain part of these outflows. So we're going to see it here in the next months. Second, margins, let's say that the profitability, the margins of ETF will be in the range of 0.5%, 0.9%, depending on the kind, you can have active index to replace passive funds and you can have niche initiatives. So you can think in the range of 0.5%, 0.9%, depending on the underlying. But you are right, that it will be combined with advanced advisory fees, brokerage fees, and wrappers fees. The brain is partly in Italy, Intermonte, Banca Generali is partly in Luxembourg, for example, on our BG Fund Management.

If you think of our major competitors, for example, the biggest one provides solution from Ireland and great capabilities are in Luxembourg. So you can also leverage on existing brain. And the platform is fully digital, of course, has no legacy, and it is fully scalable. So no reason to have any limits in terms of assets. And we will give some disclosure on numbers during our -- during the presentation of the next 3-year strategic plan at the end of the second half of the year.

Next question is from Elena Perini, Intesa Sanpaolo.

I have essentially one, as the other ones have been previously answered. So my question is focused on your operating costs. You say that you are investing a lot in IT and also AI initiatives and also on the growth of your machine. When do you think that we can see the first tangible benefits of those investments, in 2 years' time, for example?

Thank you, Elena. Let's say that you are right. Part of these costs are to support the IT, let's say, innovation and development, part to set up the Insurbanking and Intermonte business. So let's say that part of these costs are generating -- already generating positive inflows, thanks to the collaboration with Intermonte and Banca Generali, and parts are to support the Insurbanking business with Alleanza. From an AI perspective, so more efficiencies in the processes. We do expect to stay still on the upper part of the band, 6% to 8% for this year. And I do expect a normalization for next year.

Next question is from Luigi Tramontana, Kepler Cheuvreux.

The first one is on your guidance regarding the net inflows for this year, which looks increasingly prudent. Is there any element that you can give us to explain this prudence? Or should we expect that you are going to outperform in terms of net inflows this year? And then regarding the recruitment, I understood from your comments that the integration of the investment banking services in your offering allows you to attract more senior bankers. Can you give us an idea regarding those recruitments, if they relate to the broader market or from a competitor, in particular, a competitor that tried to buy Banca Generali last year but failed?

Thank you, Luigi, and thank you for not mentioning the name. Let's say that in terms of net inflows, of course, you are right. The message is pretty clear and pretty positive. But at the moment, we decided to maintain the same guidance in order to see the next quarter and then decide just once, let's say, the number. But you are right. I mean, in a normal context and without the headwinds over the last year, of course, it's right to consider the targets as conservative.

In terms of recruitment, we didn't record significant recruitment by the player you were mentioning. First of all, as they are mainly employees. So it's difficult to convert an important number of employees in paid agents, so financial advisers. So it's not from that player or just partly from that player, but it's from, let's say, both traditional private banking system as well as some FA network where you have bankers with important portfolios willing to upgrade their offer and providing also alternative services to their entrepreneurs. So it's about the high-quality bankers and high-quality financial advisers.

Next question is from Marco Nicolai, Jefferies.

Just a curiosity from my side. I've seen that you guide for EUR 0.5 billion, EUR 1 billion of deposit inflows this year. I mean also, this one looks a relatively conservative number in light that in April only, you basically did EUR 0.5 billion of liquidity inflows, deposit inflows. So I was wondering if you can give us some color on this number? And also, what is the role of Alleanza in this number for this year, also in light of the fact that you already opened 1,700 new current accounts under that partnership?

Thank you. So you are right. In the first 4 months, we had significant inflows in the current account, but part of these are for, let's say, as a sort of parking waiting for the new initiatives. So partly will be reinvested in these new solutions, and this explains why I'm more confident than in the past to see in the next weeks strong numbers in managed solutions, of course, in a normal market condition. And at the moment, let's say that Alleanza is not included in these numbers. I try to explain why. As I mentioned, the Alleanza clients are affluent clients. The average amount per policy is around EUR 25,000, EUR 30,000. The average of the current account is around EUR 5,000, EUR 5,000, EUR 10,000. So it takes from 3 to 6 months to onboard a client -- to really onboard the client as a main bank. So it will take time. And the deployment on the, let's say, on the banking activity started in February, and it will finish at the end of July.

The insurance wrappers is on top of the numbers, and the profitability for us is about the underlying. So we manage the underlying of these insurance wrappers and you will see these numbers in the institutional share classes of our Luxembourg platform, are in the Insurbanking bar, so the first page of the presentation for total assets in that part. And I think that you will start seeing some impact in the second half of the year, when we gain momentum. And we will inform and give disclosure of these numbers with the representation that we presented today. But let's say that only the current account and asset and the custody part will impact on the overall assets of the bank just because you open up the current account with the bank. So that part will be in these numbers, but the impact estimated for this year is negligible, is pretty low and due to the fact that we are in the ramp-up phase.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Mossa, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Okay. Thank you very much for participating to our conference call, and have a good day.

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call Conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Banca Generali Full Year 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and General Manager of Banca Generali. Please go ahead, sir.

So good afternoon, and thank you for attending our full year results conference call. Before we get into our results, I want to quickly comment the market reaction to the recent announcement of a U.S. initiative called the Altruist. That is basically a tool, an artificial intelligence tool for the automated tax planning that in Italy is largely relevant just because for any investment related taxation, the tax situation is handled directly by the withholding agents. So basically the banks or the financial intermediary and not by the client.

So the volatility on our stock today comes from this U.S.-centric situation. That simply doesn't fit with the Italian wealth management context and even less with Banca Generali also because we are not a brokerage platform. So as you know, and we said it several times, Italy has a unique economic and social environment where the wealth is still mostly invested in liquid assets, think of real estate kind of companies, not listed equity. And it remains very much sort of, say, family affair.

So in this context, our clients look for discretion, human guidance and not automatic answer or interaction with the machines. It never happened. So the confidentiality, privacy are crucial, are not negotiable in the long-lasting relationship with our financial advisers. So for this reason, the idea that an AI tool could, let's say, commoditize advisory in Italy just doesn't make any sense. If you think of Banca Generali, business is built on trust, personal relationship, long-lasting relationship between a senior professional and our client and several capabilities and expertise.

So when we help our clients, basically, we must understand both the head, but also the stomach. And nobody wants that very personal information can be stored inside the machine. In Banca Generali, I think that AI is a great accelerator. It's not a replacement of business. That means -- it doesn't make any sense. AI will help our bankers work better and faster, while, of course, the human judgment, discretion, closeness to the client will be mainly of our financial advisers. That's the reason why we don't see any strategic risk in today's news.

And again, AI will be disruptive in a positive sense. So dealing with clients is another business, especially if it is about alternates and [indiscernible] with very significant wealth and invested, as I said, also in illiquid assets. And again, liquid assets means not only private market, but it means real estate and in the own company, almost the time, not listed one.

And again, different concept, something very confident, needs trust. So nothing that you can solve out with technology. So having said that, let's start as usual with the major achievements for last year, so Page 3. Let's say that we achieved new record high in terms of net profit, recurring net profit and total assets. Commercial activity was very solid with an acceleration in the last part of the year with the conclusion of the M&A headwinds.

And thanks to solid commercial and financial results and the capital-light approach, we will propose an increase in the dividend per share in the next AGM.

Now Page 4, net profit. Net profit closed, as we said, at a record high, EUR 445.8 million, driven by recurring net profit, about EUR 360 million, a lower contribution of variable net profit, basically for lower performance fee and then a one-off in terms of tax refund for a total amount of EUR 39 million. The reason behind the solid result in recurring fees is driven basically by solid net financial income and solid gross recurring fees.

Starting from net financial income, Page 5. We closed the year to EUR 355.5 million, of which greatest part comes from the net interest income. As you can see, the quarter -- the last quarter closed at EUR 82 million, thanks to asset expansion and a pretty stable net interest margin yield at 1.95% that is in line with our guidance to stay above 1.9%.

Next page, so Page 6, total gross fees. We closed the year at EUR 1.131 billion. If we focus on the fourth quarter of last year, you see that the growth compared to the same period of the previous year is at almost 11%, while the variable fees contribution was lower than the previous year with a positive contribution in the fourth quarter, EUR 43 million and almost all the assets at or close to the high watermark level.

Next page, we will deep dive on the gross recurring fees starting from the investment fees. Investment fees closed at EUR 976 million, basically driven by asset expansion and stable margin. Fourth quarter number, EUR 255 million with an increasing contribution of both management fees and advisory fees. The overall management fees margin is stable at 1.41%.

Next page, other fees. Here, you see an acceleration from EUR 130 million to EUR 154 million, almost EUR 55 million, basically thanks to the inclusion of Intermonte business and solid traditional business. Starting from banking fees. Here, we have the completion of the phase-in of the new pricing. So a lower contribution from the traditional business and an increasing contribution from Intermonte.

Focusing on brokerage commission, overall result, EUR 75 million, fourth quarter almost EUR 20 million, very solid brokerage activity of our clients plus Intermonte contribution. Last entry fees. You know we started at the first half of last year with lower numbers. In the second half, we saw an acceleration. Part of this acceleration was driven by also the new capabilities, thanks to Intermonte. So with greater penetration of structured products. So considering only the first quarter, the result was probably the best ever at EUR 16.6 million.

Moving on Page 9 (sic) [ Page 10 ]. So on the cost side, let's start with the total fee expenses. Overall total fee expenses closed at EUR 600 million with all the payout ratios at or below our guidance. In particular, the payout to FA for the ordinary part closed at 34.6%, below the target of 36%. The incentive closed at 11.1%, below the target of 12% and also the payout to third parties closed below the target of 6%. The fourth quarter ended at 5.8%.

As a final result, the overall total payout ratio to the network, excluding the payout on net interest income closed at 51.5% that is definitely below our target of 53%, again a great control of the payout and very flexible model linked to the revenues.

Next page, operating cost. Operating costs closed about EUR 360 million. This is basically due to some one-off and the change in perimeter. Starting from change in perimeter, you see the inclusion of Intermonte, EUR 38 million. The sales personnel cost of the part linked to the relationship manager, so employee banker closed slightly lower just because some bankers decided to move to, say, to the financial advisory network with the mandate. So these are -- this is a positive news.

And then in the core non- items, you can see an overall contribution of EUR 13.5 million with an acceleration in fourth quarter. This is basically linked to the cost of Mediobanca tender offers, the setup of 2 major initiatives, Insurbanking Intermonte plus some projects to optimize, let's say, the organization of the bank.

Overall, bottom of the page, you see core operating cost in the range of 6%, 8%, closed at EUR 288 million, almost EUR 5 million invested in IT infrastructure modernization, AI and data-related projects. So -- as you can see, the fourth quarter looks higher than the other quarters, but is characterized by high seasonality. So if you compare fourth quarter with the same period of the previous year, you see that the increase is around 6%. So also the core operating cost, so excluding investment is well under control.

Page 11, the last page on cost. Operating cost on total assets flat at the minimum level, 0.28%. The cost-income ratio adjusted for Intermonte with a slight increase due to this one-off cost.

Page 12, to sum up, very proud to have exceeded for the first time in the bank EUR 1 billion in total banking income. Cost characterized by one-off. And then if we focus on the total nonoperating charges, the overall total nonoperating charges decreased to EUR 105 million, thanks to lower regulatory contribution and lower provision. And I'm confident to see lower numbers for this year and for the future. In the P&L, we included at the nonoperating level also the EUR 39 million of positive one-off as already commented to the tax refund. Overall, tax rate close to 24%. This is basically linked to a higher contribution of Luxembourg, and we confirm the guidance for this year in the range of 26%, 27%.

So now let's move to the Section 2, balance sheet and capital ratio. Here, as already said in different conference calls, it is an asset business or asset expansion business. You can see that the overall total deposits increased to EUR 15.8 billion with an important contribution in the acceleration in client deposits at EUR 13.8 billion. And we said that the asset expansion, the client deposit expansion more than offset a small decrease in the net interest margin as we commented at the beginning.

The net interest margin is driven by cost of funding and the yield on onbearing assets. Cost of funding slightly decreased to 0.77%. And as you can see Page 15, the same can be said for the yield on interest-bearing assets down to 2.81%. A quick comment to the total assets. EUR 18.5 billion. On the positive side, expansion in the banking book, financial assets at EUR 12.8 billion and also expansion of the loans to clients above EUR 2.5 billion.

Page 16. Let's move on capital and liquidity ratios. Also for last year, we confirm solid ratios. If we start from total capital ratio close to 19%, also once included several one-offs, consider the impact of CRR3, Intermonte first-time consolidation, higher operating risk absorption from change of the model and so forth. So let's say, a very solid total capital ratio, leverage ratio very high, 5.6% and the liquidity ratios rising over time and liquidity coverage ratio of 337% and a stable funding ratio of 245%. So overall, very solid liquidity ratio, solid capital liquidity ratio.

And the next page, Page 17, we see the dividend proposal. So first of all, we confirm the total payout at 76%. In terms of EPS, it implies a dividend of EUR 2.9 per share, and we will pay this EUR 2.9 in 2 tranches, the first one this year for a total amount of EUR 2.2 and the second tranche next year for a total amount of EUR 0.7. So this will allow us to be consistent with our goal to help for a constant increase of -- in absolute terms of dividend.

And I take this opportunity also to remind you that we are close to pay the second tranche of the DPS for the results of 2024, and we will pay on the 23rd of February, EUR 0.65.

Now let's move to the next session. So the total assets and net inflows. We closed the year above EUR 113 billion, 2/3 invested in assets under investment. An important slide is #20. Page #20, you can see the strong expansion of financial wrappers and the overall wrappers. Financial wrappers increased by EUR 1.8 billion in just 1 year. And the overall wrappers account for more than 50% of the managed solutions and even more important and consistent with our target, the overall in-house fund overtook for the first time the third-party funds.

You can see bottom of the graph where in-house funds amounted to EUR 13.2 billion or EUR 1.3 billion higher year-on-year, while third-party funds grew slightly at EUR 12.6 billion. This is basically driven by inflows.

Page 21, you can see the overall results, EUR 6.8 billion, better mix, EUR 4 billion invested in assets under investment. Focusing on assets under investment, you see an increase in contribution of both components, assets under management and advanced advisory.

Concerning assets under management, Page 22, you can see that most of the increase is driven by financial wrappers and in-house funds. And we confirm with structural shift from third-party funds to in-house funds, at least in relative terms.

Page 23, there is a detail of the net inflows by acquisition channel. Let's say that the existing network contribute at the same level as the previous year despite the tender offer. So very positive reaction of the existing sales force. If we focus on net recruitment, EUR 1.9 billion, the underlying is characterized by 2 different trends, a strong contribution of recruitment of 3 bankers in Switzerland, Aequitum for an amount of EUR 800 million and a very -- a limited contribution of recruitment in Italy penalized by the uncertainty, so EUR 1.1 billion.

Overall, the numbers are close to the numbers of the previous year, so EUR 166 million. And this is also thanks to an acceleration of the numbers in the fourth quarter after the close -- after the termination of the headwinds linked to the M&A issue.

Page 24, we have also a quick update of how we started the year, consider that January is always a volatile month. But let's say that if you compare in absolute terms inflows better than the previous 2 years, so EUR 0.5 billion and of course, there is a conservative asset allocation, but it's always the same story in January. And the signs from recruitment confirm the positive mood of the last quarter of last year, where it's not only a question of numbers of recruitment, but it's more about the quality. So we expected a significant contribution for recruitment for this year.

Last, now we will give you an update on the 2 major projects, Intermonte and Insurbanking and then some guidance and targets for the full year. So let's start from Intermonte, Page 26. You already know this page. Basically, we confirm that we will double before the 2030, the net banking income from EUR 42 million to EUR 80, EUR 90 million. And of this increase, 25%, 30% will be already achieved this year.

And as you can see, the cost income will decline. So it means that the increase -- the synergies will present the same payout cost/income ratio as the bank. Why we confirm these numbers, but with an even more positive mood because as all the initiatives that we are rolling out are working much better than expected. The first one is about the synergies in terms of structured product internalization of derivatives. And you see at the left of the page, you see the acceleration in the fourth quarter of last year of the structured products. We already mentioned it. And I can confirm that the beginning of the year is higher than the same period last year.

We started also to internalize part of the margin in structuring products, thanks to Intermonte. So Intermonte hedging accounted for 14 percentage point. Let's say that you're going to see an increasing contribution once we are going to complete the full integration optimization of the IT platform, and it should happen in the second half of this year. Managed products. We already launched 2 dedicated funds, Luxembourg fund. We focus on Italian large cap and small cap and we already collected more than EUR 100 million. And we have just launched a new financial wrapper with the proposition of protection and where the hedging strategy is covered 100% by Intermonte.

Last but not least, probably the most important part of the synergy and the partnership, investment banking, 150 meetings. Finally, the first 2 mandates signed it, other 8 to 10 close to be signed. This is amazing. It's amazing just because the feedback from Intermonte is amazing, the feedback from the financial advisers is amazing, and the client really appreciate the synergies between private banking and investment banking, starting from the long-lasting relationship of the private banker to develop, to leverage on the capabilities and competencies of Intermonte. And as you can see, the kind of advice is well diversified. It's about, of course, M&A, it's about equity capital market debt adviser and so forth.

Page 28, moving on to Insurbanking. There is an update of Generali hybrid products. Overall assets closed at EUR 7.4 billion, so stable year-on-year with a higher contribution of in-house funds from EUR 4.1 billion to EUR 4.5 billion. Overall, margin are stable over time at 0.64%.

Page 29, an update on Alleanza partnership. Of course, we confirm the target. But again, also in this case, the mood is more optimistic. Why? Just because we started, we started piloting the distribution banking products, we selected 100 private adviser at the end of last year, and we tested all the procedures, processes, platform, and we opened up 270 new current accounts. So the machine works very well. There is great enthusiasm.

And for this reason, during the convention of Alleanza, the 5th of February, Alleanza announced the starting of the rollout of Conto Unico so the current account dedicated to Alleanza to all 2,700 private advisers within this year. A quick comment on Stile Unico. Stile Unico is a unit link. So we are talking about insurance wrappers. We roll out -- we completed the rollout to the 2,700 private advisers last year. And the first numbers are encouraging with more or less EUR 100 million of net inflows.

So solid evidences from Intermonte and Alleanza, very positive on the short, medium and long term of this partnership. And now from Page 30, a quick update on targets for this year. First of all, net inflows, so volumes, we increased the guidance compared to the guidance of last year from EUR 6 billion to inflows at least at EUR 6.5 billion with the assumption of stable financial market. We see a confirmation of the structural rebalancing between different distribution channels, and we are very optimistic on recruitment activity.

We are also confident to increase the product mix and the quality of these inflows. So we set an initial target of assets under investment from the previous EUR 3.5 billion to the current EUR 4 billion. And this is, again, with the assumption of stable financial market and starting from the large share of govt bonds and corporate expiring this year and the perception that the overall asset under investment exposure is reverting to long-term averages.

Last page, 31, some financial targets. First of all, net interest income. We increased the range of the net interest income for this year in the range of EUR 330 million, EUR 340 million, driven basically by asset expansion, so more client deposits and stable yield. We confirm both the management fee margin range and the core operating cost range, waiting for the new 3-year strategic plan that we will communicate -- we will announce probably in the second half of this year.

Just to close, I'm very optimistic on the bank, on the financial adviser network and on the results. I perceive as we start the new season, and I see further synergies under the winged line. So Generali is important for us and will be even more important in terms of synergies for the future.

And now I will hand over for the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] first question is from Luigi Tramontana, Kepler Cheuvreux.

A clarification on the provisions for risk and charges was EUR 49 million that you booked in the fourth quarter. Can you please give us some insight on that? What is due? And the second question is on the inflows. In 2025, you clearly outperformed your guidance with EUR 6.8 billion. I'm a little bit surprised that you expect your net inflows for '26 to be lower than last year given that we do not expect Mediobanca to launch another offer. So this is a joke, but I would like to understand why do you expect the other assets inflow to be lower than last year?

Thank you, Luigi. Let's start from the inflows. As you know very well, we prefer to start with a conservative approach and then overdeliver. EUR 6.5 billion, I mean, is the highest guidance never communicated from the banking perspective and with a better quality. So we will be more focused on the quality than on the quantity. But as usual, the targets have been set to be overachieved. So let's see, some conservative assumption from the beginning of the year also to see the dynamics and the context.

In terms of provision charges, then I will hand over to Tommaso, but let me give you the flavor of this line. Let's say that in good time, I think that the best thing to do is to be very conservative in the provision, especially for potential litigation on the performance of specific products. So we decided to clean up, let's say, the overall position in terms of provision for some illiquidity initiatives and then happy to release in case of different behavior. So there is some prominent, let's say, behavior behind that. But for more disclosure on that, I will hand over to Tommaso.

Thank you, Gian Maria. Let's say that in provision, we have mainly 3 categories. Basically, we have the provision for the sales for the retirement basically, which is an actuarial provision that is performed every year. And then the other 2 components are linked more to commercial initiative. We have been very, very conservative this year because also we have the benefit on the other side of the fiscal refund on dividends. So we decided to be very conservative. Although if we compare the overall provisional, they are lower compared with the previous year. Going forward, we expect that, of course, this provisional will go down because we have been very conservative starting in '25.

[Operator Instructions] Next question is from Marco Nicolai, Jefferies.

The first one would be again on the -- if you can come back a little bit on the selloff that we are seeing today. Yes, I agree with your initial words, like it seems unwarranted, especially for a business like Banca Generali, very much skewed towards private and high net worth customers. But can you please repeat the main reasons why for you, this is overdone, especially for Banca Generali?

And also, maybe can you spend a few words on what could be the upside of artificial intelligence for your business? And the second question on the costs. I've seen the guidance on the OpEx. You referred to the core OpEx in your guidance. Can you give us an idea of, in general, what do you expect in terms of perhaps other nonrecurring items that you could see also next year in the cost base?

Yes. Thank you, Marco. Let's start by saying that if you look at the initiative, the U.S. initiative, Altruist is basically a tool, an AI tool to, let's say, to work out tax planning. And as you know, in U.S., it's something that is on the shoulder of the client. So finding a way to offer a cheap solution to a sort of automation of this tax planning, it's significant in U.S. In Italy, it cannot be applied just because we already take care of this tax planning when it's about the investment related taxation instead of the client.

Let's say that we handle it directly through the revolving agent. So it's a bank, the financial intermediary. So this is the first consideration. But let's say that basically, what Altruist is proposing in U.S. is not applicable in Italy, okay? So a different context. Then you have to consider in the case of Banca Generali, our business model, we are the most exposed player to the high net worth individual in the range of EUR 1 million to EUR 50 million more or less.

And in that segment of clients, the priority is to manage the overall wealth, bringing it closer to their families. So it's about family protection, it's about succession planning, it's about, of course, tax efficiency, but it's something different from what we define tax efficiency in U.S. And basically, the tax efficiency in Italy means leverage some specific vehicles, for example, the insurance one and when you deal with the total wealth of the client and the needs of the family, it's all about, of course, with some rational behaviors, but a great part of the conversation is driven by the stomach of the client. And they ask for confidentiality.

It's almost impossible to store all the information they provide in a machine just because it's so personal that it is the first question and the first need of the client to be assured about the use of this information. And again, and they start discussing these kind of topics, thanks to a long-lasting relationship with clients, with the bankers. So it's about the human touch, the closeness of the client, the closeness of the bankers. So of course, we provide an open-ended platform with the best of IT, the best of product, the best of financial adviser and so forth.

But the essence of our business is that one client is different from the other one. And it's different not for the product or asset allocation, but for how they build their wealth and how they connect with wealth with their family. So it's a very complicated business, very personalized business and is basically made up by human touch and physical presence. So I spent most of my week meeting top clients. So it's a different story.

If you consider brokerage platforms, I mean, it's about technology. And there can be some threat from technology itself or from innovation. But if the model is based on the competencies, the professionals and the long-lasting relationship on nonstandardized needs, it's much more complicated. So -- and let's say that it doesn't make any sense to consider any digital disruption as a threat to this model. So AI, that can be an accelerator. It can be an accelerator, of course, standard approach for the bank, more efficiency to the bank. And this is a standard for any bank.

We are managing a very important process to change the culture. We launched a project with ambassadors across all the functions of the bank. And I'm sure that we are approaching AI in the best way. But the real game changer is for the financial advisers just because our bank compared to any other bank is more complex, more complicated just because we want to give the possibility to have plenty of services of products and of opportunities. So for the financial adviser, it's much more complicated to be updated on everything we provide.

So simplifying the operating process to the financial adviser providing them the next, let's say, offering for the client with the -- all the information make the relationship much easier. So it's a way to simplify the selling proposition and to optimize the operating machine for the financial advisers. So in this sense, I think that you can be more efficient in the bank and more productive for the financial adviser. So we should see an expansion of multiple, not a correction of the market.

Then the second question is about the noncore cost, short introduction by myself, and then I hand over to Tommaso. Let's say, that Intermonte, I do expect stable cost. Sales personnel, I do expect stable or declining cost, except for any particular recruitment and one-off cost in terms of, let's say, consultancies or stuff like that, I do not expect an impact as this year -- as last year, sorry. So overall, we should see a reduction of this component.

Yes. I confirm that. Of course, [indiscernible] core cost exclude sales personnel, if we have changing perimeter, so we will include in 2026 Intermonte in the cost and we expect a reduction of the noncore components linked to one-off because we do expect to have another tender offer by anyone, I would say. And of course, also the project of AI, integration Intermonte have been a major part in 2025, and we don't expect to have the same amount of one-off also next year.

So on average, if you look at the long term, the pure noncore items have been around EUR 4 million, EUR 5 million, and we expect that -- next year, we have the same amount. So overall, the guidance is applied on noncore cost, but also on the total operating cost, I think it's the same increase that we expect.

Like basically benefit from this AI, benefit revenue synergies essentially. Like -- so what -- do you need any investments beforehand? Do you foresee any major expense you need to put through before enjoying these revenue synergies? And like if you think about the time frame, like would you think about, I don't know, these benefits coming over the medium term over the long term? I don't know, any color on this point?

I do expect a positive impact already next year. So we're going to launch some specific initiatives in the second half of this year, and I'm sure that it will imply higher productivity. So no, I'm positive on the contribution starting from next year. In terms of lean processes in the bank, this cultural shift is already happening. So I do expect an overall increase of quality and efficiency in the bank. We have plenty of projects, so we can finance this project with the savings in, let's say, ordinary business.

The reason why we do not see -- we do not expect an acceleration on cost despite Insurbanking, despite Intermonte and despite other very important projects, is due to the fact that we consider some savings from the existing business, thanks to AI.

And sorry, just to complete the first question, we are considering different partnership with AI provider. We spent almost 18 months discussing with the major initiative in the AI private banking company and a fully digital platform. So again, I do see opportunities of collaboration, not of competition, considering our business.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Tommaso, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Okay. Thank you so much for participating into our conference call and happy to answer and also post conference call to any further questions. Thank you. Bye.

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Banca Generali 9 Months 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and General Manager of Banca Generali. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon, and thank you for attending our third quarter results conference call. Let's start by saying that despite the challenges of the last quarter linked to the tender offer of Mediobanca, we achieved very strong financial results with a strong support from recurring commission.

Also, the commercial activity was very solid, thanks to the ongoing contribution of the existing sales force. Today, we're going to focus on 2 major projects, Alleanza and Intermonte. I will spend a few minutes also on the main projects on the core business. But let's start, as usual, from numbers.

So moving on to Page 4, net profit. We closed the third quarter with net profit at almost EUR 115 million, great part of which driven by recurring net profit. And also the variable component is catching up and more good news for the fourth quarter on it. Net profit, well supported by all the components.

Page 5, we can start with the net financial income. As you can see, the overall net interest income closed almost flat quarter-on-quarter. This is the result of expanding assets and just a slight reduction of the net interest margin. In particular, the net interest margin closed at 202 basis points and the overall contribution for the quarter of the net interest income was EUR 81 million. On the net interest income, now we are confident to close at around or above EUR 320 million, and we are confident to confirm the same level also for the next year.

Moving on to Page 6, total gross fees. As previously mentioned, very strong result from the recurring component of the P&L. As you can see, the overall contribution for the third quarter was above EUR 280 million, while variable fees closed higher quarter-on-quarter, close to EUR 30 million, and we already had EUR 20 million in the fourth quarter of performance fee. And almost 50% of our assets in Luxembourg are close or at the high watermark.

Deep diving the gross fees, the recurring component, Page 7. Let's start from the investment fees. Here, you have the same trend as the net interest income, asset expansion and stable margin. We are confident to confirm margins in the range of 1.42% for the end of this year, but also for next year. And again, we are confident to see an expansion of the overall asset under investment.

Moving on Page 8, the other leg of gross recurring fees. So other fees. Here, you have positive news. First of all, of course, the numbers are stronger, thanks to the inclusion of Intermonte. But also once we compare numbers like-for-like, you see solid brokerage commission, a recovery of entry fees, and we will deep dive on the reason behind the acceleration in September of certificates, in particular, while banking fees closed a little bit lower due to a review of the prices of the current account. But let's say that we are confident to see very robust entry fees for the fourth quarter and a steady growth in the brokerage commission.

So the overall revenue are very strong, confirming a positive trend, confident to maintain and stabilize the net interest income, confident to expand the recurring fees, both thanks to expansion of assets under investment and solid numbers for the other fees.

Moving on to the cost side, Page 9. Here it's business as usual. Payout ratio is in line with guidelines or a little bit lower due to some positive seasonal effects. So overall payout to the network below 46%. overall payout to third parties around 6%. So here, no news, good news, very confident to confirm the current targets.

Page 10, operating costs. Also, in this case, no surprises. We have some noncore items linked to the setup cost of new business line, the Insurbanking and also for the tender offer received from Mediobanca. Excluding these components, let's say, that overall total operating costs are well under control. Focusing on core operating costs, again, no surprises. Here it is important to highlight the fact that we set up the AI business, and we set up the Insurbanking business. So part of the costs are for investment in new business line, and we will see later some numbers on our projection of this new business line.

Page 11, the ratios. Operating cost on total assets achieved the lowest level, like-for-like, so 0.27% and cost-to-income at or close to the lowest level, always like-for-like.

Page 12, we have the usual sum up. So we are pretty proud of the results of the third quarter, considering also the uncertainty of the time, Solid operating profit, also excluding performance fees. We recorded also better nonoperating charges, basically driven to a lower regulatory contribution to banking and insurance funds. And the overall tax rate closed a little bit lower at 24.2%. So this allowed us to achieve the best results ever in terms of recurring net profit at EUR 273.8 million.

Next chapter, balance sheet. As I said, it is a game of asset expansion with slightly lower margins. In particular, Page 14, you can see that the cost of funding is slightly down in line with the trend of the interest rate of the market. And you can see that the overall deposits are higher, EUR 2 billion year-on-year comparison.

Page 15, same trend. So the overall interest-bearing assets up by EUR 2.1 billion and the yield on interest-bearing assets slightly down.

Page 16, we have the capital liquidity ratios, also here in line with the trend already communicated during the year. So total capital ratio close to 20%. Also once considered the impact of the CRR3 and the first-time consolidation of Intermonte. This, let's say, contribution was partly offset by higher net profit. And as usual, the dividend provision is in line with our current policy, so at 83% of the net profit. Leverage and liquidity coverage ratio and net stable funding ratio well above the SREP requirement.

Let's go in the third part, so net inflows, assets and recruiting. I'd say that commenting -- quickly commenting total assets, we closed above EUR 110 billion, more than EUR 73 billion invested in assets under investments.

Page 19, you can see the breakdown of assets under management. First of all, confirmation of very strong presence of wrappers above 50% of the managed solutions, acceleration in in-house financial wrappers, acceleration in in-house funds. This is driven basically by the net inflows.

Page 20 and 21, you have the usual representation of the inflows. Starting from Page 20, you can see that the assets under investment accounted for almost 50%. The greatest part coming from assets under management. And if you focus on assets under management, Page 21, you see the most comes from financial wrappers and in-house funds. So you can see the ongoing rebalancing from third-party funds to in-house funds. Now let's say that in-house funds account for 50% of the overall retail funds and more will come.

Page 22, you have the net inflows by acquisition channel. Very solid numbers from the existing network despite 3, 4 months of challenging markets, driven by the tender offer. So very positive. And also recruitment went pretty well. Of course, the mix is more in favor of young talent, more difficult to recruit during this uncertainty. But now I can say that in October, we start again recruiting also very senior partner. And again, also in this case, I'm pretty confident to see strong results in the next months.

Page 23, we closed with the October numbers. October numbers were very strong, EUR 1.2 billion, also thanks to a recruitment in Switzerland. We recruited 3 senior bankers, almost EUR 800 million, 3 top senior bankers. Very confident that they will contribute to the success of our Swiss initiative. Also, the Italian contribution is pretty solid. And as I say, we are gaining momentum in recruitment. So confident to close the year very well.

But now let's enter the last part of the presentation, where I will focus a little bit more and will dedicate more time as it's really important to start giving some numbers on Intermonte and Alleanza.

Page 25, you see a box on Banca Generali and Banca Generali core business. Just to say that today, we will focus on Intermonte and Alleanza as we are continuing investing also in our core business. First of all, if you consider our major assets, so the financial advisers. I'm very confident to enhance our financial advisory network, thanks to some specific projects, very important. The first one is the project related to the young talent. As you saw in the recruitment -- in the numbers of recruitment, we are more and more focusing increasing, accelerating numbers of young financial advisers.

The second main project in the distribution channel is about teams. So the possibility to work together, both senior bankers or senior bankers with young talent. And we are working to increase the personalization of this contract among bankers. And this is -- this contract will be useful also for our Insurbanking project.

And third, probably even more important, you know that we have some specialization in the network. For example, we have the sustainable adviser. Number are almost double in just a little bit more than 1 year. We are focusing some bankers on the investment and corporate banking, let's say, capabilities. So it's a way to fedalize more and more our financial adviser, giving them the possibility to focus on the topics they prefer. But -- and this is about how to enhance the financial advisers.

On the product side, very focused on our asset management capabilities. Very confident to expand numbers for our Luxembourg platform just because we launched a new family of products. One example, in the last 3 weeks, we launched our first initiatives of protected fund and some other initiatives on entering the equity market gradually. We collected more than EUR 200 million in 3 weeks, and I'm sure that more will come in the next weeks. So it's all about internalizing margins and developing our Luxembourg platform. And we have been working for the last 6 months in launching also dedicated initiatives in Ireland for active ETF, and I will dedicate more time on these initiatives in the next conference call. But now let's focus on Intermonte and Alleanza.

So starting from Page 26, 2 strategic pillars of the acquisition. You remember, I said that for us, this acquisition was a game changer. It's a game changer from a revenue perspective and margins as we expanded our capabilities in global markets, and we start seeing the first results. I was mentioning certificate. October has been the strongest month in certificate, both in terms of volumes and also in terms of margins as part of the derivative structure was closed by Intermonte. And thanks to the expertise in these assets, I'm sure that the numbers will expand in the next months. So expertise -- more expertise in global markets as well as the possibility to expand the business of our financial advisers in the corporate investment banking. And in this case, again, some numbers, the business is already there. We organized more than 130 meetings with top entrepreneurs already clients of the bank, and we are close to deliver some mandates with these entrepreneurs. So the potential is very huge.

Why we are so confident on this deal? In Page 27, you see some numbers. You know that the total equity not listed, so small, medium enterprise basically amount to EUR 1.5 trillion. And if you look at our client base, we have more than 3,900 clients, entrepreneurs with more than EUR 160 billion of estimated value. So in our portfolio, in our clients, we have more than 10% of the overall equity not listed, small and medium enterprises. And we are the best positioned in terms of distribution. We have more than 600 financial advisers with more than EUR 50 million, average EUR 100 million. So we have the clients in our portfolio, and we have the competencies and the professional to provide investment services, and we have Intermonte, of course. And remember that one major priority for the private banking will be the generational wealth transfer and some projection estimates at more than EUR 300 billion of transfer within 2033.

So Page 28, you see the projection of revenues of Intermonte in the next 5 years. We are confident to more than double the overall contribution of net banking income of Intermonte. So from EUR 42 million at the end of 2024 when we closed the deal to a range of at least EUR 89 million. Three major components, asset under custody and trading. So what we're talking about or what I was dealing with previously, so structured products, certificate derivatives, managed products, the example of protected fund launched in October and investment banking.

And as you can see bottom of the page, cost income. End of 2024, 80%; end of 2030, less than 60%. So it means that the extra net banking income has a cost/income that is almost in line with the existing banking -- cost/income of the bank. So it's a very good operating leverage in this case. So Intermonte, as I mentioned, will be something very important for the bank, disruptive because we have the clients, we have the competencies in the network. And now we have also the capabilities -- the internal capabilities to work on the entrepreneurs.

The second project, Page 29 is about Alleanza. And let me give you some numbers of Alleanza. Alleanza -- the portfolio of the clients of Alleanza amount to almost 2 million clients, of which more than 55% affluent clients. They serve this client through paid agent insurance channel with almost 10,000 distributors. Of these 10,000 distributors, 2,700 are registered to the, let's say, to the financial advisory book. So they could work as financial advisers, but actually, they don't have a mandate. So actually, they can just offer insurance products. And the quality of this distribution network is very high, and you can see how they improved their results over time. Now they are the third player in terms of volumes every year. So I said that it is a very performing distribution network.

Bottom left, you see probably the most important part of this slide. The overall life reserves account for more or less EUR 40 billion. Internal projection estimation of the potential of the clients gave a number of around EUR 170 billion. So it means that the existing portfolio, the existing clients manage more than EUR 120 billion with other intermediaries, basically banks and, per se, with banking products and asset management products or assets under custody.

So here, the opportunity is pretty clear. Alleanza can work on a wider range of products in terms of bank, their clients in terms to -- let's say, to reach the clients with more sophisticated solutions. So also, let's say, balancing the bank insurance project. All the banks are trying to penetrate the insurance business. So this can be seen also as a defensive move. We will start banking their clients, so expanding revenues and defending their existing portfolio.

On our side, we will enter the affluent business without distracting our private bankers from our core activities that are private clients. And the combination will allow us to catch up with the penetration in the affluent segment. How we're going to offer? At Page 36, we have the details to Page -- sorry, we will offer both banking products as well as we will extend the distribution of our insurance wrapper to their clients. So you know one of our capability has been to set up and to develop a dedicated insurance wrapper in which you can combine the best solutions of external asset managers. So we will provide support to the Alleanza network and advise them with portfolios to distribute these kind of solutions also for their clients.

And the numbers we expected to achieve are significant. I mentioned in previous meetings that we do expect a sort of penetration of 1% of the potential of the client per year. And so here, you see the projection in the case of Alleanza for the next 5 years. We are confident to achieve at least EUR 7 billion of assets, of which EUR 3 billion, EUR 3.5 billion invested in banking and asset under custody products and EUR 4 billion, EUR 5 billion invested in these insurance wrappers, of which almost EUR 3 billion invested in, let's say, BG fund management products. So here is -- of course, the business come from the advisory fees, the advisory services we provide in this solution and the underlying of the insurance business.

The overall impact in terms of net banking income is in the range of EUR 40 million, EUR 50 million. And the cost/income conservative prudently, we consider, let's say, the cost/income of the bank, but I'm also confident that the cost/income will be lower. So as you can see, also Alleanza is transformative because it will allow us to expand also in the affluent business, focusing on third-party distribution, but very close to the bank. We share the lion. And Intermonte is an accelerator, is a new engine to accelerate our existing business for private clients. So the combination will accelerate the trajectory of our growth path.

Page 32 is just a slide on our target for this year, commercial targets. Just to say that the tender offer of Mediobanca had some uncertainty during the summer. And despite this, let's say, challenging time, we announced some targets at the beginning of the year. And now I can say that I'm confident to overachieve in terms of total net inflows, so to close definitely higher the EUR 6 billion announced at the beginning of the year and also to confirm the target in terms of product mix with assets under investment above the EUR 3.5 billion. And as I mentioned, I start seeing also very good sign in recruitment activity and while the existing sales force has continued to work very well during all the months of this year.

And now I will hand over for the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] First question is from Giovanni Razzoli, Deutsche Bank.

I have 2 clarifications and one question. The question is about the trend of inflows and recruits. I wonder whether during the offer of Mediobanca during this uncertain period, you suffered exit from bankers. And if so, whether the effects of these exits have already been fully factored in your monthly flows so that from now on, from October onwards, the commercial date of Banca Generali will reflect only the ongoing business and the new recruits with no more impact from previous events, so to say? So that's my first question.

And then I have 2 clarifications. The first one is on the Insurbanking project. Is it fair to say that the network of the agents of Alleanza represents around 1/3 of the total of Assicurazioni Generali. Is my understanding correct? And the last clarification is on the guidance from net interest income. I apologize, but the line was bad, Gian Maria, when you mentioned this. You said that for 2025, you expect an NII above EUR 320 million, right?

Thank you, Giovanni. First of all, inflows and recruitment, you are right. Of course, during the summer, we had some exit. From June to September, the overall contribution of net recruitment, so in less out was almost 0. I'm pretty confident that we have almost factored all the exit and they start seeing the new colleagues. So from November, I can say that we are again business as usual with some positive queues in terms of recruitment. So -- and from that point of view might say on optimism. So I don't see more extra impact.

For the Insurbanking project, I can give you a rough estimate. We said that overall Generali distribution channel accounts for 50% of the whole industry. It should be around EUR 100 billion. So being Alleanza 40%, I would say that is more or less 40%. But this is, let's say, I should ask Generali the right number. If I have to guess, I'd say 40%, so slightly above 1/3. For the guidance in terms of net interest income, you are right. We confirm for this year net interest income equal or above EUR 320 million and the same level confirmed for next year.

Next question is from Gian Luca Ferrari, Mediobanca.

Two for me, please. The first one is on the EUR 40 million, EUR 50 million revenues on the Insurbanking project in 2030. I was wondering if you can give us some shorter, let's say, targets for 2026 and 2027. How much will be the contribution in '26 and '27?

The second one is on the contribution again on the Insurbanking. You are targeting EUR 3 billion, EUR 3.5 billion of deposits, right? So with 200 basis points of NIM you are having today, I'm not getting to the EUR 40 million, EUR 50 million overall contribution. So is there a split with Alleanza on this NII? Or I'm missing something here?

Thank you, Gian Luca. Let's say that we do expect to reach a sort of steady growth in the Alleanza business in the second part of next year. So you will see a phase-in. So it's reasonable to think that for each year, we will gain 1 percentage point of the potentiality of the market. For the next year, I said that there is the phase in. So it will be a little bit less, but we already started, and we start seeing some positive numbers already now. We are piloting it. So it will take no more than 6 months to achieve the speed, the normal speed. So you can more or less spread these numbers in the next 5 years with a phase-in in the first half of next year.

In terms of margins, you say that when we mentioned banking products, you have to consider that part of these assets are current accounts and part are assets under custody. So as a conservative assumption, we estimate margins of around 80 basis points for that part of the business.

Next question is from Luigi De Bellis, Equita SIM.

Three questions for me. The first one on Intermonte. So could you elaborate a little bit more on the main synergies expected from the integration, in particular regarding asset under custody and credit products? And are there already some synergies realized in 2025? And regarding the SMEs, are there specific new services or products that you plan to launch for this client segment?

The second question on the Insurbanking with Alleanza. So EUR 7 billion, EUR 8.5 billion in volumes by 2030, very interesting opportunities. But what are the main challenges you foresee in reaching these targets? And even in this case, are there early signs of cross-selling success between banking and insurance products?

The last question on the market environment, the recent M&A activity in the sector. How do you see Banca Generali's positioning evolving in the Italian private banking landscape over the next few years?

Thank you. So Intermonte synergies, let's say that all the business of structured products will be impacted positively. We estimate a run rate of structured products of around EUR 1.5 billion per year. Primary market, 80%; secondary market, 20%. And we can internalize a good part of the structured products for the derivative components, thanks to Intermonte. So this is the major synergies that I can see. And then some efficiency also in the negotiation of ETF and the equity. Yes, we start seeing some synergies already now. We started with the first EUR 50 million of structured products in these weeks, and the initiatives are very successful. So we will start seeing some revenue synergies on, let's say, the capital market part as soon as the fourth quarter. You have a phase-in, we will reach the run rate probably in Q2 of next year. We have some implementation -- some technological implementation to reach the run rate.

In terms of Alleanza, I consider that we launched the pilot a couple of weeks ago. So it's probably too early to see the results. I can see that the communication was great. We organized convention. And my perception that was a great enthusiasm just because, I mean, it's pretty normal to think of cross-selling and synergies between Banca Generali and Alleanza. Some good practice, consider, for example, the successful case of the financial planning of agency. So we have this dedicated network in the agency of Generali. We almost doubled the numbers in the last 3 years. So this is an example of collaboration that is working pretty well, and I'm pretty sure that we're going to accelerate in the future. So this is a positive momentum for Insurbanking also as a defensive move.

Let's -- if you consider the announcement of the major banks are all about bancassurance. So you have to protect your existing business, and the first step to protect is to manage the current account. So I'm confident that there is -- it will be a priority also for the distribution channel for each professional. And so there is the same interest in understanding and speeding up this kind of project. And it will be positive for Alleanza, diversification of revenues, a higher penetration in the share of wallet of great clients and for Banca Generali, leveraging third-party distribution to enter the affluent market. So I don't see, honestly, challenges. I'm very confident.

Next question is from Marco Nicolai, Jefferies.

First question on NII. If I understood correctly, 2026 is going to be stable. I was just wondering if you give us -- if you can give us a bit of the drivers here because with some deposit growth, you should actually increase your NII compared to 2025. So what am I missing there?

And another question on the Intermonte synergies. I see in the slide, you mentioned EUR 10 million, EUR 15 million by 2026. I was wondering what's -- how much of them you expect by, say, 2027 or '28?

Another question is on the ERAP tax base. If I look at your profit before tax, like how much of it would enter into the ERAP tax base? Obviously, I'm asking -- my question is linked to the proposal of additional tax on banks by the Italian government.

Thank you, Marco. Just to complete the answer for Luigi. Sorry, missed a couple of questions. Cross-selling for SME, new services, let's say that the 130 meetings were about M&A capital market and debt capital markets. So bread and butter for investment bank. For us, it is a blue ocean because the first time that we offer this kind of services. So nothing new. This is consistent with the proposition and capabilities of Intermonte. M&A scenario, let's say that we are very focused on internal growth, thanks to Intermonte and Alleanza and all the innovation in the core business, I'm sure that we don't need M&A activity to grow. And let's see if we can accelerate in the Insurbanking business.

Moving on to Marco. Marco, let's say, as usual, we apply a conservative approach. So in our projection, there is a slight expansion of the deposit, a slight reduction of the net interest income. Let's say that we are in the order of 5%. So 5% of expansion of the asset, 5% of reduction of net interest income and -- of the margin, and you have stable contribution. But again, then we will see if we can be more positive on the client deposits.

And the second question was about Europe. Tom, I will hand over to Tommaso Russo.

Thank you, Gian Maria. Let's say that we expect that the impact of the 2% on Europe will account for EUR 6 million, EUR 7 million per year. So it's not, let's say, a dramatic problem for our P&L. We have to consider on the other side that we have the benefit on the dividend, which is probably around EUR 6 million per year. And so the 2 things are mainly a net impact really negligible in our P&L. You can estimate between EUR 1 million and EUR 2 million per year.

And instead on the Intermonte synergies, like how many -- how much of them we can expect by, say, '27 or '28?

I would suggest a linear projection to accelerate, but let's say that a proportion -- a linear projection, it will work in my opinion.

Just a quick follow-up on the NII. Can you remember us in your portfolio, what are the bonds that you own maturing and the rate of these maturities in '27 and '28? If you have...

Yes, we have, let's say, an average maturity of the portfolio, which is around less than 4 years. So starting from this data point, you have to assume that every year, we have around -- in 2026, for example, we have more than EUR 3 billion of bonds that are going to expire and, let's say, a couple of billion in the next year. So we are very diversified from this point of view. And also the duration is still in the range of 1.4. So this is the profile that we have today. And consider that the split of the portfolio is around 60% fixed rate and 40% on floating rate.

[Operator Instructions] Mr. Mossa, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Okay. So just to say, thank you for having participated to our conference call. Hope to see you soon. Bye.

Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Banca Generali First Half 2025 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gian Maria Mossa, CEO and General Manager of Banca Generali. Please go ahead, sir.

Good afternoon, and thank you for attending our first half results conference call. The overall results were pretty solid, driven by recurring business with recurring net profit at EUR 176.3 million, reaching its best level ever. And this was driven also by asset expansion with client assets at new record highs at EUR 106.5 billion.

The first half was also very important for us because we set up the insurebanking business, thanks to the partnership with Generali, and we will deep dive in the last section of the presentation.

But let's start as usual by numbers, net profit, Page 4. The second quarter closed at almost EUR 90 million, basically driven by recurring net profit. The overall result of the first half, as already mentioned, closed at EUR 176 million and the contribution of variable net profit closed at EUR 23.9 million with negligible contribution in the second half.

The net profit and the recurring component were very well supported by the net financial income, Page 5, number very strong, basically driven by net interest income and also trading gains. The net interest income closed at EUR 82.4 million, thanks to asset expansion. And then the trading gains and others closed at EUR 6.6 million, including also intermonte.

If we focus on the total net interest income yield bottom of the page, you see it was pretty stable in the quarter, 2.08% and we are confident to stay at or higher for the remaining part of the year. So we have a target of 200 basis points and stable assets.

Page 6, the other component of recurring fees is about gross recurring fees. The gross recurring fees closed at EUR 271 million, slightly down. We will see that the slight reduction was temporary and basically driven by market effect. The overall result first half compared to the first half of last year closed higher by 6.9%.

As you can see, variable fees contributed marginally in the second quarter, EUR 8 million, but the recent recovery of the financial markets allowed us to have 25%, 30% of the overall assets in BG Fund Management Luxembourg at or very close to the high watermark. And for July, the performance fees are already in line with the result of the second quarter.

We were saying that the gross recurring fees suffered by the market crash at the beginning of April. This is pretty clear at Page 7, where we have the deep dive on investment fees. You see management fees closed at EUR 220 million. This is basically driven by 2 major effects. The first one is driven by lower average assets under management and the second, driven by lower margin due to market crash and a more conservative asset allocation.

We are confident to confirm for the second half of this year a range between 140 and 142, driven by new initiatives that we're going to launch in September during our convention. Regarding advisory fees instead, you see the second quarter closed in line with the first quarter at EUR 13.5 million.

Page 8, you see the other fees component. Overall, positive results with mix trend. First of all, you see lower entry fees, and this is basically driven by a reduction of the structural products at the beginning of the quarter, strictly connected with market turmoil, while we see higher banking fees and higher brokerage fees, and this is also thanks to the inclusion of intermonte numbers, in particular, brokerage commission closed at EUR 19.5 million and banking fees at EUR 8.3 million.

Page 9, let's move on to the cost part. Total payout ratio are in line with our projections. So the overall payout ratio closed at 47%, of which 35.9% on ordinary payout and 11.1% on the cost for growth. So this is pretty stable, and we are confident to maintain this level. The second row, you can see how the fee expense on net interest income is declining in line with the reduction of the yield of the market. And last, the payout to third parties closed at 6.2%. This is a base effect due to the correction of the market, but in absolute terms, also in this case, we saw a reduction.

Page 10, we have the detail of the operating cost. The noncore items are in line with the first quarter, while the core operating cost closed at 8.2%. This is basically driven by specific investment for the setup of the insurebanking business and for the implementation of a specific AI project. For this year, we do expect to stay around this level while in the next 2, 3 years, we have a projection to normalize this number in the range of 6%, 7%.

Page 11, the usual presentation of the operating leverage with operating cost on total assets at the lowest level at 0.28% and cost-income ratio just slightly higher. So Page 12, to sum up, I'm confident on the income components for the second part of the year, thanks to stable margin on the net interest income and stable or just a little bit higher margin on assets under investment.

The costs are well managed, so under control, but with specific investments to introduce a new distribution channel with insurebanking and to enhance productivity with AI projects. If we look at the, let's say, below the operating line, total nonoperating charges in the year-on-year comparison closed lower, benefiting from lower regulatory contribution to banking and insurance funds. Last but not least, tax rate is in line with our projection between '26 and '27 close to 26.3%.

Balance sheet, Page 14. As we said, asset expansion. So overall total deposit closed higher, EUR 15 billion from EUR 14.5 billion and the cost of funding is slightly down in line with the evolution of market rates. If we look at Page 15, same trend for the total assets. Interest-bearing assets closed higher from 15.4% to 16%.

And again, the yield on interest-bearing assets is in line with cost of funding slightly down. And the result is pretty stable net interest margin yield and the confirmation of target about 200 basis points for the second half of the year. Multiplying this margin for the current level of the interest-bearing assets, you can work out a target for this year at around EUR 310 million or higher.

Page 16, you see the capital and liquidity ratios. Total capital ratio solid, close to 20% consider that the TCR include the impact from CRR3, includes the first-time integration of Intermonte and even most important, it includes a dividend provision in line with the current dividend policy 82% of the overall results. So EUR 164 million already constitutes a provision for the dividend policy. Leverage ratio and liquidity ratio well above the requirement.

Next section, net inflows, assets and recruiting. We already said that total assets achieved new record high, EUR 106.5 billion with more than EUR 71 billion in assets under investment. Very promising trend underlying the assets under investment. If you move on to Page 19, you see the managed products recovering year-on-year from 45.8% to 49.1%. And you see also recovery in the traditional life policies, positive contribution for future profitability.

First of all, an increasing weight of wrappers on the total management solution, driven basically by financial wrappers expansion. Financial wrappers closed at EUR 12.9 billion or EUR 1.4 billion of increase year-on-year. And in the fund industry, we continue to see the ongoing rebalancing between third-party funds in-house funds. Now in-house funds account for EUR 12 billion compared to EUR 11.1 billion same period last year.

Page 20, we start looking at net inflows. you see the improving quality. So out of the EUR 3 billion of overall total net inflows, EUR 1.6 billion has been invested in assets under investment. On the right, you see the details of this EUR 1.6 billion. Most of these numbers have been invested in assets under management, EUR 1.5 billion or 50% of the total net inflows.

This EUR 1.5 billion if you move Page 21, you can see that has been invested proportionately 50% or more or less 50% traditional life policies and EUR 800 million in managed solutions with a particular focus on financial wrappers, EUR 600 million and in-house funds, EUR 300 million.

Last page regarding inflows, Page 22. You see the net inflows by acquisition channel. The current uncertainty over the exchange public offer create a stop in the recruitment activity. So with some cues, -- some positive cues, but let's say that it's clear that we have a temporary slowdown.

But I can say that it's impressive the number of interviews that we are having and the feedback. So I'm pretty convinced that as soon as we will know that the result of the exchange public offer, you will see an acceleration on recruitment numbers. July in terms of total net inflows is pretty strong, higher than last year.

Now I think that the most important part of this presentation is the business update part because I will explain why I'm so excited to the idea to start with the mutual banking business, thanks to the partnership with Generali.

And to understand the potential of this partnership, you have to go through numbers at Page 24. What you can see in Page 24, we start with a size of the Italian targetable financial household wealth. What we mean by targetable financial household wealth is the total financial household wealth, the less liquid assets, for example, not listed equity and less the assets that we do not allocate to a specific distribution channel.

If you look at on the left, you see the breakdown of the Italian targetable financial assets in 2 major clusters. The first one, 24.5% is about insurance products. The remaining 75% is about current account deposits and asset management. It means that with this representation, the overall contribution of insurance products account for EUR 920 billion. And it means that for each euro invested in insurance, you have other EUR 3 invested in other products.

At the center of the page, you see the breakdown of the targetable financial household wealth in 3 major distribution channels. The first one refers to insurance agents. Insurance agents manage only a part of the client assets and is fully invested in insurance products. So the EUR 192 billion of the insurance agent refers to only insurance products. The remaining part of the insurance products are distributed by the other distribution channels.

And you can see in the second column and the third column that the penetration of insurance products in the private banking and the penetration of insurance products in retail is pretty constant and it is at around 20% of the total assets.

So now starting from the consideration that the insurance agent manage only a part, okay? If we adopt the same percentage, so 20%, 25% allocation to these assets, you would have a potential wealth of EUR 750 billion, EUR 950 billion. So it means that the clients reached by the agent each one has EUR 1 insurance policy with the paid agent and EUR 3, EUR 4 with another player -- in another distribution channel.

And the good news in this case is that if you focus on the insurance agents and the market is well known that the most performance and let's say, qualified player is Generali and the Generali agents account for more or less 50% of the entire business. So if you divide it by 2 the range, you would have the potential of the clients reached through the Generali agents. And we are talking about a multiple of Banca General.

My target is to reach at least 10%, 15% of this target in a 10-year time. And if you work out the numbers, you will see that for us it's a tremendous opportunity. For this reason, we signed an important contract with Generali, the 17th of April, Page 25. We already presented this agreement in the previous conference call. Here, there are some details. The first 3 bullet points are about the different models to reach the clients of Generali. And the fourth bullet point is about the capabilities of Banca Generali in managing insurance products for the financial assets, so the risky assets.

So let's focus on the different way we can reach the Generali clients. So move on Page 26. And here, basically, you see 3 different models. The first one is well known. We provide with numbers every quarter, and it's about financial planning of agency. So an agent of Generali received a mandate by Banca Generali to distribute banking and finance products. So you have 1 professional with 2 mandates, one for the insurance products by Generali and one for banking finance products by Banca Generali. This is well established as a business. And in the agreement here, the goal is to accelerate this -- the penetration of this model.

The second one in the middle of the page, direct insurebanking is probably the newest one, and it's about providing banking products and services to Generali clients directly through the distribution channel of Generali with the support of remote banking and digital tools provided by Banca Generali, and we will deep dive later.

The third one for us is at the moment, just a pilot. We launched a couple of pilots just to test it because it is something that has been adopted by other competitors because the insurebanking has been launched in all major competitors of Generali in Italy, Zurich, Allianz and Unifor. So -- and I said that there is a mix of this model in case -- in one case, the third one is the most important. For us, it's just a pilot.

Page 27, we start with the FPA model, so the one you already know, and we show the numbers so far achieved. And you see that in 2022, there is an acceleration. 2022 was a sort of watershed and was driven by the increase of interest rate. With an increase in interest rate, the outflows from insurance products accelerated and the agents started asking for other products to retain part of these outflows.

So the reason behind this acceleration is a spontaneous request for this kind of mandate from agent of Generali. And now this business accounts for EUR 2.3 billion of course, you see a slowdown in the last period that is driven by the uncertainty of the exchange public offer. In terms of professional, you see that from 74, we exceeded 100 in just a couple of years. And here, the scope is to accelerate this trend.

Page 28 is a new agreement. On June 30, we signed a new contract, a new agreement with Alleanza. Alleanza is, to me, one of the best in performing distribution channel in Generali and in Italy, well led by Davide Passero. And we agree that the time is ready to raise the bar and increase the penetration of their clients.

Actually, the distribution channel of Alleanza counts on more than 10,000 professionals and they provide insurance products for almost 2 million clients. And here, the strong conviction shared by myself and David is that thanks to this very performing distribution channel, we will increase the cross-selling and the upselling by opening up the distribution of banking products and services through their channel.

So the priorities of this partnership is, first of all, to open up the distribution of banking products and banking services through Alleanza and the second priority is to enlarge the insurance portfolio, providing hybrid solution similar to the ones we provide to our clients, specifically for the different targets of clients called Stile Libero and a different version Stile Esclusivo and Stile Unico.

So we're going to provide the same insurance wrappers to Alleanza clients with Banca Generali with the responsibility to manage the underlying. So why we are so confident the distribution channel is very performing, is well diversified, and they know how to offer very complicated products like protection.

Now we will start with cross-selling by providing to the clients also with banking products and deposits and then upselling by moving from standard insurance products to very sophisticated and personalized solutions, well known in Banca Generali and the kind of products, as you know, represent probably the most successful platform we ever launched in Italy. And now we will extend the distribution from private banking to affluent market.

So coming to the conclusion, Page 29, as Board of Directors on the 26th of July (sic) [ June ], we launched a new strategic plan 2026-2028. And this strategic plan has been developed on a stand-alone basis. One of the most important pillar of this new strategy is based on the partnership with Generali, so the insurebanking in particular. And we started.

We started it means that we already announced it to the professional of Alleanza the 17th of July. We have already organized a convention, a network kickoff convention for October 9. And the really good news and that the national rollout will start as soon as November of this year. And I'm very confident to start seeing numbers as soon as the first half of next year.

So insurebanking is an engine of future growth for the bank. As you well understand, we are very committed in delivering our new strategic plan. We have several initiatives. Intermonte is going much better than expected. AI is a game changer for the [indiscernible] financial advisers and then insurebanking. And more to come.

We are organizing a convention for September in which we're going to launch new products to increase profitability in the asset management business. So we are definitely not distracted by the pending voluntary exchange public offer.

And despite this short-term uncertainty, we are very confident to deliver all targets at least 6 billion of net inflows, at least EUR 3.5 billion assets under investment. We confirm profitability in the net interest income. We confirm a range between 140 and 142 basis points in the asset management products, and we do expect to expand assets.

So we are confident to close very well this year and to start in a better shape, thanks to the insurebanking also next year. And now I will hand over to the Q&A session. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] So the first question is from Marco Nicolai of Jefferies.

Three questions for me. Asset under investment flows improved considerably in May and June compared to April despite the volatility around the M&A scenarios. So what do you expect for the second half? I see you reiterated the annual guidance. But if you could give us some clarity on the trends you expect maybe in the various product lines, that would be very interesting.

Another question on the brokerage fees. So it's been 2 quarters, you are at or above EUR 19 million. Is this the new run rate with Intermonte? Another question on the cost of risk. That increased this quarter. Can you give us some color on the drivers?

And sorry, last question on the FPA agents. Now you are on 107 of these agents. So where do you expect to be in, say, 1 or 2 years' time, also thanks to the Alleanza partnership?

Thank you. Let's start from the detail of assets under investment flows. For the second half of the year, I do expect, let's say, a contribution, let's say, close to 50% but the mix will change. I'm more optimistic on the asset management, so funds for the new offer we're going to launch at the beginning of October and we announced at our convention in September. And in the insurance space, we do expect, again a remix for a new release of the insurance wrappers. So overall, I do expect a better quality in terms of profitability, constant share of the overall total net inflows.

Brokerage fees, short answer, yes, confident to stay at or above EUR 19 million. We are expanding the offer, onboarding new clients, launching new strategies. So brokerage is working very well. So we said that this should be a floor. FPA agents, let's say that you have to consider FPA and Alleanza 2 different projects.

Alleanza is about distributing products through their distribution channel. And I do expect to at least involve 2,000 of their professional next year. It will take time, but I'm sure that at least 2,000 will be onboarded before the end of next year. So it means 2,000 professionals offering banking products, banking services and the new insurance solution, not to a new client, but to the existing clients and the target is affluent clients. So something absolutely new for us.

FPA is a different story. FPA means an agent working in an agency, asking for a mandate to be, let's say, able to provide banking and finance products of Banca Generali. So it takes more time, and it's about different kind of clients, more upper affluent and private clients.

And we're going to disclose the targets on this specific project when we will release our 3-year strategic project as soon as we're going to know, let's say, the result of the pending public offer. And for the cost of risk, I will ask Tommaso to...

I say that the quality of the credit portfolio has not changed. So our policy continues to be very safe from this point of view. So we have just a spike, which is a contingent moment in the first half, which is linked to -- basically also to some specific position, which is where we had a write-off, which is linked more to the credit activity to the lending activities it's all linked to some specific guarantees from some specific clients. So it's something that is not going to be, let's say, recurring, let's say, write-off that we will have in the future. So it's just a spike that we have in this quarter and the quality of the portfolio is unchanged.

The next question is from Elena Perini of Intesa Sanpaolo.

I've got actually 3 questions. The first one is on the insurebanking project. What makes you so confident about the possibility of involving at least 2,000 professionals at Generali Italia and Alleanza and about the effect of being this project successful. Is it the fact that you have already experienced it in a different way through the FPAs? Or are there also other elements that we have to take into consideration?

The second question is on the absolute NII guidance. Have I understood correctly because I had some problems in connection that you mentioned EUR 310 million for this year, just a quick confirmation. And then I would like to go in depth the line of provisions, which is down compared to last year, but I would like to have a breakdown of this item, if possible?

Thank you. So the insurebank project, I can answer in 2 different ways. The first one, -- 3 different ways. The first one is the first time ever that we launched a strategic plan with Alleanza for direct distribution. Alleanza is a very well-performing network and is the natural evolution of a professional. So they have to fully understand the opportunity and to penetrate and increase cross-selling, upselling to existing clients. They are 10,000.

And my assumption, very conservative is that we're going to involve only 20% of the professional. So it's something absolutely new. We are very committed and there is a great enthusiasm around this process.

The second reason is because, as you know, it is a project already launched by other competitors, as I mentioned before. And the banking industry is entering the insurance business. So it's also not only a move to increase profitability, increase penetration, but it's also a defensive move. So to have a different proposition, a holistic proposition for the clients.

And third one, what happened in 2022 was very disruptive because for the first time, we start seeing significant outflows. And to avoid the repetition of such a kind of extreme scenario, if I were a professional, I would like to have also some alternatives in order to at least to capture part of the outflows in case of raising interest rates. So for all these reasons, I'm very confident.

And second, on the guidance, you are right. We do expect to stay at or above 200 basis points in terms of yield. If you multiply this 200 basis points for the current level of the interest-bearing assets, 15.5%, you have a level of a number around EUR 310 million. For the provision, I will hand over to Tommaso.

Let's say that the provision are quite stable in the first half compared with the same period of last year. Then the decrease that you see is mainly linked to the provision to the resolution fund, the banking resolution fund, which is down basically 0 but -- so this is why we have a benefit in P&L, which is mainly linked to this.

The provision, let's say, the classical provision are very stable. And in this provision, we have the [indiscernible] SA and the normal provision to, let's say, risk and charges that we have on a quarterly basis. So -- very stable. And we look forward, we don't see a great -- I mean, a change in these numbers. While we see that the provision for the resolution fund will be much lower than last year starting from this year.

The next question is from Luigi De Bellis of Equita.

I have some questions. The first one is on the recruitment. You mentioned it a more complex environment on the recruitment front. Could you elaborate on the main challenges you are facing today? To what extent is this complexity temporary and tied to the recent offer from Mediobanca and if these challenges impacted also the net inflows trend?

The second question is on performance fees. You mentioned EUR 5.5 billion of assets under management close to high watermark. Could you quantify the potential upside to performance fees in second half if markets will remain supportive?

The third question on the NII, EUR 310 million for this year. Considering the current interest rate curve and your expected commercial policy, can we assume at least a stable NII for next year?

And last question on the Intermonte integration. So could you elaborate on the revenue synergies already materializing? You mentioned growing interest from entrepreneurs clients in exploring the opportunity. So can you elaborate on this? And from which banks or channel you are gaining inflows on market share from, thanks to the Intermonte integration?

Thank you. Let's start from recruitment. Let's say that the partnership, the M&A with Intermonte was a game changer for us, great interest from several professionals to explore the potentiality of this deal. So I see on top of the traditional interest for Banca Generali as the top private bank in Italy, at least in our space or the financial advisers.

Now there is also the possibility to provide corporate investment banking services starting from the long-lasting relationship bank and client's. And so this is -- it works very well also for recruitment. So we have plenty of conversation and interview. But of course, temporarily, they are asking about the result of the pending exchange public offer. So it's difficult to change. We have also some candidates willing to join despite the situation, but it's just a small number. So it's pretty understandable behavior.

And we have some delays also with some clients having the same need to understand exactly the sort of Banca Generali. But despite this uncertainty, I'm pretty impressed by the number of financial advisers we are meeting and product bankers. And I'm impressed by the interest around Intermonte. And this explains why during the conference call, I said the integration is working even better. Why even better? Because we have, let's say, at least 3 activities in place.

The first one is with entrepreneurs. The feedback from Intermonte is absolutely positive. We have already organized almost 100 meetings. And so meeting the clients, the entrepreneur with a financial adviser who knows this client for years is much easier. And we start seeing plenty of opportunities, and this will translate in new inflows as soon as the deal will be closed. So it takes time, of course. It's like a child, 6, 9 months at least, and we're going to see it next year.

And the second opportunity is a game changer in the use of derivatives to protect and internalize margins. So we're going to launch a new set of strategies, both in the asset management and in the asset [indiscernible] proposition of protection, and this is really powerful. Our internal team has put in significant new innovative solutions, and we will present this at the next convention with the financial advisers.

The third one is internalization of margins. We are working to internalize part of the margin structure products and brokerage, and this will take place before the end of the year, at least the first part of these synergies, integration -- vertical integration of the value chain.

And for net interest income, it's probably it's too early to give guidance for the next year. The idea is to announce our view when we meet for the 3-year strategic plan. I can tell you that I do not expect any reduction in the interest-bearing assets. So in a positive scenario of asset expansion, I think that the yield will reduce slightly, but I do not expect, say, significant negative impact on the overall contribution net interest income.

The next question is from Gian Luca Ferrari of Mediobanca.

A couple on the insurebanking project. The first one is on the FA agent collaboration. I was wondering if you can share with us some ideas on the referral fee or the fee sharing in case a sale is done jointly among the 2 professionals. And also linked to Alleanza, it seems to me that Alleanza moved away from G&A savings products since age is now. So they are offering multi-class wrapper. I think they're also selling the Valore Futuro of Generali.

So in case -- so what is the incentive for them to switch to the Stile Esclusivo, so selling your multi-class product vis-a-vis that provided by Generali. I think you are reaching Alleanza via digital channels. So there is not a fee sharing probably with a financial adviser, but it is more with Banca Generali as an institution.

So here, my question is, is it going to be neutral for an Alleanza professional to sell a Generali multi-class insurance product vis-a-vis your product? Or there is something I'm missing in terms of how they will steer the decision on this point?

So let's say that we have at least a couple of examples in the market when you have the full control of both trade agents and financial adviser, you can sign a contract in which you decide to work on both the customer base with the split of the recurring fees. So on one end, the financial adviser works on the customer base of the trade agent, cross and upselling in the financial space.

On the other side, the trade agent works on the customer base of the financial adviser for protection needs. So we are -- we launched a couple of pilots to see if this kind of model can work even if there isn't the full control of Banca Generali. And -- but we have a very good example in the Italian market working very well. On Alleanza side, you have to consider Alleanza has a very well-diversified population, both in terms of professionals and in terms of clients.

And when I mentioned the, let's say, standardized, but in a positive way, products, the standard offer, it means that there is specific offer for protection. As you know, Stile Esclusivo was a great success because it was able to capture the assets invested in single funds for fiscal optimization, operational optimization, much higher diversification and so forth.

So the target for this kind of product is slightly different from standard solution in the saving space. And as I said, are well-diversified population, so I do expect in the portfolio of Alleanza affluent across all clients also with other assets in other -- with other distributors.

So capturing the asset management component with this proposition for me is different than the traditional proposition of standardized unit linked, even if the standardized unit-linked offer protection, thanks to the ancillary insurance drivers.

So different proposition, different target of clients and much higher focus on the best professional just to have the possibility to provide a very high personalized solution to the final client. So I'm sure that this will increase the share of wallet also in the insurance space. Moreover, will allow, let's say, the clients with more sophisticated needs to see an answer to this.

And last but not least, consider that distribution network successfully moved from traditional unit linked to protection with excellent numbers. They know how to expand the offering, the proposition to clients. This is well steered this network, and there is a strategic interest in broadening the offer. So I'm pretty confident that it will be successful.

So very complementary with what they already have in the product range.

Exactly.

Mr. Mossa, there are no more questions registered at this time.

Okay. So thank you for attending our conference call. We remain at your disposal for any further Q&A and good bye.