Hello, everyone, and welcome to Bladex's Second Quarter 2019 Conference Call on the 19th day of July, 2019. This call is being recorded and is for investors and analysts only. If you are a member of the media, you are invited to listen only. Bladex has prepared a PowerPoint presentation to accompany their discussion. It is available through the webcast and on the bank's corporate website at www.bladex.com.Joining us today are Mr. Gabriel Tolchinsky, Chief Executive Officer; and Ms. Ana Graciela de Mendez, Chief Financial Officer. Their comments will be based on the earnings release, which was issued earlier today and is available on the corporate website. The following statement is made pursuant to the safe harbor for forward-looking statements described in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.In these communications, we may make certain statements that are forward-looking such as statements regarding Bladex's future results, plans and anticipated trends in the markets affecting end results and financial conditions. These forward-looking statements are Bladex's expectations on the day of the initial broadcast of this conference call and Bladex does not undertake to update these expectations based on the subsequent events or knowledge.Various risks, uncertainties and assumptions are detailed in Bank's press releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of our underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may differ significantly from results expressed or implied in these communications.And with that, I am pleased to turn the call over to Mr. Tolchinsky for his presentation.

Thanks, Travis. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Before Ana Graciela delves into key aspects of our earnings results for the second quarter, I would like to discuss with you the economic and business environment in Latin America, important developments that took place during the quarter and the impact of these recent developments on our perception of risk and financial results.During our last three quarters conference calls, we mentioned that the credit quality of our portfolio, cost structure and allowances for expected credit losses set the base to improve our earnings generation capacity. Our second quarter 2019 results are another step in that direction. On the economic and business environment front, once again, our diminished expectations for Latin America's economic growth continue to be challenge by the global macroeconomic environment, as well as by Brazil and Mexico, the two largest economies in Latin America, with growth expectations for the region now hovering around 1%.Starting with the global macroeconomic context the U.S. dollar is strong, protectionist rhetoric on trade and tariff from the U.S. is a weekly occurrence and then ambition slow down of economic activity in China, Europe and the U.S. became a reality in the second quarter of 2019.After switching to a neutral mode on the direction of interest rates in the first quarter the Federal Reserve started setting the stage in the second quarter for lowering rates in the second half of the year, while short-term rates remain relatively stable, the prospect of lower rates, lower the yield on the 10 year U.S. treasury to around 2%, thereby inverting the U.S. dollar yield curve. And inverted yield curve is usually a harbinger for an economic slowdown, which usually weakens the U.S. dollar.Nevertheless further economic deceleration in Europe and China continue to make the U.S. dollar…

Thank you, Gabriel. Good morning to everyone and thank you for your participation in our call. I will now review the results for the second quarter and first half of 2019, making reference to the presentation that we have uploaded on our website.So on page four, you can see the continuous improvement in our profitability, both on a quarterly and on a year-to-date basis. This performance was achieved with the contribution of virtually all line items with revenue growth supported by a positive quarterly trend in net interest margins, fees and commercial portfolio balances, lower year-on-year expense levels, stable NPLs and high quality portfolio origination, which in turn resulted in low credit provisioning. And finally, the absence of losses on non-financial assets accounted for in the second quarter of 2018.The banks second quarter 2019 profits of $22.3 million, or $0.56 per share represented a 34% increase with respect to the year before and were up 5% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. For the first half of 2019, profits amounted to $43.5 million, a 40% increase compared to last year. With this result, we were able to achieve a 9% return on average equity, a 1.4% return on average assets and an efficiency ratio of 31%, while maintaining a solid level of capitalization at 20% of Tier 1 Basel III Ratio.Now I will refer to the evolution of net interest income and the impact of financial margins and loan trends on page five. Net interest income for the second quarter of 2019 remained relatively stable at close to $28 million, with respect to both the first quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2018. The Bank's loan portfolio the main driver of net interest income remained relatively stable for the quarter, with an average balance up 1% year-on-year and down 2%…

Thank you, Ana Graciela. Travis, you can now open the call to the Q&A session.

[Operator Instructions] We have no questions in the queue at this time.

Thank you, everybody. I believe that there is a question coming in.

Yes, we do have someone queue up. We have a question for Robert Tate, Global Rational Capital.

Hi, Gabriel, Ana, thank you very much. [Technical Difficulty] well this quarter, again, just want to congratulate you on the good results.

Thank you, Robert. Very much appreciate it.

So, as I mentioned, you've done very well this year despite the headwind [Technical difficulty] track to achieve a 10% or double digit return on equity. And I was just wondering, so and you've been [Technical difficulty]. How, how are you able to do so well, despite the difficult environment, and why are they not more [Technical difficulty] you mentioned, in the first part of your call.

Okay. Thank you for your question. Robert, some of your comments were cut off because of bad communication. But I think I got the gist of the question. And let me start answering by saying that, in this environment, we need to, of course have very sturdy and strict credit underwriting standards. And we do so and also pay good attention to overall portfolio allocation. We are reducing exposure in countries like Argentina, because of the potential for volatility, particularly from the political side. But we're able to increase exposure in Central America and the Caribbean where our margins are very good and we have very good presence in those countries.So from a big picture portfolio allocation, we are able to navigate Latin America based on where the appropriate risk reward is. And from a more micro level, we have been doing very good transactions, as Ana Graciela mentioned, we have done two significant syndicate transactions at good margin levels that is additive to our portfolio. Overall, we are able to still find our good spots within what we consider an overall challenging environment.Challenging doesn't always mean that it will translate to NPLs, it just means that we need to be careful on how we underwrite the bulk of our portfolio is short-term in nature. As we mentioned before, around 79% of our exposure matures within a year, that means that we have the capacity to move around and stay away from difficult situations, very much a product of the derisking that we took on starting in 2017 all the way to 2018. And are able to really have constructed a portfolio that we feel very comfortable with, and able to adjust exposure accordingly based on changing macro and micro wins.

Right. Thank you, Gabriel. And just a question for you both the H2 exposure into [Technical difficulty] that's quite an important category I think, and perhaps one that [Technical difficulty] just wondering if you could just describe the general composition of exposure [Technical difficulty] and country?

Yes, Robert. Thank you. Yes Stage 2 exposure, this is a category under IFRS 9, as I mentioned, and basically the accounting standard what is asked is that in any case, where we see that exposures or the conditions of the exposures changed with respect to when they were originated, it implies that we have to move from allocating credit reserve on a one year basis rather than on lifetime. So when we put exposures from Stage 1 to Stage 2, it means that some conditions have deteriorated to this portfolio since these loans were originated.Now, what does this translate to is that whenever we risk area determines that there has been certain deterioration in a country or an industry, that means that we give an internal downgrade to the country risk, all the exposure that are closely associated to this country exposure is analyzed and then it's put on the Stage 2 category until it matures, because it was originated in different risk conditions. But it -- I emphasize that this exposure is performing and in our perspective, it continues to be with very good clients and it continues to follow very strict credit procedures in terms of the underwriting that Gabriel mentioned. So it's just an accounting rule that we have to follow.We do have a small portion of this portfolio, which we have in our watch list. Like I mentioned, we continue to get paid on that. And it's a very small portion of that. I think it at the end of the quarter totaled $30 million. So in general terms, it's nothing that we particularly worry about in terms of -- it's just an accounting standard that we have to follow. I don't know Gabriel you…

Right. I think that summarizes it very well. Thank you.

Yes. And just in terms of the [Technical difficulty] country at all in that category. I presume, it would be countries like maybe Argentina and industries, perhaps sugar, maybe oil and gas. Is that correct or what industries and countries within that category of exposure?

A significant amount of the exposure there is Argentina and Costa Rica, both countries that were downgraded in the last few months. And that is the bulk of the increase. But the underlying credits are not only performing those are good credits with absolutely no delays and we don't have any concerns as to the capacity of these borrowers to repay their debt.

Okay, okay. Great. Just on the provision for the network [Technical difficulty] in the first three of last year. I think the [Technical difficulty] Stage 3 exposure and from when I [Technical difficulty] particular loan went from 75% in quarter four of last year to [Technical difficulty].

Yes, we kind of losing you Robert.

I am sorry, Robert, we have lost you.

[Technical difficulty]. The impairments of sugar loan, I think it’s at 85% provision, is that about right at the moment?

That is about right.

Yes, that’s correct.

Okay, and then [Technical difficulty].

Robert, I’m so sorry, we’re going to have to maybe pick this up outside the call, because we are unable to hear and probably the rest of the participants in the conference call are unable to hear you. So, we’re happy to entertain your questions directly. Travis, if you want to open up for more questions, or wrap the call, please takeover. Thank you.

Thank you, sir [Operator Instructions]. There is no questions in the queue at this time, I’d like to turn the call back over to you, sir.

Thank you, everybody and we look forward to talking to you in -- after we report numbers for the third quarter and have everyone a very good day. Bye-bye.

Thank you.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s teleconference. You may now disconnect.