Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I'm Mirjo, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Alpha Services and Holdings conference call to present and discuss the first half 2021 financial results. All participants will be in listen- only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may siG&Al an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Alpha Services and Holdings management. Gentlemen, you may now proceed. Good afternoon, everyone, and good morning to those dialing in from the U.S. Welcome to Alpha Bank's second quarter earnings conference call. This is Vassilios Psaltis, Alpha Bank CEO, and I'm joined by Lazaros Papagaryfallou, our CFO, and [Dimitrios] Kostopoulos, our Head of IR. Starting from page four on the economic front, domestic economic activity is expected to bounce back from the second quarter of this year onwards, with real GDP projected to grow more than 5% in 2021, supported by high-frequency data which shows that tourism arrivals exceeded expectations and economic sentiment improved in the second quarter. In particular, in the first week of August, the number of international tourist arrivals to Athens International Airport reached over 70% of the amount recorded in the corresponding periods in 2019, pointing to a recovery in tourism in 2021 as we expected. Additionally, total passenger traffic from the Athens International Airport grew by 371% year-on-year in the second quarter, while in July it increased by 108% on an annual basis. More specifically, based on total estimations by business insiders, international tourist arrivals in July reached 65% of 2019 levels, while thus far, August data suggests arrivals will be over 80% of 2019 levels. Subject to no further adverse developments in respect to the pandemic, wildfires, or anything else, tourism revenue this year might settle up more than 50% of 2019 levels. Mind you, 2019 we had EUR 18.2 billion in revenues, whilst in 2020 revenues reached only 24% of those levels. As a consequence, September and October will be the crucial months for Greek tourism and whether 2021 revenues as a whole could exceed 50% of those recorded in 2019. Additionally, the economic sentiment indicator also improved slightly in the first seven months to 2021, compared to the corresponding period of last year, further supporting the expected growth from the second quarter onwards. Retail trade continued its upward trends for the second consecutive month, increasing by 15% year-on-year in May. Similarly, the manufacturing production indexes remained on an upward trajectory from November 2020 onwards, significantly improved in operating conditions across the Greek manufacturing sector. Finally, despite the heavy toll of the pandemic on economic activity, house prices and the construction sector remained resilient in the first quarter of this year. Specifically, house prices continued to rise by 3.2% year-on-year more rapidly against the fourth quarter of last year, with private building activity also increasing sharply in the first five months of 2021 by 53%. Lastly, as you will remember from our first quarter results and strategy update, Greece is the largest relative recipient of the EU RRF grants in Europe that are aimed at supporting Greece in its transition to sustainability, digitization, and modernization. There has been notable progress on enabling the funds flow in the last few months. On the 17th of June, Greece became one of the first five countries to receive European Commission's formal approval of its RRF plan, codenamed Greece 2.0. As a result, Greece has also been one of the first five countries to receive a pre-financing of EUR 4 billion on the 9th of August. Following the approval of the plan, the Greek government has launched the first 12 projects amounting to EUR 1.9 billion, the largest of which are focusing on the construction of a highway section, upgrading local urban infrastructure, and the digitization of the land registry. The Greek government anticipates that it will receive an additional EUR 2.6 billion of subsidies in the third and the fourth quarter of this year, and is expected to launch additional projects. Greek banks are currently in discussions with the government to set out the legal framework for our RRF lending, which we expect to be completed in the fourth quarter. With regards to the progress of bank engagement, we expect that the banks will be invited to sign framework cooperation agreements on the base of our RRF business plans to enable the planning of disbursements and the satisfaction of eligibility criteria as they will be specified. Alpha Bank's capital increase, which was concluded successfully in July 2021, position us to be one of the key banking pillars that will unlock our RRF funds for customers. Having seen the progress made during the summer months, both at the institution at the multi-bank level, our confidence and our ability to deploy this capital to work has further increased. Moving to slide five. The decisive reduction of NPEs remains a key priority of our business plan. With Galaxy now completed and our servicing partner, Cepal, fully operational, we have switched focus on preparing and delivering the next leg of inorganic and organic NPE reduction. This consists of a series of transactions, both under the Hellenic Asset Protection Scheme and non-HAPS transactions spanning over this year and next year. We're working confidently towards delivering the first set of transactions by year-end, with a total envelope of EUR 7 billion. That makes 85% of the EUR 8.1 billion perimeter expected to be effectively delivered within 2021. Market conditions permitting, this would lead the group to an NPE ratio of circa 13% by the end of this year. In more detail, Project Cosmos, a EUR 3.5 billion HAPS securitization, is fairly advanced in terms of preparation, with significant activity planned for the next six months, including the receipt of a preliminary rating and the submission for a HAPS guarantee, which locks in the overall costs. Our plan is to have SRT approval by year end. In parallel, Project Orbit and Sky, the first one being an unsecured portfolio sale, the latter is a secured portfolio sale, are expected to launch imminently. Bids should be received within the fourth quarter. Having said that, we also have our eyes focused on the 2022 transaction pipeline, with preparatory actions already underway for the remaining [1.1 billion] perimeter. We expect to be in a position of delivering solid progress in the first quarter of next year for the majority of this envelope. On slide six, in line with our strategy, we have continued to make progress in maximizing the value of our business and enhancing our franchise through strategic partnerships with top-tier international players. Following on from the bancassurance agreement with Generali, we have recently announced the signing of a binding MOU with Nexi, the European leader in payment acceptance, to form a long-term partnership in payment solutions and merchant acquiring. Into the key value drivers for these transactions, which set it apart from other precedents in the market. First, this is a partnership with Alpha Bank retaining an initial 49% stake in the business. Payment solutions is one of the highest growth areas globally, and we expect this business to capitalize on its market-leading status, the quality of the partners, and the superior technological capacity of Nexi to continue to deliver solid growth and profitability. Remaining in the business for the long term gives us exposure to the upside potential embedded in the sector. Second, in terms of value, we have agreed a base valuation of EUR 307 million, which lies at the higher end of current trading multiples and transaction precedents. Under selling 51% of the business, we expect the record to record a gain also for the 49% stake we will retain, thus enjoying the full capital benefit of the value of the business, which is projected at circa 60 basis points of total cash. Third, we're highly incentivized to make this a profitable venture through an important earn out structure of up to EUR 60 million enterprise value in the next four years. We expect this upside to be attainable and will strive to capture it. Finally, we have consciously struck a balance between upfront consideration and long-term profitability through the terms of a referral agreement with Nexi. A significant part of the value of this partnership will thus come in the form of fee income on the back of merchant revenues procured by Alpha Bank. This is very similar to what we have agreed with Generali and ideally suits the strong distribution capacity of our channels. We anticipate total fees of around EUR 200 million over the course of the agreement. Moving on to slide seven. We have also initiated Project Skyline, where we aim to form an alliance with an international partner to capitalize on the growth prospects of the Greek real estate markets. Via our listed subsidiary, Alpha Astika Akinita, we will create a large-scale real estate investment platform focusing mostly on commercial real estate. This vehicle will establish a long-term servicing agreement with our in-house real estate management unit, creating new revenue streams for the bank. The deal is expected to be capital accretive, and signing should be expected in early next year. We have also undertaken several of the announced actions aimed at optimizing our balance sheet to deliver further capital relief and business model simplification. The sale of our subsidiary in Albania is progressing well, with interest exceeding our initial expectations. The transaction is now in an advanced phase, with binding offers expected in the last quarter of this year. Similarly, the sale of our U.K. subsidiary is expected to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, with signing in the first half of next year. We also wanted to take an opportunity to provide you with a few more details on our EUR 2 billion synthetic securitization of SME and corporate loans, which we codenamed Project Aurora. Strong investor interest has been expressed in phase one, with several non-binding offers received. Phase two of investor engagement is now commencing. The transaction is expected to be concluded within this year. On slide eight, we highlight that our performance during the 1st half shows that we will be able to comfortably meet our full-year guidance on profitability, asset quality, and capital adequacy. Trends continue to evolve in line with our expectations on all fronts. As I mentioned earlier, we're now looking for a 13% NPE ratio by year-end versus the 18% we had guided when we announced Project Tomorrow. The following quarters will see the completion of critical milestones in our plan, unlocking the path to double-digit returns with growing capital buffers. Lastly, on capital, I'd like to note the outstanding performance Alpha Bank registered in this year's stress test, posting the highest estimated fully loaded Core Equity Tier 1 among Greek systemic banks under the baseline and adverse scenario of 17.3% and 8.3% respectively. While 2023 fully loaded leverage ratio in the adverse scenario came at 6.1% at the top range of EU banks and best- in- class among Greek peers. With that, I turn the floor to Lazaros Papagaryfallou for a closer look in our financial performance in the second quarter. Thank you, Vassilis, and good afternoon to everyone. With regards to second quarter 2021 performance, I will now provide a summary of the key financial trends, looking at slide 10 of the presentation. This quarter, we have closed the Galaxy transaction and booked the resulting EUR 2.1 billion net impact, leading to a reported loss after tax of EUR 2.3 billion in the first half. With the consolidation of Galaxy and net of the retained senior note, loan balances have decreased by EUR 1.9 billion, with a partial impact on net interest income. All of the above are in line with the bank's estimates and capital plan. Leaving Galaxy aside, our quarter provision income generation decreased by 4.5% this quarter, reaching EUR 226 million. With the recognition of Galaxy and the lower retrospective TLTRO [III] benefit versus the first quarter are the main drivers. On an adjusted basis, pro forma core pre-provision income increased by 3% on a quarterly basis. Reported pre-provision income stood at EUR 243 million versus EUR 137 million in the previous quarter. As EUR 160.1 million of restructuring costs and other one-off charges related with the bank transformation impacted the previous quarter's results. Trading income amounted to a loss of EUR 2.2 billion due to the recognition of Galaxy. On an adjusted basis, as shown here, it stood at EUR 30.4 million on lower GGB transaction activity. Impairment losses significantly deescalated in the second quarter to EUR 125 million versus EUR 391 million in the previous quarter, driving total cost of risk ratio to 1.3%, with underlying cost of risk, excluding impairment losses allocated to portfolio transactions, down to 0.9%, better than our financial year 2021 guidance. Regarding year-to-date performance on a normalized basis, first half profit after tax stands at EUR 213 million, confirming that the bank is on course to meet its near-term target to deliver a 5% return on tangible book value in 2021. Now turning to slide 11. In terms of new credit, we continue to steadfastly support our customers as we dispersed a further EUR 1.2 billion of new loans in Greece this quarter, bringing the total to EUR 2.3 billion, addressing credit demand mainly from businesses. Net credit expansion, namely disbursements minus repayments, was positive again this quarter and stands at EUR 0.4 billion for the first half, reflecting credit demand from businesses. As highlighted in the bottom right chart at the group level, our year-to-date performing loans expansion is well ahead of our year-end target, and we expect momentum to hold in the second half of the year. Lending spreads on performing exposures saw some pressure in the quarter, also affected by specific corporate repayments. In line with our budget and our business plan, we expect some further pressure on loan spreads during the second half, especially on business lending to the tune of 5 - 8 basis points. Spreads of our new production, however, remain resilient and at very satisfactory levels, which together with a positive mix of net credit expansion, should support the profitability of our loan book. Beyond the RRF projects that are expected to materialize from September onwards, it is worth highlighting that the bank is currently in the process of underwriting significant projects not related to RRF and has already announced two. The first is in the energy sector with Public Power Corporation's Green Bond loan. The second is in the Greek hospitality sector and relates to the financing of the Blackstone managed Hotel Investment Partners investment program concerning five hotels in key Greek resort locations. Current short-term pipeline includes projects beyond these two in the energy, hospitality, and infrastructure sectors, and for now amounts to total size which exceeds EUR 900 million. On deposit gathering on slide 12. The group deposit base expanded by EUR 1.4 billion in the quarter, comprising more than 70% of the bank's total funding sources. At the end of the second quarter, domestic deposits stood at the highest post-crisis level, reflecting inflows from core deposits that now account for 79% of domestic deposits. The continued shift of the product mix produces an overall positive impact on the bank's interest expense. On a year-on-year basis, our group deposit base has expanded by EUR 4.1 billion or 10.2%. Liquidity drawn from ECB remains stable QoQ at EUR 12.9 billion, reflecting the full utilization of our TLTRO free borrowing allowance or 18% of our total assets. Benefiting from the low-cost liquidity drawn from the ECB, the bank's blended funding cost remained in negative territory in the second quarter at - 7 basis points and continue to support net interest income. Finally, the group's loan to deposit ratio materially improved to 83%, enabling the bank to address the credit demand expected under the utilization of RRF funds. The group's liquidity coverage ratio surged to 164%, far exceeding the regulatory threshold. Let's now see the drivers of our net interest income performance during the second quarter in more detail on the next slide. Net interest income in the second quarter stood at EUR 371 million, down by 7.2% QoQ or EUR 28.6 million. This quarter, the bank recognized an additional EUR 6.9 million one-off retrospective benefit for the second half of 2022, as a result of the accrual of -1% for the total amount of ECB borrowing for the respective period versus a higher amount of EUR 24.7 million that we booked in the first quarter of 2021, as we illustrate on the chart. The underlying performance of net interest income was flattish on the back of three main drivers. One, to a lesser extent, we had a lower contribution from performing loans by EUR 0.4 million, mainly on the back of lower spreads on specific corporate repayments and repricing as discussed previously. Two, we had an EUR 8.1 million impact from the recognition of the Project Galaxy perimeter with a further EUR 1.3 million driven by lower average non-performing loan balances due to the increased provisioning. Three, we had a negative effect from bonds and other of EUR 2.9 million, reflecting GGBs recycling and lower one-off items. On the liability side, there was no impact from deposits as continued repricing offset the increase in balances. Whereas funding net interest income had a positive contribution of EUR 1.8 million as increased ECB borrowing offset the fully phased cost of the Tier 2 issued in March. Turning to slide 14, we show the main drivers of our fee income generation. On a quarterly basis, net fee and commission income surges to EUR 105.4 million, up by 25.1% QoQ. Excluding a EUR 10 million fee from AXA related to the signing of a new insurance agreement with Generali, it would still leave underlying fee income up by 13%. Asset management had a better quarter on the back of a sustained growth in AUMs, primarily in non-money market funds that were up by EUR 0.8 billion. The bank has already accomplished almost one quarter of its 2024 target of a EUR 3.5 billion growth in related AUMs. Revenues from cards and payments increased, with transaction volumes surpassing 2019 levels on increased penetration of non-cash transactions. Business credit related fees were also up on higher activity. On a yearly basis, fee income generation picked up by 14% or EUR 23 million, supported by increased fees from business lending, increased commission income from mutual funds stemming from AUMs, and a creative mix evolution in credit cards and payments due to increased volume of transactions. The aforementioned EUR 10 million fee income from AXA compensated a decline in other fees versus the first half of 2020, which had benefited by EUR 11.8 million of fees received from the amendment of collateral agreements on derivative transaction last year. The observed pickup in commercial activity, the growth in asset management along with the recently announced business development initiatives that strengthen our franchise positioning allow us to be confident that we are on track to meet our fee income generation target of circa EUR 0.4 billion for the year. On the opposite side, on slide 15, recurring operating expenses on a group level for Cepal consolidation increased slightly year-on-year as savings from HR initiatives are temporarily offset by an increase in non-staff costs, mainly due to higher IT and transaction related items, with the latter linked to higher revenue generation. Looking on each line separately. Personnel expenses on a pro forma basis for the impact of Cepal stand alone personnel costs before the carve-out of the bank's NPL units decreased by EUR 9.1 million year-on-year, reflecting the voluntary separation scheme in our Cypriot operations that was completed in the fourth quarter of 2020, as well as the impact from HR initiatives in Greece. Going forward, the reduction in headcount by 820 FTEs from the disposal of Cepal that took place in mid-June 2021 will further reduce group staff costs. General expenses were higher on a pro forma basis by EUR 12.3 million year-on-year in the first half, mainly reflecting increased expenses from the pickup in activity in our card business and higher IT costs. Finally, the depreciation charge stood at EUR 4.2 million higher year-on-year, again on a pro forma basis, due to an increase in intangible assets linked to IT investments as part of the group's transformation. As depicted in the top right chart, NPA management costs constitute more than 15% of our recurring cost base. In the medium term, we aim for a sharp decrease in line with the reduction of our NPE and annual portfolio, and the reduction in associated servicing fees, which are expected to decline by 6% by 2024. Our strategic plan also targets a decline in the core operations cost base to a significantly lesser degree, supported by the voluntary separation scheme to be implemented in our Greek operations by year-end 2021. Moving on to the next page. Quarterly NPE formation in Greece remains flat as entries only slightly deteriorated due to higher inflows from expired moratoria, fully offset by higher curings and repayments and increased transactions. This flat NPE formation performance in the first half is better than initially expected, making us optimistic for the remaining of the year. Also compare business plan expectations for a combination of zero cost per year. On the right-hand side of the slide, you can see further information on our cost of risk evolution. The overall cost of risk over net loans stood at 1.3%, out of which 0.4% relates to exposures expected to be sold or under securitization and portfolio sales. Underlying cost of risk, on the other hand, remains consistently below the 1% levels and better than our 1.2% full year guidance. Finally, in the bottom right graph, you will see that post Galaxy, our group NPE ratio has decreased significantly from 43% down to 26%, whereas our NPE cash coverage increased from 49% to 54%, or 105% including collateral. Moving on to slide 17. We expect to reduce our NPE volume by another 45% this year at group level by reducing gross NPEs from EUR 11.4 billion in June 2021 after the closing of Galaxy, to approximately EUR 5 billion by year-end. This will allow us to reach an NPE ratio of 13%, which is at 5 percentage points better than what we expected at the time of our business plan announcement. This is effectively driven by the acceleration of Project Sky, the sale of an NPE portfolio in Cyprus, where the frontloading of the prep work, including transaction structure, will allow us to launch imminently and receive offers within the fourth quarter of the year. Projects Cosmos and Orbit are progressing according to plan, with HAPS submission for Cosmos expected in October, and binding offers for Orbit targeted for the fourth quarter of this year. We reiterate our guidance with regards to a total loss- budget of EUR 1.6 billion, out of which more than EUR 0.6 billion has already been incurred in the last three quarters. As we have discussed in the previous slide, organic formation this year has come in better than expected, leaving some room to potentially outperform our year-end target. This will be a function of the second half asset quality trends and successful progress on our transactions. Above developments continue to underpin our confidence in meeting our medium-term goal of reaching a single-digit group NPE and NPL ratio well within 2022, while converging to the EU average level by 2024, which in turn will lead to the full normalization of our cost of risk. At the same time, we have had a notable improvement in the group's NPE coverage ratio from 7% in December 2020 to 54% in June 2021, whilst maintaining our robust capital position. On page 18, you can see the quarterly evolution of our capital. Post the share capital increase, it stood at EUR 6.7 billion, resulting in a capital adequacy ratio of 17.4%, down by 90 basis points versus March 2021. The total capital ratio was negatively affected by Galaxy and Cepal to the tune of 285 basis points, in line with the bank's guidance, whereas the share capital increase impacted capital positively by 220 basis points. Organic capital generation stood at two basis points in this quarter. The buffer over the regulatory total capital ratio of 14%, therefore stands at EUR 1.3 billion. The respective fully loaded total capital ratio stood at 15.4%, and the fully loaded Core Equity Tier 1 at 12.7%. On the right part of the waterfall, we note that we expect internal capital measures to enhance capital ratios in the next quarters by 1.5 percentage point, which will more than offset the anticipated negative impact from the upcoming NP transactions. The impact of both internal capital measures and upcoming NP transactions will be fully reported by the end of the first half 2022. In the bottom right chart, we show the expected evolution of our capital ratio during each year until 2024, according to our business plan presented in May. The timing of internal capital measures, the loss budget accrual, and RWA relief from NPE transactions will likely lead to a reduction in capital ratios near term as per plan, with total capital ratio always above our management target levels of 16.5%. Lastly, turning on page 19. The bank completed successfully the ECB stress tests, registering an outstanding performance, posting the highest estimated ending fully loaded common equity Tier 1 ratio for year-end 2023 among Greek systemic banks under the baseline and adverse scenarios of 17.3% and 8.3% respectively. A 10.2% fully loaded ratio in the adverse scenario, taking into account the share capital increase. The capital depletion, excluding IFRS 9, improved to 6.3 percentage points when comparing to iterations of the stress test, while the fully loaded leverage ratio in the adverse scenario came in at 6.9% at the top range of [figured banks] and best- in- class among Greek peers. Looking at the bottom right-hand side of the slide, I would like to highlight that the bank's capital generation for the three-year period was 2.7%, absorbing the impact of IFRS 9 phasing, resulting in a 2023 Core Equity Tier 1 transitional ratio of 17.4%. Now let's open the floor to questions. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we'll begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from a question queue, then you may press star and two. Please mute your handset when asking your question for better quality. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from line of Floriani Jonas with AXIA Ventures. Please go ahead. Yes, hi guys. Good afternoon everybody. Thanks for the presentation and well done on the execution on the plan. My first question, I think all of my questions, they relate to some comments you made during the presentation. The first question relates to the outlook on disbursements following the comments by Lazaros. I remember that during the period of the share capital increase, we discussed a lot about the growth opportunities in Greece and also how Alpha was preparing itself to start dispersing as soon as possible, especially also to benefit from the RRF boost. I know [RRF], it hasn't been long yet, but following Lazaros comments, could you update us? Or linking the comments that you made on the call, where that links in relation to expectations for the full year? If you include this project that you mentioned there, I was just wondering if your expectations for total disbursement in 2021 and also expectation for the increase in the net loan book has changed or improved over the last two or three months. My second question then relates to the NP dynamics. I see that on slide 18 you're mentioning or you're showing the entries and exits of NPs, including the breakdown of the moratoria loans. I would just wish to understand on the entry side, what has been the driver of those new NPs? Are these coming from new defaults or are these redefaults exposures? Also in terms of your moratoria loans, your expectation for the year is EUR 0.8 billion, and we have now EUR 0.3 in the first half. Have you changed your expectation for the second half, or it's fair to assume that this EUR 0.5 billion it's coming now in the coming quarters? Then my final question probably relates to the previous one. I was curious to understand if you already have seen some tangible signs in terms of the new insolvency law in Greece, if there's anything that is already reflected in the numbers, or maybe on the discussions you have with Cepal, how that is affecting collections or the relationship with the borrowers in these early months. I'll leave it there. Thanks. All right. Jonas, thank you for the questions. Coming to your first question on net credit expansion. We have been quite careful to analyze disbursements and repayments in a manner that can illustrate the development of the net credit expansion, rather just talking about gross disbursements. You have seen that in the first half of the year, the net credit expansion in the performing book amounted to EUR 0.4 billion, out of which EUR 0.6 is businesses, whereas there was a small de-leveraging from household lending. That is a higher run rate than the one we have incorporated in our budget and in the business plan that we have presented in May. You may recall in May, and that you can see on the lower right part of the page 11, where we benchmark the credit expansion vis-a-vis the targets that we have portrayed in our business plan. You will see that the run rate is higher than the one that we have showed back in May, as we have not been expecting really RRF to kick in the second quarter of the year. It has not started yet. The disbursements from our EU partners came to Greece late in December. New RRF projects should expect to affect our numbers in a tangible manner from 2022 onwards. All that was expected. On the other hand, as we see a lot of traction in the corporate market, we have already seen demand for very good projects at very good returns on allocated capital in tourism, energy, infrastructure. We have already announced a couple of projects, which are good number of projects based on our risk appetite. We have a pipeline currently in these sectors that I have said in the short term could procure an additional EUR 900 million of new disbursements in good projects. Momentum is building up in the second half of the year, not necessarily related to RRF, but mainly to corporate lending. As RRF conditions mature and the infrastructure gets in place, we expect obviously much more traction from 2022 onwards as per the business plan projections. On your second question with regards to the NP dynamics. I said that we're quite optimistic on the organic formation for the year. We have provided a budget of EUR 0.6 billion. What we see currently is a better run rate. When it comes to new defaults, we have seen EUR 400 million of ex moratoria defaulting within the first half of the year and also the last quarter of 2022 out of the EUR 0.8 billion projection that we have for this particular universe. Almost 50% of what we have projected has defaulted in the last three quarters. However, what we have also seen is a significant performance with regards to curings, repayments, that has effectively counterbalanced fully any increase in the first half of the year. This has been better than what we had in the budget. Now, if you ask me whether we're changing our guidance from 0.6 formation for the year, as I said, we are optimistic. We want to see some more data points with regards to certain restructurings that we have offered to the clients, including the Bridge program and some step-up facilities. We want to see how they perform prior to amending the target towards a lower level for the year. It is likely that this will be the case. Your last question had to do with insolvency law. I understand that you're referring to the out of court settlement and the platform that has been introduced by the government. We have seen the first applications flowing into the system in July. No processing has taken place in August, so traction will start from September. In a nutshell, it hasn't moved the needle in any respect, nor the numbers and the volumes that we have seen to date make us believe that there is some sort of deterioration in payment cultural behavior. That's clear. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of Sevim Mehmet with JP Morgan. Please go ahead. Good evening. Thanks very much for the presentation. I have a couple questions, please. Lazaros, you mentioned that there are several RRF-related investment projects currently in the pipeline. You also mentioned that EUR 900 million figure for the total size. Can I please confirm that this is the loan disbursements figure that you expect for Alpha Bank, specifically from these projects? What would be the timeline here for these loans to be disbursed? That will be my first question. My second question is on the repayments. Thanks very much for the detailed data that you're providing on the performing loan movements. There I can see that the repayments are actually quite high at EUR 1 billion. There's a slight pickup quarter-to-quarter. What is business as usual, or should we take this as a run rate going forward? Let's say EUR 3 billion-EUR 4 billion of repayments each year for the coming several years. My final question is on NPA management costs. Your full year guidance would imply a pickup in those costs in the second half. Given that Galaxy is now out of the books, wouldn't you expect that some relief in there in second half? Or is there something else that is still keeping the costs related to NPAs high in the second half? Thanks very much. Coming to your first question about the disbursements. Yes, the EUR 900 million short-term pipeline that I have referred to on corporate loans have to do with disbursements. I have not given any guidance on repayments for the year. In order to set the record straight, in terms of guidance, you should have in your numbers, I think, the year-end target that we present on page 11 as the balance for performing loans. That was the number we put in May, and that is the guidance we're giving. We may end up higher at the end of the year, but currently, we give no other guidance than the one presented in our plan and reiterated in page 11. On your second question on retained disbursements. The second quarter of the year has been much better than the first quarter of the year in terms of loan disbursements. Actually, the run rate in the second quarter has doubled compared to the first quarter, and make us believe that this is more representative of what we're going to see happening in the coming quarters. Still, the trajectory of disbursements and repayments are such that most probably, the number we have put for household performing loans are EUR 10.8 billion at the end of the year is representative of new disbursement and repayments in the second half of the year. The demand is picking up, definitely, especially in auto loans. We definitely see positive trends, and that goes also for housing loans. Thank you. Your own question... When it comes to NPA management costs, unfortunately or fortunately, there is a lot of noise coming out of Cepal consolidation and the consolidation within the year. Remember, we have acquired Cepal and consolidated its P&L in our group P&L in the second half of 2020. We are consolidating Cepal until 18th of June 2021, and subsequently, we're divesting Cepal. All that is creating some noise. I have tried to present on page 15 some pro forma numbers so that we take the noise out of it. When it comes to NPA management costs, you may recall in our business plan presentation that that was a big driver of cost reduction until 2024. Real traction there is happening from 2022 onwards. That was also presented back in May, where we have started counting from 2022 onwards in terms of cost reduction. We should not expect to see a material reduction in 2021. On the contrary, this noise has increased some of the costs. However, in alignment with the full guidance that we have given for EUR 173 million for 2021 and presented back in May, after the Galaxy deconsolidation, which happened obviously, and the sale of additional EUR 8.1 billion, which is happening in the coming quarters, we are going to observe a very significant decrease of NP servicing costs. Same goes with REOs. REOs cost money, taxes, and other servicing fees. We have planned REO transactions, including the Skyline transaction. All that is decreasing NPA management costs to a good extent. More traction on that line from 2022 onwards as per the plan projection. Okay. That's all very clear. Thank you very much, Lazaros. Maybe just one follow-up, if I may, on Project Skyline. Could you please walk me through the expected impact coming from there? You presented earlier that the main benefit will come from RWA release, but is there any equity impact in there that you would expect from the sale of the 51% at least of the portfolio as well? Indeed, there are a few benefits. The first has to do with an adequately rated yield, as we will be disposing assets which are risk-weighted by almost 100% in our balance sheet. We will also experience a reduction in costs vis-à-vis carrying these assets in our balance sheet. No equity cost is projected in this respect. Okay, great. Thank you very much for help. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of [Memisoglu Osman] with Ambrosia Capital. Please go ahead. Hello. Many thanks for your time. Just following up on the NP formation potentially being too conservative, and tagging along maybe the cost of risk angle to it as well, which also seems to be trending much better than your 1.2% guidance for the underlying bit. When would you consider revising them? Maybe along with Q3, or are you looking to wait a bit longer? That's my first question. Then on the cost bit, I appreciate the NPA angle later on, but in the shorter term, I see quarter-on-quarter, there was a pickup in general expenses. If you could give us a bit of color on that. Should we expect that level to be sustained for the rest of the year? Thank you. Now, on your first question, with regards to cost of risk guidance. We have two building blocks there. The one is provisions for transactions. The other building block is the underlying cost of risk. Now, the underlying cost of risk moved to date within our guidance for 1.2% over net loans. We expect to trend within the year within that guidance. It could be lower if defaults in the second half are lower than the one we have budgeted. Until we change our guidance for organic formation, we want to keep the 1.2% of our net loans guidance for underlying cost of risk. That is around the EUR 400 million level in terms of euro amounts. Coming to transaction costs, let me clarify that the new NP plan of what EUR 8.1 billion NP transactions that we have presented in May, has a lost budget in EUR amounts of EUR 1.6 billion or thereabout. We have already absorbed in our P&L almost EUR 600 million or north of EUR 600 million, if we take into account also second quarter additional provisions in this respect. We have EUR 1 billion more provisions to take in order to fully implement the EUR 8.1 billion incremental NP deleveraging. The phasing of this provisioning in our P&L will depend, to a very good extent, on the progress made on these projects. As we do say scenarios under IFRS, we calculate the probability of completing these projects, and we take gradually the hit in our books, knowing that we will need to take an additional EUR 1 billion to effect these transactions. Given the progress so far, and the fact that we expect the three main projects to be completed by year-end, namely Project Cosmos, Project Orbit, and Project Sky, I would expect that during this year, there's going to be an additional EUR 700 million or so of additional provisions related to transactions that will hit this year's P&L after our previous guidance. The remaining may hit our first quarter results in 2022 or the second quarter. The impact of these transactions in capital terms, taking also into account the RWA relief, is presented on page 18 at the upper right part of the page. It's 1% in total capital adequacy terms. It is the byproduct of the provisions and the RWA relief. We expect to take all this impact by the first half of 2022. On the other hand, in order to counterbalance this impact, we have already initiated a series of internal capital generation measures. Namely, the merchant acquiring sale already announced to be completed in the coming quarters and the synthetic securitization. The total impact of these internal capital measures will exceed the impact of NP organic reduction. From a capital point of view, we are very much aligned already with the capital target that we have given in the business plan, providing for at least a 16.5% total capital adequacy ratio in this journey of further deleveraging the balance sheet. Thank you. On the cost side for the shorter term? Indeed, on G&As, we have seen some higher IT costs as we are progressing our transformation plan. We have also seen an increase in certain G&As related to volume-driven costs on the cards business, that are associated also with higher revenues. They also hit the OpEx line in G&As with respective numbers. Got it. That reminds me, given the one-off of EUR 10 million underlying fee income at quite respectable EUR 95 million, how should we expect that to trend in the short term? Yeah. On the top- line, coming to fees, our guidance for the year is for a significant increase compared to 2020 by approximately 13%. On the other hand, we expect net interest income to drop by high single-digit number as per our previous guidance, approximately 9%. That is our current projection as the Galaxy impact in the second half of the year will be approximately EUR 110 million in our top line. We expect recurring OpEx to trend flattish year-on-year. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question comes from the line of [Konstantinos Panagiotopoulos] with Optima Bank. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. Thanks for the presentation. Well done on the results and the good execution of the business plan. I have a very quick question on your agreement with Nexi. Once the deal concludes, I guess sometime in Q4, will you guys book the entire profit, the entire valuation of your own business or just the 51% that you are selling? Most probably in the first quarter of 2022, we are going to book the P&L for selling 51% and the reval of our remaining 49%. That is providing a significant boost in the bottom line, as you will appreciate, providing 60 basis points of internal capital generation. Okay, got it. Thank you. The next question comes from the line of [Boulougouris Alex] with Wood & Co. Please go ahead. Yes, hello. A quick question on my end. On the EUR 700 million that you mentioned as additional provisions for transactions expected in the second half, do these refer mostly to Project Cosmos and Project Orbit, the securitization of Project Cosmos mainly, or also for Project Sky? Because I believe in Cyprus you are more better covered in terms of accounts coverage, if I remember correctly, at least. And maybe a bit on that, on Project Sky, what led to this acceleration? Do you see higher interest or in the stage you are in and you're moving faster because of that, or what is the reason behind that? Thanks. The EUR 700 million remaining budget for these three transactions encompasses scenarios for 100% probability to effect these transactions this year. Indeed, it entails additional impairment for all three projects, including Project Sky. For Project Sky, which is the Cypriot NPE sale of EUR 2.2 billion, we have booked EUR 320 million in the first quarter of the year. We are effectively marked at EUR 0.30. We expect recoveries to be such that will require an additional impairment in 2021 accounts. We will be taking additional provisions for Project Cosmos and Project Orbit. Your question on Project Sky with regards to investors' interest, indeed, there is interest on this transaction. We have prepared very well to hit the market and engage with investors. That's why we are kind of front-loading our previous guidance, expecting to have signing in the fourth quarter of the year. Great. Thanks, Lazaros. As a final reminder, if you would like to register for a question, please press star one on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, there are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference over to management for any closing comments. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for participating at our first half results, and we're very much looking forward to welcoming you on our nine-month results in November. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for calling, and have a pleasant evening.