Good morning. After the minister's intervention, we now start the company sessions. It is my pleasure to introduce Luigi Lovaglio, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. Luigi brings over four decades of experience in banking. Since taking over the helm of Monte Paschi in 2022, Luigi has led a decisive transformation of the bank. Under his leadership, Monte Paschi has moved from restructuring to growth, culminating in a major strategic repositioning with the successful acquisition of Mediobanca. Luigi, thank you for being with us today. Following the minister's intervention, I would start with macro and with Hormuz, so geopolitics. We are in a situation where actually we have higher rates and perhaps slower growth versus what was expected. Do you see this as a net positive or a net negative for the bank? Where do you see the main upside or downside versus market expectations? Good morning, everybody. Thank you, Andrea, for inviting me here. Thank you to the team of Mediobanca. It's clear that higher rates support net interest income, especially for banks that have a strong deposit franchise, and I would say a disciplined pass-through. The other coin of the medal is the slower growth, and I believe slower growth tests discipline and capability to adapt. To make it simple, higher rates help, but slower rates make even more important the capability to be selective and to have a discipline in your way managing a group. I think the discipline is one of the key factors that allowed Monte Paschi to be in the current position and to be a top player, and I have to say, highly attractive institution. I think what is important for us is to keep working in this direction and making the value embedded in Monte Paschi group more and more recognizable in the market. Thank you. I guess we'll move to M&A because it's [Non-English content]. Thank you. As you had anticipated, all roads indeed are leading to Siena. Of the different potential options, which outcome do you consider the most favorable for MPS, and for the overall system? Do the M&A proposals reflect the intrinsic value of your bank? Okay. Okay. First, there is a process, there are rules. I want to stick to that. With the Board, we are fully committed to analyze all options in the interest of all stakeholders and shareholders. This is a duty that I feel very comfortable to confirm to the market and to everybody. Having said that, it's clear that we welcome the interest around Monte Paschi. The renaissance of Monte Paschi in the recent year brought us to be a top player, highly attractive. When a bank is recognized also at the institutional level as a jewel, it's clear that the standard of any transaction becomes naturally higher. For us, it's important to keep working in this direction, because I really believe that our duty is to make the value in Monte Paschi even more recognizable than what is today. I believe that this will bring benefit to all stakeholder, all shareholders of the bank. Thank you, sorry for insisting on the same topics. I understand. Okay. I would touch on passivity rule. Under the passivity rule, what actions could MPS take to reshuffle the current situation? I make it very clear. The passivity rule exists to protect shareholders, and we fully respect that. As I said, the duty of a Board is to analyze, assess, and look for the best options in the interest of all shareholders, and that's what we're doing. Thanks. Last night there was an important board meeting at Monte Paschi. Could you update us on the integration with Mediobanca and Monte dei Paschi? The integration is on track in terms of timing, it's on track on scope, and is also supporting strongly the industrial rationale that is behind this project. I think more and more, also discussing with investor and also listening today to the Minister, I think the combination of Mediobanca with Monte Paschi is one of the best initiative in order to face what is going on in the market, with the capability to provide unique and full-fledged services to our customers. We have in front of us a strong opportunity because we are one of the most dynamic player. Clearly, I believe that we should make even more recognizable and visible the powerful franchises that we have, combining the historical iconic brand of Monte Paschi with the historical and iconic brand of Mediobanca, and I think all together is a unique opportunity for the market to benefit of particular services we can provide at the same time, also for our people, the possibility to be part of a project that is one of the most attractive project, I think, in the last decade. I think we have in front of us the possibility to combine different skills, but in any case, at very high level. We have a possibility to provide full service that nobody else can provide with such granularity. We have the strong support that is coming from the proximity, and we have the strong support that is coming from unique experience that we can find in Mediobanca and the excellent quality of the people that we have there. Thank you. Moving to the capital muscle of the bank, you have a 16% CET1 ratio and material deferred tax assets. The minister before spoke about the importance of speed and time. How much could an acceleration in the profitability of the group boost capital over the next three years? What is your preferred order of capital deployment between growth, distribution, and M&A? We start from 16%, t hat is one of the highest level of quarter one in Europe. This position give us the opportunity to have a payout of 100% to remunerate our shareholder with a total level of remuneration at the level of EUR 16 billion, to keep anyway the capital in a very high level and to have the opportunity to further invest EUR 3 billion of excess of capital. This give us strong flexibility and I believe this strong position of capital should be properly considered or recognized in any transaction we will be involved in. Thank you. Moving to the Italian loan market, what's the current trajectory of loan growth in Italy, and where do you see the greatest opportunities, and what are the main structural obstacles that you see? I think the market is recovering. It's not clearly blooming, but I think it's growing in the areas where we are much more focused now. I mean, in particular, retail mortgage, consumer lending, small business. I think we have to have a different view in this situation of the market. It's important to have the capability to lend, to have the balance sheet, and we have, but it's much more important to have the capability to be adaptive to the needs of the market. It's not enough to grant loans. It's important to provide the best service to our customers in a market that is not growing significantly. The strong difference is coming for combining these two important elements, the balance sheet, and this is Monte Paschi, knowhow for transaction and advisory service that is coming from Mediobanca. This unique combination is giving us the possibility to grow even in a market that is not blooming. This, again, a unique possibility that we have in the Italian landscape. If we think that everybody normally when you ask about banking, right, what do you think performance will be in the future of banking? Everybody is saying, I will grow in lending, I will grow in loans, I will grow on deposit. Normally when you have this definition, your strategy is so generic, it's difficult to convince the market about the capability to perform. We were very clear from the very beginning. We think that the market is growing on retail mortgages, and we should be the best player in granting mortgage in Italy. We believe that the market is growing in small and medium corporate, and we have to be the best player there. It is not enough only, as I said, to grant money, but is the value added that we can provide by joining the capability to lend with the capability to build up, make advisor to the customers with the quality that we have with the team of Mediobanca. It's not anymore the dogma to grow just in lending. The real value -add is to provide a better full service to our customer that will make for sure the difference. You should have verticals on which you have to be specialized and focused. The market is appreciating the fact that we are focused on energy, we are focused on agrifood, we are focused on tourism, and we can provide this kind of services to our customer in a combined and very effective way. Clearly on defense as well, given the? Yeah, defense, I think, yes, right. Yeah. Just a box-ticking question, it's been a long time since we have had a credit cycle. We have seen no signs of asset quality deterioration. From your privileged perspective, do you see anything happening with a slower growth or low indebtedness and sort of resilient GDP are just holding up well? We are observing that the market practically is not showing any significant or particular sign of deterioration. Everything is going as we expected, and I have to say even slightly better. It's clear that we have to pay attention to that, because normally, when situation is deteriorating, you don't have a very long notice. It's something that happens suddenly. It's important to invest not only in the capability to underwriting, but it's important to have the capability to monitor and to have also capability to react immediately to the first sign. It's quite important also to have a system that is supported by technology, the capability also to have a new way of training your team, because it's not the traditional way and approach of scoring that can help, but you should really anticipate the problem that can come from deterioration of the situation. I think in this way also, AI can help a lot, and a modern bank should be more and more advanced with technology in order to make all this kind of activity on monitoring reaction to negative situation automatically. I think we have to move more and more people to the commercial side, and we cannot have the same speed that you have today in monitoring the situation on the market. Just following from your lead there on AI, there has been a lot of debate earlier this year whether it is more of a threat or an opportunity for the banking system. What is your view, do you consider scale a crucial factor? Where would you sort of mark the threshold on the necessary scale to implement AI efficiently? AI is crucial. I think it is changing significantly the way of banking, and I believe we should be even more clever in understanding that it is not only a matter of data, it is not a matter of speed. It is a matter also to mindset, where you have to have your people that, thanks to AI, they have to be faster, even in manual activity. It is a way of thinking. It is a mindset. We will be faster, we will be more effective, but what is important is the way of you strategically think about AI. The most important element to be successful is the capability to execute. The wrong, I think, the big mistake is to say we want to be modern, we want to be digitalized without looking at what is the final goal. The final goal is to better serve the customer, to improve our capability, to generate value, and to capital, but at the same time, to have a sort of permanent, continuous research of innovation with dedicated team of people that are understanding what is going around. I believe, honestly, I was impressed because I was in the States one month ago, even watching what is happening in terms of advertising, you see that we are really, really behind. It is quite difficult that you can recover by thinking that you can be digital on the legacy that you have today. It is a mistake to build on what you have. You shouldn't do something from scratch. It is clear that you will be behind. You will not necessarily recover, but you have to be focused on what is your priorities. To be modern is nice, but it is much more important to create value to modernity and to technology. That's why I really believe that for us there is a strong opportunity, especially if we understand that we have to leverage on something new or not necessarily what we have. If I look at our group, the approach that we are having is really, I think, very successful because we combine technology with a different way of approaching the customers, proximity, with branches, with personal financial advisors, and we have Mediobanca Premier, Widiba, with a dedicated way of services for corporate and investment banking with private banking. At the same time, all of them should be provided in a way that our approach in operational should be like the best digital platform. We can be Revolut, Revolut can't be us. The combination of technology with the strong human touch, a capability relationship manager that they have will be the successful factor, so n obody can have this kind of combination. For me, it's crucial, and I think all the team is working in this direction. The operational activity of the bank should have very low cost, and we should be competitive with the Fintech. Nobody can have the value added that the relationship with our customer can bring. Just taking inspiration from what you just said and combining it with what Minister Crosetto said about the importance of speed and adjustment, both of the entire system, government sides, the companies working together, and of the rules. The minister before spoke about the necessity to adjust the European rules to a changing global environment. What's your perspective on the changing transition of the European regulation for banks, both with regards to typical regulatory matters, but also to implementation of AI, cybersecurity, and so on? Is anything changing for the better? Are we trying to switch towards sort of more speedy and market-friendly approach? I think yes, I recognize that also this European approach, especially on the cybersecurity, is crucial because today, if I think the ideal way of banking I have in mind is a large-scale platform that is common to all the banks and several distinctive way of approaching customer with proximity and distribution. It doesn't make sense that we are investing in compliance, audit, some activities that are connected with the monitor of the risk, and I think we can have access to this common platform, all the banks reducing the cost and be focused on what I believe is the most important part is the relation with customers. Cybersecurity is key, but as the minister said, is key at Italian level, European level. It makes a lot of sense if we have a common investment and we can benefit of this common investment because we will not be capable to reach a level so sophisticated that is required today by acting alone, bank by bank, country by country. I think regulation on that should be very effective and come very soon. Thank you. Moving on sort of on the perspective of the market. Regardless of the different geopolitical tensions, the market has been very resilient. European banks have done very well for five consecutive years. What is, from your perspective, your assessment between when you go around, meet investors today, you're going to meet a large group, and your perspective from actually running the bank and seeing things sort of more behind the scenes and in the engine room. What's the biggest asymmetry you see between the perspective of the market when looking at European banks and your perspective? You mean in comparison with our system? With what you receive from investors and their opinion on how banks are doing and what the perspective is vis-a-vis your more hands-on approach. No, I think what the investors are looking for is a sustainable way of creating and generating value. It's quite difficult to split between thinking and execution. The real value -add of a company, and I think Monte Paschi is a clear evidence of that, is the capability to make things happening. This is what investors are asking. Track record, clear strategy, simple approach to business, but a permanent way to be effective and to generate value. This is something that, again, is a mindset of your organization. The focus on performance doesn't happen through spreadsheet Excel. The focus on performance is an attitude, and the performance is a duty that you should have towards your investors. Performance is something that can be improved every day because there is no limit to what we can achieve. This is what I think in some way we have proven now because it's clear that, if I remember, four years ago, Monte Paschi has a EUR 300 million market cap. Today, thanks to Mediobanca and along Mediobanca, we have more than EUR 30 billion, and I think the value of the company is not fully recognized by the market. We have inside the group a huge potential and huge opportunity to make this value even higher. Thank you very much. I'm really running out of questions as you're speeding through them. I would ask the audience if there is room for one final question in this session. I can speak about passivity rules if there's somebody. Hopefully, I've not exhausted all the questions. I will just elaborate on one point. Please I was partially addressing. This market, in terms of consolidation now, because we were discussing at the beginning about merger and acquisition, whatever, I think it's quite important. Consolidation is useful, is healthy, the consolidation should also ensure that the market is well-served. The market to be well-served in a country requires easy access to lending for household, small and medium corporate, and large corporate. Requires that the market should ensure a fast transmission of savings to the real economy, and a good system can serve very well a country if competition is strong in all segment and with all diversity that is required in a modern market. I think in this direction, Monte Paschi is one of the most important independent player. I think that's good for the customer, is good for our employees, is good for the region where we operate, and at the end, is good for the country. Thank you for that. I would just see if there are any questions from the audience. Otherwise, I guess we can wrap it up. Okay. I guess there are no questions. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.