Lending activity in the area continues to show a twofold trend: on the one hand, the balances from the retail segment, above all Garanti, are performing very well; on the other, the CIB portfolios in the region continue to shrink as a result of the deleveraging process underway. Customer funds have confirmed the changing trend first seen in the third quarter in 2012, with a quarter-on-quarter increase in the rate of growth of on balance sheet customer deposits.
With respect to earnings, the positive performance of Garanti, the recurring revenue of CIB and the lower contribution from CNBC have all been of particular note.