Mr. Wim Verbraeken:

Everything is relative. While the level at a certain point is important, the direction of travel is also important. We are travelling in the right direction. I referred earlier to the fact that a good number of loans that are currently classified as NPLs are actually paying. They are either paying interest or interest and some capital. Some have even returned to annuity, but they have to perform under that arrangement for one year before they can actually be cured and return to performing status. This is slowing the outflow and the curing of non-performing loans. We are quite happy with the results of all the hard work that Mr. Mahon and his tea have put into putting all of these cases back on solid footing. As I indicated earlier, there are unfortunately a number of cases where no sustainable resolution can be identified. Then we typically engage with the customer if they are willing to do so, to hand the property to the bank or to sell the property. That is the outcome in most cases in that category. We are really putting a lot of effort and resources into that work. We are happy with that.

We are not hung up on the ratio of 37%per se. I do not think I have mentioned it before, but I would like to say that all of these loans are adequately provided for. There is adequate provision of capital against them. We are quite confident that whatever the outcome and, however long it takes, we can live with it. Obviously, 37% is still high by any measure. It is not the kind of ratio with which we would like to enter a new downturn or an economic recession. That would be not good foresight. That is why we are looking at a variety of options, continuing to work on the cases, restructuring them and potentially exiting them.

We also look at true hardship cases where we take a very humane approach on a case by case basis and, in some instances, that involves debt forgiveness or a debt write-off because it is absolutely justified. We progress these cases. We have not engaged in individual discussions with customers purely because we believe that the cases are non-performing.