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Intrinsic Value is all-important and is the only logical way to evaluate the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses.
Welcome, Steven. Eventful quarter, again.
Said that, are you ready?
Yes.
Agree or disagree. The first quarter of 2022 can be split in 2.
I agree. It started with optimism. The Corona measures were fading away in Europe and the economy was recovering. And then the 24th of February hit, which was the start of the invasion in Ukraine, and that changed everything.
We have a wholesale banking business in Ukraine. How are the people over there?
Everybody has their own story. Some of our colleagues had to flee. Some of the colleagues had to go to subways to metro stations to keep themselves safe. We've also moved some of the activities outside of the Ukraine so that we are continuing to be able to serve our clients. And also what I have to say it is, the way that our colleagues remain resilient is incredibly inspiring.
Agree or disagree, we can't predict the financial impact of this war?
Well, I disagree in the sense that we have taken a lot of risk provisions to cater for higher risk that we see of our customers not repaying. So in that sense, we are taking action, and we remain prudent. On the other hand, no one can predict what will exactly happen going forward with the invasion. So there's still a lot of uncertainty.
Agree or disagree. It's only logical that business this quarter was slow.
I disagree. The underlying business performed actually very well. Obviously, we took significant risk costs and impairment in the first quarter as a result of the invasion in Ukraine. But excluding those risk costs and impairments, our underlying result actually was better this quarter than the same quarter a year ago and the previous quarter.
Agree or disagree. Even in dark times, we make our customers smile.
Yes, if our customers don't smile, then we shouldn't smile either. And you've seen that, for example, with the number of mobile card payments this quarter, that was again a record high. For our SME, our small and medium-sized customers, we try to make their lives easier as well. For example, for street vendors and taxi drivers, we developed a point-of-sale app and it's changing their smartphone into a mobile card terminal.
Agree or disagree. The IPCC has again underlined the urgency of climate action now. We are taking action.
Yes. Transitioning to a low-carbon economy has one of our highest priorities, and that means that we are putting sustainability into the heart of what we do.
So what are we doing?
Well, we've recently decided not to finance any new upstream oil and gas fields, and we have decided that we commit ourselves to increasing our renewable energy financing with 50% by 2025. Because in the end, the best way to transition to a low carbon economy is by decreasing demand for fossil fuels and increasing demand for renewable, and it also means that you need to make renewables avail.
Great. Thanks for your update. We'll see you next quarter.