Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. I am Maria, your Chorus Call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Piraeus Bank conference call and live webcast to present and discuss Piraeus First Quarter 2026 Financial Results. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions].

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Piraeus Bank CEO, Mr. Christos Megalou. Mr. Megalou, you may now proceed.

Christos Megalou
MD, CEO & Executive Director

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and good morning to those joining us from the U.S. This is Christos Megalou, Chief Executive Officer, and I'm joined today by our CFO, Theodoros Gnardellis; and our Head of IR, Xenofon Damalas, to present and discuss Piraeus' first quarter 2026 results. Piraeus delivered a strong start to 2026 with high-quality earnings, strong volume and fee income growth, continued balance sheet strength and performance fully in line with our full year results -- targets.

Before turning to our performance, let me briefly frame the macro environment. As you can see in Slide 4, the Greek economy remains resilient with growth expected to continue above the European average, a strong primary surplus and a rapidly declining debt-to-GDP ratio. However, the global backdrop has become materially more uncertain. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is now a key macro variable, particularly through energy markets. For Europe, in particular, the impact is more pronounced given higher energy dependence. Against this backdrop, the relevance of