Itaú Chile Posts 14.3% Local Return in Third Quarter as Earnings and Credit Improve
Key Facts
Banco Itaú Chile posted a recurring return on tangible equity of 11.9% on a consolidated basis in the third quarter of 2026, while the return in its Chilean business reached 14.3%, its strongest quarterly performance of the year, according to the earnings-call transcript published by Investing.com. Consolidated recurring net income rose to 115.4 billion Chilean pesos, up 5.9% from the previous quarter and 4.5% from the same period last year. In Chile, recurring net income reached 110.6 billion pesos, up 23.6% quarter on quarter and 2.2% year on year. Management said Chile delivered its strongest quarterly earnings performance in 2026. The bank revised its full-year outlook during the earnings call, combining improved earnings with a lower credit-cost estimate.
Growth in earnings from the Chilean business reflects improved operating indicators and credit quality, according to figures presented by management. The cost of credit was 0.9% year to date, and the company lowered its full-year estimate to about 1.0%, compared with its previous range of 1.0%–1.1%. The revision indicates that the bank expects a smaller credit-loss burden than it had previously estimated. The change followed the performance of the quarters completed so far this year, while the new estimate remains a full-year forecast rather than a final result. The revision places asset quality among the factors supporting the bank’s outlook, alongside activity growth in Chile.
On expenses, non-interest expenses in Chile fell 2.4% from the second quarter of 2026. The efficiency ratio improved to 43.0% in the third quarter, from 46.6% in the second quarter and 48.2% in the first quarter. The metric measures expenses relative to revenue and shows the improvement over the first three quarters of the year. Lower expenses coincided with higher quarterly earnings in the Chilean business, strengthening the effect of income growth on results. These figures provide an operational counterpart to the improvement in credit costs in explaining the local unit’s performance.
The company, by contrast, reported an expected one-off tax impact in the fourth quarter of 2026. It said on the earnings call that it expects a one-time negative impact of about 32 billion Chilean pesos, resulting from the remeasurement of deferred taxes linked to a reduction in the corporate tax rate. This impact is a specific item in the coming quarter, separate from the recurring income measures the bank reported for the third quarter. As a result, the next results may be read differently in terms of recurring operating performance and the one-off accounting impact. Management placed the impact in the fourth quarter, without changing the figures reported for the third quarter.
The outlook for the Chilean economy remains part of the backdrop to management’s expectations for the local business. It forecast GDP to contract by about 0.3% in 2026, before recovering to growth of about 2.8% in 2027. It also forecast inflation at about 4.9% at the end of 2026, then falling to 3.2% at the end of 2027. These estimates place the bank’s outlook in an economic context combining an expected contraction this year with subsequent growth, while inflation remains higher at the end of 2026. They are management’s forecasts as reported on the call, not realized economic outcomes.
In the Nov. 9, 2026 session, Itaú Chile shares rose 2.76% to 22,689 Chilean pesos, from 22,080 pesos in the previous session, according to Investing.com coverage. The move came in the session reacting to the results, after third-quarter figures showed strong quarter-on-quarter growth in recurring income from the Chilean business and improved efficiency indicators. The price change reflects the stock’s performance in that session alone, while the annual outlook and expected tax impact remain among the key items to watch in the bank’s fourth-quarter results.