“We expect NII growth to continue to outpace growth in loans and receivables in 2026.”

In context

“, NII, and service fees and other revenue all growing at double-digit rates. Net card fees reached record levels driven by continued success in acquiring new customers onto fee-paying products, our ongoing cycle of product refreshes, and our high retention rates. In Q4, card fees were up 16% FX adjusted moderating a bit as we expected. In 2026, we expect card fee growth to pick up as the year progresses as we see the impact from the platinum refresh, exiting the year in the high teens. We have now started applying the new annual fee for US platinum card members reaching their renewal anniversaries. For those customers, we have seen no change to our very high retention rates relative to pre-refresh. Net interest income was up 12% again this quarter. Continuing to grow faster than balances. We expect NII growth to continue to outpace growth in loans and receivables in 2026. Turning to expense performance. The VCE to revenue ratio was 45% this quarter. The VCE ratio stepped up from earlier in the year as we expected driven by the investment we made in the value propositions of our US platinum cards. As Stephen noted, VCE investments are an important part of our model. They support revenue growth by driving customer acquisition and engagement, they improve credit outcomes by attracting highly creditworthy customers and they drive marketing efficiency by increasing demand for our products. In 2026, we expect the VCE to revenue ratio to be around 44%. Driven by these investments and ongoing mix shift towards premium products, and assuming a similar spend environment to what we've seen recently. We continue to drive leverage from our operating expenses with OpEx”