sector grew 60% year-on-year, while quarterly income was 2.1 times compared to a year earlier, when a decrease on, in, in industrial gas demand during the lockdowns affected our results. The bottom of the page, the quarterly decrease in other income is explained by lower contribution of OCI realization, of fair value, uh, fixed income, uh, portfolios and by the seasonally high income from dividends during the first quarter. On page 17, we present some efficiency ratios. First half, other expenses increased 2.4% year-on-year while quarterly expenses grew 4.5% year-on-year. Year-to-date expenses grew 0.6% in Colombia and fell 0.2% in dollar terms in Central America, excluding the effect of MFG. Quarterly expenses, uh, increa- increased year-on-year 3.3% in Colombia and 6.7% in dollar terms in Central America, excluding the effect of MFG. Compared to first quarter, other expenses increased 6.1%, with Colombia growing at 6.8% and Central America growing at 1.3% in dollar terms. In addition to an increase in cost associated with higher activity, this quarter included provisions of the remaining 50% of the penalty imposed to inaudible Colombiana by the Colombian Superintendency of Industry and Commerce in relationship, uh, to the inaudible investigation. Compared to a year earlier, cost-to-assets remains stable at 3.2% and improved 45%, down from 51.3% on a cost-to-income basis. Finally, on page 18, we present our net income and profitability ratios. Our tradable net income for second quarter, 2021 was 950 billion Colombian pesos, or 42.6 pesos per share, its best result ever for a quarter. This result was 19.9%, uh, higher than the previous quarter and 2.9 times that a year earlier. Our return on average assets for the quarter was 2% and 1.9% year to date. Our return on average equity for the quarter was 18.2% and 16.7% year to date. I will summarize our guidance for 2020. We expect loan growth to be in the 9 to 10% area. Net interest margin on loans to be 5.8 and total net interest margin to be in the 4.8 to 5% range. Cost of risk to be in the 2.1 to 2.2% range, net fees to grow in the 8% area, our nonfinancial sector to grow in the 5% area. Expenses growth to be in the 4% area. And return on average equity to be in the 15 to 15.5% range. We are now available to a- address your questions. Thank you. If you have a question, please press star then one on your touch-tone phone. If you wish to be removed from the queue, please press the pound sign or the hash key. If you're using a speakerphone, you may need to pick up the headset first before pressing the numbers. Once again, if you have a question, please press star then one on your touch-tone phone. And our first question comes from Sebastian Gallego from Credicorp Capital. Please go ahead. Good morning. Uh, thank you for the presentation and congratulations on, on very strong results. I have, uh, several questions today. Uh, first of all, the, you just mentioned, uh, Mr. Diego mentioned an ROE guidance of 15 to 15.5% in 2021. Uh, can you discuss on how, uh, sustainable are, are, are these type of returns, uh, going into 2022, and on a long-term, uh, sustainability basis? Uh, second, uh, it caught my attention… Uh, Mr. Luis Carlos, uh, comments on the potential competition on digital platforms and how far those platforms could have trouble monetizing, uh, the, uh… Uh, I mean, their, their users. Can you, uh, discuss a little bit more, the, the competitive environment on, on that front, and, and why are you so confident that, uh, other, uh, players may not be able to monetize, uh, those, those users? And finally, if you could provide, uh, an outlook for loan growth, uh, breaking down per, uh, per region and breaking down, uh, per segments, uh, given the 9 to 10%, uh, guidance. Thank you very much. Okay. Yeah. Let, let, let me start with your question number 11 on, uh, on digital. Uh, wh- wh- wh- what I, what I meant is the following. Uh, the, the, what we see around the region with, uh, platforms, uh, fintech platforms that have been able to, uh, turn in net income, uh, is basically the, uh, uh, not charging fees but, uh, charging substantial interest rates, in one way or another. In Colombia, as I said, it's a little bit more complicated because we have very strict usury rate, uh, regulation. So, uh, here when, when you bring on digital clients, you have to consider how you're going to monetize them. And, uh, you can massively increase your digital clients in those sort of platforms, but if in that massification you acquire a lot of digital clients that will probably not transact too much. Like, for example, clients that are, just become so, to receive subsidies from the government or, uh, other types of clients that will probably not be subject to, uh, becoming, uh, debtors in, uh, uh, via loans, uh, it might be a little bit harder to monetize them, so I, you know, I don't have the, the solution. Uh, and I am sure that everybody who is, uh, coming up with a digital platform has thought about this. And, and obviously, most of it is going to depend on what your cost of funds is, if, if you are planning to take in funds to then try to make those customers into borrowers. It also depends on your, on your cost, uh, uh, structure. And, and obviously, some of these, uh, fintechs which are starting, uh, in, uh, from the beginning, as, as, uh, as solely digital platforms with no legacy of, of other types of costs, uh, have a, an easier time of, of keeping costs down, but all that I'm saying is, uh, in our case, when we think about, uh, massification of digital clients, uh, we always think in terms of what's that going to produce i- in, with respect to net income for the company. So, uh, in that respect we, we usually say, let's start with those actions that we know are gonna result in, in, in valuation and valuation via additional net income, because as you know we are basically valued based on, on a price to earnings ratio, and so we have to produce the earnings. And, uh, and, and that's why we're saying in our, in our, in our strategy, we first decided we would put a lot of emphasis on being able to offer our own legacy products in a digital manner so that new clients, uh, could acquire them that way. And secondly, we've been going through this digitalization of, of, of processes and operations in the banks, and, and that has resulted in cost savings. We will obviously not discard in any shape the idea of, of massifying digital clients, uh, but we have to make sure and, and that, that those clients have some future in terms of producing additional revenues for the company. Um, so, so that's, that's what I was referring to in, in, when, when I talked about our