we show that our loan portfolio grew by 1.54% in the first quarter, which is broadly in line with our guidance of mid single digit loan growth for 2021. Our portfolio grew 2.3% in retail and 1% in wholesale. Also, in line with our strategy and guidance of focusing on retail growth while being selective in terms of the returns for wholesale <inaudible>. Our strategy for wholesale has enabled us to significantly improve margins and therefore to achieve higher returns on capital. On slide nine, we see that our financial margins with clients in Chile decreased 1.6% in the first quarter, mainly due to seasonal effect of the sale of the student loan portfolio in the fourth quarter of 2020. On the graphic below, which explains the change in our first quarter 21 margins with clients versus the fourth quarter of 20, we see the effect of higher margins on commercial loans as well as on deposits. Those positive contributions were upset by a change in credit portfolio mix, mainly due to the contraction of the consumer portfolio as a result of the pandemic, as well as by a reduction in average loan volumes. Moving on to slide 10, we show that our financial margins with the market was 60.5 billion pesos in the first quarter, about 21 billion pesos higher than that of the fourth quarter of 2020. Despite a lower exposure to the US, uh, decreasing 500 billion pesos and a lower inflation. Revenues were high across our trading and banking businesses despite a 45% reduction in inflation exposure since the third quarter of last year. Here on slide 11, we can see our main credit risk indicators in Chile. Cost of credit in the first quarter was 24.8 billion trillion pesos, which corresponds to 0.5% of our average loan portfolio. We are seeing quite benign credit risk across our portfolios. In retail, the NPLs of the retail and consumer credits that did not receive any payment relief are below mid 2019 levels, that is pre pandemic and pre social unrest. The credits that did not, that did receive payment relief are in all repayment now and performing better than expected. In wholesale, we did have one corporate case rolling to NPL, but it was already adequately provisioned, so it did not have any significant impact on p&l. The movements that you see in commercial NPLs, total NPLs and NPL coverage are mostly explained by that one case and therefore do not reflect overall portfolio trends. As a result of the provisions we established in 2020, our NPL coverage ratio remains very high in historical terms despite the decrease shown in the Spyder. Our coverage evolution quarter over quarter is consistent with our expected loss provisioning model, which allow us to be ahead of the NPL cycle while maintaining high levels of protection through the cycle. As for our perspective for the year, we are tra- training towards the low end of the range we provided as guidance for cost of credit, which was between 1% and 1.3%. On July 12, we show non interest expenses for the quarter, which had been, which had remained very much under control, decreasing 0.4% quarter over quarter, while the efficiency ratio improved by five percentage points. Despite their both inflation increasing cost year over year, which resulted mainly from the fact that the on the first quarter 2020 was positively affected by reversal of variable compensation provisions. We maintain our guidance of a cost growth below inflation for 2021. Now moving on to slide 13, we show that our liquidity provisions remains very strong, with both L- LSR, LCR and NSFR and historically high levels since 2020, boosted in part by government liquidity support measures. In slide 14, we can see that Colombia as well had a positive impact on the quarter, reaching at 8.2% managerial return over tangible equity. Operating trends were positive as well, with 3% quarter on quarter loan growth, a rebound in operation revenues and a normalization of cost of credit at significantly lower costs. On slide 15, we see our fully loaded set one capital ratio increased by 50 basis points year over year and 20 basis points quarter over quarter. We expect our capital ratios to improve steadily going forward as our profitability recovers and we continue to advance in our capital efficiency efforts. As I mentioned in the last call, we're discussing internally at the highest levels how best to address our capitalization ratios going forward. Considering our upcoming acquisition of additional interest in Itau <inaudible> Colombia, as well as the role winning of <inaudible>. We will make the rele- relevant disclosures of information as it becomes available. Let's move on to the next part of the presentation. On slide 17, I will recap, recap our evolution in the last 12 month period. And on the following slides I will share the progress that we have made so far. When facing a crisis scenario, of a scenario never seen before in March 2020, our adaptation and management capabilities were tested. Our robust governance and solid risk management allow us to continue to run the bank under those challenging circumstances. As you know, we promptly, promptly organize our operations and prepared the bank for the crisis. We acted quickly to ensure our customers had appropriate remote access to the bank, while at the same time developing solutions needed for that period. It was a time of taking care of our people, our customers and the bank, and we fully focused on that. From September 2010 to 20 onwards, we began to shift our focus to building the bank of the future, leveraging what we learn and develop during the crisis. In the months that followed, we developed o- o- our transformation plan based on the pillars of a strategic focus on disruption, customer centricity, simplicity, and digitization in a <inaudible> working model and a discipline approach to achieving sustainable results. If we can please move to slide 18. Before sharing some of the advances in this strategy, I would like to first to introduce our new organizational structure. We made an important change to our executive committee to ensure that we have the right structure and the right talents with the necessary skill set to lead this transformation process. The most relevant structural changes are, one, we created a digital business development management division, which is in charge of our transformation overall, as well as the most innovative elements of our plan. And two, the decentralization of our operations, which was key to reinforce customer centricity and agility. In addition to structural changes, we also brought over new heads of technology and the whole, for the wholesale bank. On slide 19, we introduce Eduardo Neves as the new head of IT, who has been working with us since April, and Sebastian Romero as head of the wholesale banking, replacing Christian Tauber who will leave us in September. Both Eduardo and Sebastian are top executives with experience in the industry and strong track records, as you can see in their mini bios on this page. On slide 20, I would like to introduce Jorge Novis as