Banco Santander Central Hispano

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Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH)

Type	Public
Founded	1857
Headquarters	Santander, Spain
Key people	Emilio Botín, President
Industry	Banking
Products	Financial services
Employees	129.196 (2005)
Website	www.gruposantander.com

Banco Santander Central Hispano (BSCH), (IBEX-35:SAN) is the largest bank in Spain and is part of the Santander Group which has large scale operations in the continents of Europe and South America.

[edit] Five Pillars

As part of the Santander Group, Banco Santander Central Hispano bases its strategy on its own business model, based upon a five pillar system. These are:

Customer-focused management
Efficiency
Credit risk quality
Capital discipline
"Multilocal" management with a global vision

[edit] Banking in Spain

Within Spain BSCH operates under a range of brand names including:

Santander Central Hispano
Openbank

[edit] History

BSCH was created in 1999 following the merger of Banco Santander (founded in 1857) and Banco Central Hispano (BCH), founded in 1991 following the merger of Banco Central (est. 1919) and Banco Hispanoamericano (est. 1900).

In June 2006, the Banco Santander Central Hispano purchased almost 20% of Sovereign Bank in June for $2.4 billion. As Banco Santander owns 25% of Sovereign, it has the right to buy the bank for $40 per share for one year beginning in the middle of 2008.[1]