| Type | Sociedad Anónima |
|---|---|
| Traded as | BMAD: SAN, LSE: BNC, NYSE: STD, Euronext: SANT, SANTA, BIT: SANT |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | Santander, Spain (1857) |
| Headquarters | Santander, Spain |
| Area served | Europe, Latin America, Singapore, Hong Kong, Africa, USA |
| Key people |
|
| Products | Retail, corporate, investment and private banking, insurance, asset management, private equity |
| Revenue | €42.05 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | €23.85 billion (2010)[1] |
| Profit | €8.181 billion (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | €1.218 trillion (2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €80.91 billion (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 178,870 (2010)[1] |
| Website | www.santander.com |
The Santander Group is a banking group centered on Banco Santander, S.A., the largest bank in the Eurozone[2] and one of the largest banks in the world in terms of market capitalisation. According to Forbes Magazine Global 2000[3], it is the 13th largest public company in the world.[4] It originated in Santander, Cantabria, Spain.
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The 1999 merger of Banco Santander (founded in 1857) and Banco Central Hispano (founded in 1991) following the merger of Banco Central [est. 1919] and Banco Hispanoamericano [est. 1900], created Banco Santander Central Hispano, or BSCH.[5]. This merger between Santander and Banco Central Hispano (BCH) was designed to be a "merger of equals" in which the top executives of the two pre-existing firms would share control of the merged entity. Soon after the merger former BCH executives accused Botin of trying to push his own agenda and threatened to take legal action against him. This post-merger squabbling was resolved when BCH executives Jose Amusategui and Angel Corcostegui agreed to accept severance payments, retire and relinquish control to Mr. Botin, at an expense to shareholders of €164M.[6]
The large termination payouts generated negative press and Botin was eventually brought to trial on criminal charges of "misappropriation of funds" and "irresponsible management." However, in April 2005 he was cleared of all charges. The verdict said the €164M retirement payments made to the two former executives were legal, "made as compensation for the services provided to the bank." In 2005 the anti-corruption division of the Spanish public prosecutor's office cleared Mr. Botin of all charges in a separate case in which he was accused of insider trading.[5]
On 26 July 2004 Banco Santander Central Hispano announced the acquisition of Abbey National plc. Following shareholders' approval at the EGMs of Abbey (95 per cent voted in favour, despite vocal opposition from most of those present) and Santander, the acquisition was formally approved by the courts and Abbey became part of Grupo Santander on 12 November 2004.[7]
In June 2006, Banco Santander Central Hispano purchased almost 20% of Sovereign Bank and acquired the option to buy the bank for $40 per share for one year beginning in the middle of 2008.[8]
In May 2007 Banco Santander Central Hispano announced that in conjunction with Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis it would make an offer for ABN AMRO. BSCH's share of the offer added up to 28% and the offer would have to be made up of a capital increase through a new share issue. Then in October 2007 the consortium outbid Barclays and acquired ABN AMRO. As part of the deal, Grupo Santander acquired ABN AMRO's subsidiary in Brazil, Banco Real, and its subsidiary in Italy, Banca Antonveneta.[9]
On 13 August 2007, Banco Santander Central Hispano changed its legal name to Banco Santander.
In November 2007, it sold Banca Antonveneta to Monte dei Paschi di Siena. In March 2008, Banco Santander sold Interbanca, a subsidiary of Banca Antonveneta, to GE Commercial Finance, receiving in return GE Money businesses in Germany, Finland and Austria, and GE's Card and Auto Financing Businesses in the UK, which it will integrate into Santander Consumer Finance.[10]
The group announced in July 2008 that it intended to take over the UK bank Alliance & Leicester, with £24bn in deposits and 254 branches.[11] The acquisition was completed in October 2008 when the group delisted the company's shares from the London Stock Exchange. This was followed by the acquisition of the savings business of UK bank Bradford & Bingley (B&B) in September 2008, with deposits of £22bn, 2.6m customers, 197 branches and 140 agencies.[12] The banks, along with Abbey, were merged together under the Santander name in the UK at the end of 2010.[13] In 2006 Santander bought Drive financial. a subprime auto lender. In 2009 Santander completed the purchase of Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorp, a 772-branch lender with about $72 billion in assets. Santander Consumer USA, based in Dallas, has a serviced auto-loan portfolio of about $14.9 billion.United States. [14]
In October 2008, Grupo Santander announced that it would acquire the 75.65% of Sovereign Bancorp it did not currently own for approximately US$1.9 billion (€1.4 billion): the acquisition of Sovereign gave Santander its first retail bank in the mainland United States.[15] Santander plans to rename the bank to enhance its global brand recognition by as early as 2012.[16]
On 10 June 2010, Grupo Santander has announced an investment of approximately US$ 270 million (€200 million) in Campinas, Brazil for a technology center, research and data processing, which will include a next-generation data center. The project will prepare the bank to expand its branch network and customer base. This center will meet the operational unit in North America, Central America and South America, from the data processing center to research and technical area. It'll be one of five centers that Grupo Santander has in the world, but certainly the most important and modern. Based on a plot of 1 million square meters, the new center will be established within the Technology Park CIATEC (Companhia de Desenvolvimento do Pólo de Alta Tecnologia de Campinas, in Portuguese) (Development Company for High Technology Cluster of Campinas), which is attended by more than 20 other companies. The area began to be worked out in January 2011, so that within two years, the pole is fully operational. There will be over 8,000 direct and indirect jobs. [17]
Grupo Santander has numerous operations in Latin America. It has rebranded most of the subsidiaries it has acquired to Santander.
Grupo Santander consists of more than 170,000 employees, 90.1 million customers, 13,390 branches and 2.27 million shareholders. Retail banking - the main aspect of Santander's operations - generates 82% of the group's profit.
Currently, Santander is a corporate sponsor of the Ferrari Formula 1 team[18] and the Copa Libertadores de America.
On 1 December 2008, Santander announced that their Formula One sponsorship deal with McLaren will end in 2010, when Santander will become Ferrari's main sponsor. However, in September 2009, Santander announced that it will continue its sponsorship with Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes due to its brand awareness in the UK rising from 20 to 82 percent.[19]
On 14 December 2008, it was revealed that the collapse of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme might mean the loss of 2.33 billion euros at Banco Santander.[20]
On 10 November 2009, HSBC Finance Corporation announced its auto finance entities had reached an agreement with Santander Consumer USA Inc. (SC USA) to sell HSBC US auto loan servicing operations as well as US $1 billion in auto loan receivables for US $904 million in cash, and enter into a loan servicing agreement for the remainder of its US auto loan portfolio, which is in liquidation. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.[21]
Santander plans to convert its Tokyo, Australia and Singapore Representative offices to branches during 2011.
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