Banco Santander reorganizes its structure to advance with its new strategic plan

Banco Santander has taken another step to comply with the strategic plan it presented last February by announcing the consolidation of its retail and commercial banking segments, on the one hand, and consumer financing, on the other, under the creation of two new global business areas: Commercial Banking and Consumer Financing, as reported by the entity in a statement.

These two new units join the other three that already exist – Investment and Corporate Banking, Private Banking and Insurance and, finally, Payments – and delve into the group's idea of organizing its structure into large global areas that allow for the creation of synergies between the different countries in which it operates.

“We announce a decisive step to align the operating model of the retail, commercial and consumer banking areas to our strategy. Having made progress since we launched our strategy in 2015, we know that by leveraging our unique combination of global scale and local leadership we can better serve customers and grow profitably.. We are convinced that this will be positive for clients and will also allow us to progress more quickly and meet all the objectives that we set for ourselves at this year's Investor Day,” says Ana Botín, president of the entity, in the statement..

Among these objectives are increasing the number of customers by 40 million by 2025, increasing the return on tangible equity (RoTE) to 15-17% and achieving double-digit growth on an annual average in the sum of tangible book value (TNAV) per share plus the dividend per share throughout the cycle.

The new segments will be led by Daniel Barriuso, in the case of Retail & Commercial, who will integrate the entire retail and commercial banking business of group companies, and by José Luis de Mora, who will be in charge of Digital Consumer Bank, an area that will bring together the entire consumer financing business in the world.

José María Linares will continue to lead Corporate & Investment Banking; Víctor Matarranz, from Wealth Management & Insurance, while Payments will continue to be managed by Javier San Félix, in the PagoNxt part and by Matías Sánchez, in Global Cards.

Under this new structure, global managers will define the common operating and business model, based on global platforms, while country managers will lead business management.

The group will also adapt the way it reports financial results to the new model starting in January 2024, when it will be fully implemented, given that the five global businesses will become the group's main segments.

To facilitate year-on-year comparisons and analysis, the bank will publish information adapted to the new segments before the announcement of 2023 results, scheduled for January 31, 2024.. The group will continue to offer detailed information on countries and regions, although it will do so as secondary segments.