Santander wants to grow in the US by capturing deposits and with private banking for large Latin American fortunes

MADRID, 11 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Banco Santander aspires to accelerate its performance and profitability in the United States, taking advantage of the capture of retail deposits as levers to boost its consumer credit business and its presence in Miami to do private banking for large Latin American fortunes.

The CEO of Santander, Héctor Grisi, advanced after the publication of the bank's results, that the objective is to launch a savings product by 2024 and complete the offer with more products of this type during next year.

Santander's strategy involves strengthening its consumer credit business, especially car financing, by capturing retail deposits, the cost of which is lower than going on the market to finance itself with debt.

During 2023, about 35% of auto segment loans were financed by deposits. By 2025, Santander's objective is for the 'mix' to accelerate and around half of the loans to be financed with deposits.

The profitability (RoTE) of the consumer division in the United States closed 2023 at 11%. The objective for 2025 is to boost it to a range that goes from around 15% to below 20% (expressed in financial jargon, Santander's specific objective is 'mid-high teens').

In the private banking business, Santander has an important base in Miami, which it strengthened three years ago by purchasing Indosuez's private banking business in that city, incorporating some 4,300 million dollars (3,993 million euros) in client assets and liabilities. .

The bank led by Ana Botín wants to take advantage of its strong presence in Latin American countries and that base in Miami to attract large Latin American fortunes in the United States as clients and continue gaining scale in the country. In 2023, the entity managed a cross-business volume between Latin America, Europe and the United States of around 53.88 billion euros, 15% more than the previous year.

Banco Santander's current strategy in the United States involves focusing on specific business lines where they can be leaders, leaving aside activities considered non-strategic, such as mortgages.

Santander closed 2023 with 4.51 million total customers in the United States, of which 4.22 million were considered active customers. Likewise, it recorded an attributable net profit in the country of 932 million euros, 47.7% less than in 2022. Total income fell 5.4%, to 7,209 million euros. Of that figure, net interest income stood at 5,742 million, 6.5% less.