Santander takes a holistic view of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) that encompasses all our stakeholders and the entire value chain.

Our global DE&I strategy for 2020-2025 inspires us to operate in an ethical, conscious and transparent manner to accelerate change and make headway with enhancing employee and customer experience, based on trust.

DE&I is linked to our corporate culture, acts as a driver of the Group’s transformation, and promotes sustainable, responsible and inclusive growth. What's more, DE&I has a long-term positive impact on people, teams, organizations and broader society. 

DE&I principles

Diversity

san_drop_up

Recognizing and supporting all types of diversity (gender, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic background, etc.) to understand customer needs better and offer innovative solutions.

Equity

san_drop_up

Promoting meritocracy and equal opportunity in the entire employee experience cycle to prevent bias that leads to discrimination. Building accessible products and environments for customers and encouraging investment to reduce social inequality.

Inclusion

san_drop_up

To generate a respectful environment in which people feel valued so they can realize their full potential and sense of belonging. 


Embedding diversity, equity and inclusion in our Group leadership principles for our top management to engage in, and commit to, DE&I. Their performance and remuneration reviews include ESG standards and targets linked to DE&I.

"Diversity only adds up if we create the right environment. It is not just about policies and quotas, but rather a complete change of how companies operate, hire and promote their people in order to embed diversity in an organisation’s culture"

Ana Botín, Executive Chair

A holistic DE&I strategy

People

One of our key aims is to create an inclusive working environment where everyone feels safe and free to express their identity, ideas and opinions.

Our General Code of Conduct promotes equal opportunities, diversity, non-discrimination, zero tolerance for labour or sexual harassment, an inclusive and respectful work environment, work-life balance, and human rights.

Canal Abierto is our ethical channel to report unlawful conduct anonymously. As part of our active listening campaign, Your Voice, we gauge employees’ opinions on DE&I to guide our actions.

Customers

Cultivating diverse teams enables us to understand better the needs of our customers and to come up with innovative solutions.

Santander has a commitment to make branches and online banking accessible and products simple and inclusive for all groups.

We also promote financial inclusion and empowerment to make sure everyone can access basic financial services that adapt to their needs. We break down barriers by focusing on underbanked communities, senior citizens and low-income households.

Shareholders and investors

Our DE&I disclosures are transparent and follow ESG standards. We also monitor our targets and public commitments closely.

We make the content we post online and our general shareholders’ meetings accessible through subtitles, sign language interpretation, barrier-free spaces and other elements.

We also run NGO donation campaigns to contribute to social cohesion.

Society

We promote actions that generate a positive impact on communities through strategic alliances and investment focused on education, employability and entrepreneurship to boost a fairer society.

We are part of Fortune Magazine's 'Change the World' 2024 list, which recognizes companies with innovative business strategies that have a positive social and environmental impact.

And across the entire value chain

People, our leading light

DE&I governance

We discuss DE&I matters at the highest level of management; it’s one of the Group board of directors’ nondelegable topics.

DE&I features in many of our internal rules and policies. Our global and local executive committees review them as follows:

 

DE&I impact

In 2023
9.3 / 10*

employees felt "included"

In 2023
9.3 / 10*

employees felt "included"

*91% aggregate participation

We measure and assess our impact in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion by fostering a culture that is rich in diversity and where everyone feels valued and included.

We run an engagement survey, Your Voice, to gauge perception of DE&I matters and spot areas for improvement.

In 2023, 9.3 employees out of 10 said they felt included in terms of gender, nationality, sexual orientation, religion and other aspects. This score puts us 0.5 above the sector average and in the top 5%.

Protocol against workplace, sexual and discriminatory harassment and promoting moral integrity at Work

Santander’s anti-harassment policy reinforces the Group's dedication to combating discrimination. It sets out minimum standards of behaviour and outlines the channels available to report issues and the protection offered to staff who make complaints. All incidents are treated confidentiality and overseen by an impartial investigation team. The Protocol is the cornerstone of the mandatory training initiative slated for all employees in 2024.

Awards

We feature in DE&I indices and rankings. They include: 

 

 

Euromoney - Awards for Excellence
 
  • Best Bank for Diversity & Inclusion in Brazil
  • Best Bank for Diversity & Inclusion in Chile
  • Best Bank for Diversity & Inclusion in Mexico
  • Best Bank for Diversity & Inclusion in Spain

Euromoney - Market Leaders in the Diversity & Inclusion category in Poland

Euromoney - Market Leaders in the Diversity & Inclusion category in Brazil

Euromoney - Market Leaders in the Diversity & Inclusion category in Chile

Euromoney - Market Leaders in the Diversity & Inclusion category in Mexico

Euromoney - Highly Regarded in the Diversity & Inclusion category in Argentina

Financial Times / Statista – Featured in Europe's Diversity Leaders

Fortune Magazine - ‘Change the World’ list 2023 (1st bank in the ranking)

Fortune Magazine - ‘World’s Most Admired Companies’ list 2024 (7th most admired bank in the world)

Fortune Magazine – ‘Change the World’ list 2024

Things that inspire us