Santander’s "digital bank with branches" strategy, technology platforms, and new product and service development are key to meeting the needs of people and businesses. And those are three reasons that have made it possible to obtain the recognition from renowned magazine The Banker by naming us “Bank of the Year in Spain and Chile”.

 

At Santander, we strive every day to be the best open financial services platform by acting responsibly and earning the trust of our employees, customers, shareholders and broader society. Our teams the world over build on our global scale and in-market leadership to adapt the business to local circumstances. 

Several organizations and publications have praised our work. Most recently, Financial Times-owned magazine The Banker named us “Bank of the Year” in Spain and Chile. These awards speak to our geographically diverse income streams and balance sheet.

Santander España and Santander Chile stood head and shoulders above fellow nominees from over 120 countries in these areas, which give the bank a competitive edge in our markets:

1. Strategic initiatives. Santander España is making strides with “One Transformation”, a strategic programme to accelerate change, make operating models more efficient, and enhance customer experience through cutting-edge technology and advanced analysis.

Santander Chile has sought to set up specialist teams to offer tailored services in the agriculture, automotive and other industries. 

“We’ve focused on standing with and helping our customers overcome the challenges of digitalization and energy transition in this difficult economic backdrop of inflation and uncertainty. Our customer focus has enabled us to grow customers for 26 consecutive months, with better services in all business segments and on all channels”.

Ángel Rivera, CEO of Santander Spain

2. Technology. We’re converging and enhancing our technology to become a data-driven bank that offers customers a first-class user experience. Building robust technology to process data has proved a major step towards developing our global platforms. In fact, data is precisely the reason for The Banker’s praise of Grupo Santander, with our digital platform “Gravity”. This software, which we built in-house, is enabling us to migrate our core banking mainframe to the cloud as part of our technology transformation.

In Chile, our Santander Consumer subsidiary has successfully migrated its tech infrastructure to the cloud, and we expect to migrate Santander Chile’s entire core banking mainframe by the end of 2023.

3. Products and services. Santander España launched “Santander Growth”, a credit services initiative to help SMEs. Santander Chile's Work Cafés continue to be a resounding success as innovative co-working coffee houses that also offer regular banking products and services. 

“We see ourselves as a digital bank that has WorkCafé branches, innovative solutions to customers’ needs, and a zeal for responsible management, the environment and the communities we serve”.

Román Blanco, CEO of Santander Chile

About The Banker

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Financial Times-owned magazine The Banker was founded in 1926. Its Bank of the Year awards are an industry standard. This year, the competing institutions were judged on their ability to deliver strong financial performance while turning challenges into opportunities in an ever-evolving business environment.

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