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Grupo Santander
Type	Public
Founded	1857
Headquarters	Santander, Spain
Key people	Emilio Botín, President
Industry	Banking
Products	Financial services
Employees	129,749 (2006)
Slogan	"Values from ideas"
Website	www.santander.com

Grupo Santander (LSE: BNC, NYSE: STD, IBEX-35: SAN) is a banking group centered around Banco Santander, the largest bank in Spain, which originated in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. It is the third largest bank in Europe in terms of market capitalization, and also has numerous operations in Latin America. It has rebranded most of the subsidiaries it has acquired to Santander.

Grupo Santander consists of 126,000 employees, 68 million customers, 10,000 branches and 2.6 million shareholders. Retail banking - the main aspect of Santander's operations - generates 82% of the group's profit. The group is amongst the top ten banking organisations in the world and is the biggest bank in the Eurozone. Currently, they are a corporate sponsor of the McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 team.

Contents 1 History 2 Shareholdings 3 The Five Pillar Business Model 4 Global Units 5 European Operations 5.1 Austria 5.2 Czech Republic 5.3 Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina 5.4 Germany 5.5 Hungary 5.6 Italy 5.7 Jersey 5.8 Netherlands 5.9 Norway 5.10 Poland 5.11 Portugal 5.12 Spain 5.13 Switzerland 5.14 United Kingdom 6 Latin American Operations 6.1 Argentina 6.2 Brazil 6.3 Chile 6.4 Colombia 6.5 Mexico 6.6 Peru 6.7 Puerto Rico 6.8 Uruguay 6.9 Venezuela 7 African Operations 8 North American Operations 8.1 USA 9 External links

The merger in 1999 of Banco Santander (founded in 1857) and Banco Central Hispano (BCH), founded in 1991 following the merger of Banco Central (est. 1919) and Banco Hispanoamericano (est. 1900), created Banco Santander Central Hispano, or BSCH. On 13 August 2007, Banco Santander Central Hispano changed its legal name to Banco Santander.

On 26 July 2004 Abbey National plc (in the United Kingdom) and Banco Santander Central Hispano announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Banco Santander of Abbey. 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.

In June 2006, Banco Santander Central Hispano purchased almost 20% of Sovereign Bank (in the United States) for $2.4 billion. As Banco Santander owns 25% of Sovereign, it has the right to buy the bank for $40 per share for one year beginning in the middle of 2008.[1]

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. Banco Santander Central Hispano 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. In November 2007, it sold Banca Antonveneta to Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

Shareholders of banks acquired by Banco Santander retain the same number of shares they bought originally, but they are renamed to Santander. The most recent example is with Abbey National shares, where the bank was delisted from the London Stock Exchange and then relisted, but under the name of Banco Santander Central Hispano.

Banco Santander states that it has its own business model, based upon a five pillar system. These are:

• Customer-focused management
• Efficiency
• Credit risk quality
• Capital discipline
• "Multilocal" management with a global vision

• Santander Private Banking

• Santander Consumer Finance

• Santander Consumer Bank Austria AG

• Santander Consumer Finance a.s.

• Santander Banka

• Santander Consumer Bank AG
• Santander Consumer Debit GmbH
• Santander Consumer Leasing GmbH

• Santander Consumer Finance Zrt.

• Santander Consumer

• Abbey International

• Santander Consumer Finance BV (Abfin)

• Santander Consumer Bank AS

• Santander Consumer Bank S.A.

• Crédito Predial Português
• Hispamer
• Banco Santander Totta S.A

• Santander
• Banesto
• Santander Consumer Finance, formerly Hispamer
• Openbank
• Banco BANIF

• Santander Private Banking

• Abbey
• cahoot

• Banco Santander Rio (formerly known as Banco Rio)

• Banco Santander Brasil - formerly Santander Banespa, resultant of the merger of the following Santander-owned banks:
  • Banespa
  • Banco Santander Meridional (formerly Banco Meridional)
  • Banco Santander Brasil (formerly Banco Noroeste)
  • Banco Real

• Banco Santander(exBanco Santander Santiago)

• Banco Santander Colombia

• Banco Santander México (formerly Banco Santander Serfín)

• Banco Santander Perú S. A.

• Banco Santander Puerto Rico
• Santander Overseas Bank

• Banco Santander Uruguay

• Banco de Venezuela

• Attijariwafa Bank

• Santander Private Banking

• Sovereign Bank - The group owns 24.99% of the common stock of Sovereign Bank and has the option to buy the remaining shares. If they purchase the entire bank it would probably be renamed and Santander would have its first retail bank in the mainland United States, since they have been in Puerto Rico since 1976.

• Group Website
• Banco Santander stock quote

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