Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000891478-25-000054
Chunk: 368

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 20-F
Chunk 368
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 Investment Banking (CIB), Retail & Commercial Banking (Retail), Wealth Management & Insurance (Wealth), Digital Consumer Bank (Consumer) and Payments (Payments). Local CEOs / Country Heads remain ultimately responsible for achieving the budget, execution of the customer and commercial strategy, and financial delivery while global businesses heads lead common businesses and are responsible for the implementation of the global operating model and common tech stack, thereby improving local performance; these result in a truly global-local organization.

7.1 Corporate Centre

The GSGM is supported by a corporate centre, which brings control and support units together with such functions as strategy, risk, compliance, audit, finance, accounting, technology and operations, people and culture, legal services, internal governance, communications and marketing. It adds value to the Group by:

• enhancing governance under robust corporate frameworks, models, policies and procedures to implement strategies and ensure an effective Group oversight;

• making the Group’s units more efficient through cost management synergies, economies of scale and a common brand;

• sharing best commercial practices, with a key focus on global connectivity, launching commercial initiatives globally and bolstering digitalization and transformation; and

• ensuring the suitability of our main executives through the procedure for appointing key positions and assessing suitability that applies to the entire Group.

7.2 Internal governance

Group-subsidiary relationship

The GSGM outlines a set of principles that regulate three types of relationships between the Group and its subsidiaries:

• The subsidiaries’ governing bodies are subject to the Group’s rules and procedures for structuring, forming and running boards of directors and their committees (audit, nomination, remuneration and risk committees), according to international standards. Guidelines regarding subsidiary board composition are aligned with best international practices and ensure an appropriate Group presence on subsidiary boards with at least two Group nominated directors on each board. The subsidiaries are also subject to local regulations and supervisory standards.

• The relationship between local CEOs / Country Heads and the Group CEO. Until January 2025 these relationships were facilitated through three Regional Heads (Europe, North America and South America). Whilst the regional organizational structure has played a key role in ensuring that the Group delivers on its long-term strategic vision and against targets announced as part

Annual report 2024 336

| Contents |     | Business model and strategy |     | Sustainability statement |     | Corporate governance |     | Economic and financial review |     | Riskmanagement and compliance |

of previous investor days, the board agreed to remove this management layer in line with its ongoing focus on streamlining our