Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0000891478-25-000054
Chunk: 971

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 20-F
Chunk 971
---
 anticipate or adapt to emerging technologies or changes in customer behaviour, including among younger customers, could delay or prevent our access to new digital-based markets, which would in turn have an adverse effect on our competitive position and business. Furthermore, the widespread adoption of new technologies, including distributed ledger, AI and/or biometrics, to provide services such as digital currencies, cryptocurrencies and payments, could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our existing products and services as we continue to grow our internet and mobile banking capabilities and could entail new direct risks (including financial and non-financial risks) and indirect risks related to loss of business opportunities. Our

| 909 |

| Contents |     | Cross-reference to Form 20-F |     | Consolidated director's report |     | Consolidated financial statements |     | Supplemental information |

customers may choose to conduct business or offer products in areas that may be considered speculative or risky. Further growth of such new technologies and mobile banking platforms could negatively impact the value of our investments in bank premises, equipment and personnel for our branch network. The persistence or acceleration of this shift in demand towards internet and mobile banking may necessitate further changes to our retail distribution strategy, which may include closing, restructuring and/or selling certain branches (as we have been doing in recent years). These actions could lead to losses on these assets and may lead to increased expenditures to renovate, reconfigure or close a number of our remaining branches or to otherwise reform our retail distribution channel. Furthermore, our failure to implement such changes to our distribution strategy swiftly and effectively could have an adverse effect our competitive position.

In particular, we face the challenge to compete in an ecosystem where the relationship with the consumer is based on access to digital data and interactions. This access is increasingly dominated by digital platforms who are already eroding our results in very relevant markets such as payments. This privileged access to data can be used as a leverage to compete with us in other adjacent markets and may reduce our operations and margins in core businesses such as lending or wealth management. The alliances that our competitors are starting to build with large technology firms can make it more difficult for us to successfully compete with them and could adversely affect us.

Increasing competition could also require that we increase our rates offered on deposits or lower the rates we charge on loans, which could also have a material adverse effect on us, including our profitability. It may also negatively affect our business results and prospects by, among other things, limiting our ability to increase our customer base and expand our operations and increasing competition for investment opportunities.

If