Grupo Santander is a banking group centered on Banco Santander, the largest bank in the Eurozone. Grupo Santander is one of the largest banks in the world (in terms of market capitalisation). It originated in Santander, Cantabria, Spain.

History
Banco Hispanoamericano was created in 1900. Banco Central was created in 1919. Banco Central and Banco Hispanoamericano merged.
Banco Santander was founded in 1857. Banco Central Hispano was founded in 1991. In 1999, Banco Santander and Banco Central Hispano merged, creating Banco Santander Central Hispano, or BSCH.

The 1999 merger between Santander and Central Hispano was designed to be a "merger of equals". The top executives of the two firms would share control of the new firm. Soon after the merger former Central Hispano executives thought chairman Botin of trying to control the firm. They threatened to take legal action against him. The issue was resolved when Central Hispano the executives agreed to severance payments (money given when leaving a company), retirement. They also turned control of the firm over to Mr. Botin. This action cost the shareholders of the firm  €164M.

Because of the large payouts, Mr. Botin was brought to trial on criminal charges of "misappropriation of funds" (using company money the wrong way) and "irresponsible management." In April 2005 he was cleared of all charges. The decision said the retirement payments made were legal, "made as compensation for the services provided to the bank." 

In 2005, Mr. Botin was accused of insider trading (trading stock based on knowledge the general public did not have). The anti-corruption division of the Spanish public prosecutor's office cleared Mr. Botin of all charges.

On 26 July 2004 Banco Santander Central Hispano announced the purchase of Abbey National plc. The shareholders' approved of the purchase, and it was formally approved by the courts. Abbey became part of Grupo Santander on 12 November 2004.

In June 2006, Banco Santander Central Hispano purchased almost 20% of Sovereign Bank. They also acquired the option to buy Sovereign Bank for $40 per share in the middle of 2008.

In May 2007 Banco Santander Central Hispano announced that it would make an offer to purchase ABN AMRO. This offer was in conjunction with Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis. BSCH's offered to purchase 28% of ABN AMRO. The offer would be made by a capital increase through a new stock share issue. In October 2007,  the group outbid Barclays and purchased  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.

On 13 August 2007, Banco Santander Central Hispano changed its legal name to Banco Santander.

In November 2007, it sold Banca Antonveneta to Monte dei Paschi di Siena. In March 2008,  Banco Santander sold Interbanca, a subsidiary of Banca Antonveneta, to GE Commercial Finance In return, it received GE Money businesses in Germany, Finland and Austria, and GE's Card and Auto Financing Businesses in the UK. These will be integrate into Santander Consumer Finance.

The group announced in July 2008 that it intended to takeover the UK bank Alliance & Leicester. Alliance & Leicester had £24bn in deposits and 254 branches. The purchase was completed in October 2008 when the group removed the company's shares from the London Stock Exchange. This was followed by the purchase of the savings business of UK bank Bradford & Bingley (B&B) in September 2008 B&B had deposits of £22bn, 2.6m customers, 197 branches and 140 agencies. The banks, along with Abbey, are to be merged under the Santander name in the UK by the end of 2010.

In October 2008, Grupo Santander announced that it would purchase the 75.65% of Sovereign Bancorp it does not currently own. This would cosst approximately US$1.9 billion (€1.4 billion). The purchase of Sovereign has given Santander its first retail bank in the mainland United States.

Fundación Banco Santander

The Foundation has the objective of Financing Master and Doctorate Scholarships.

Operations
Grupo Santander has numerous operations in Latin America. It has renamed most of the subsidiaries it has acquired to Santander.

Grupo Santander has 131,819 employees, 90.1 million customers, 11,178 branches and 2.27 million shareholders. Retail banking - the main part of Santander's operations - generates 82% of the group's profit.

Currently, Santander is a corporate sponsor of the Ferrari Formula One team and the Copa Libertadores de America.

On December 1, 2008, Santander announced that their Formula One sponsorship deal with McLaren will end in 2010, when Santander will become Ferrari's main sponsor. However, in September 2009, Santander announced that it will continue its sponsorship with Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes due to its brand awareness in the UK rising from 20 to 82 percent.

On December 14, 2008, it was revealed that the collapse of Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme might mean the loss of 2.33 billion euros at Banco Santander.

On November 10, 2009, HSBC Finance Corporation announced an agreement with Santander Consumer USA Inc. (SC USA). SC USA would sell HSBC US auto loan processing operations, and US $1 billion in auto loan receivables (money due to be received) for US $904 million in cash. SC USA would also enter into a loan processing agreement for the remainder of its US auto loan portfolio. This portfolio is in liquidation (being sold to pay off a debt). The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010.

Global operations
 Santander Private Banking - pb.santander.com 
 Santander Consumer Finance - www.santanderconsumer.com

European operations
Austria
 Santander Consumer Bank Austria AG  - www.santanderconsumer.at

Belgium
 Santander Consumer Finance Benelux B.V. - www.santander.be

Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Nova Santander Banka d.o.o. Trebinje

Czech Republic
 Santander Consumer Finance a.s. - www.santander.cz 

Denmark
 Santander Consumer Bank AS

Finland
 Santander Consumer Finance Oy - www.santander.fi 

France
 Santander Consumer France - www.santanderfinancements.fr 

Germany
 Santander Consumer Bank AG - www.santander.de
 Santander Consumer Debit GmbH
 Santander Consumer Leasing GmbH

Hungary
 Santander Consumer Finance Cltd - www.santander.hu 

Italy
 Santander Consumer Bank S.p.a - www.santanderconsumer.it
 Santander Private Banking

Jersey (UK)
 Abbey International

Luxembourg
 Banco Santander Totta S.A

Netherlands
 Santander Consumer Finance Benelux B.V. - www.santander.nl

Norway
 Santander Consumer Bank AS  - www.elcon.no

Poland
 Santander Consumer Bank S.A. - www.santanderconsumer.pl

Portugal
 Banco Santander Consumer Portugal, SA - www.santanderconsumer.pt
 Crédito Predial Português
 Hispamer
 Banco Santander Totta S.A

Russia
 Santander Consumer Finance - www.santanderconsumer.ru 

Slovak Republic
 Santander Consumer Finance a.s. - www.santander.sk 

Spain
 Banco Santander
 Banesto
 Santander Consumer Finance
 Openbank
 Banco BANIF

Sweden
 Santander Consumer Bank - www.santander.se

Switzerland
 Santander Private Banking

United Kingdom
 Santander UK
 Alliance & Leicester
 Cahoot
 Cater Allen Private Bank
 Santander Cards UK
 Santander Consumer (UK) plc
 Santander Totta

Latin American operations
Argentina
 Banco Santander Río (after acquisition of the local Banco Río by Santander) - www.santanderrio.com.ar

Brazil
 Banco Santander Brasil

Chile
 Banco Santander-Chile (exBanco Santander Santiago)
 Banco Santander Banefe

Colombia
 Banco Santander Colombia

Mexico
 Banco Santander (from merger of Banco Mexicano, Banco Serfín and Santander)

Peru
 Banco Santander Perú S.A. - www.santander.com.pe

Puerto Rico
 Banco Santander Puerto Rico - www.santandernet.com 
 Santander Overseas Bank - www. www.santanderoverseas.com 

Uruguay
 Banco Santander Uruguay www.santander.com.uy

Asian operations
China
 Banco Santander, S.A. - Hong Kong Branch
 Banco Santander, S.A. - Shanghai Branch

African operations
 Attijariwafa Bank (4,55% share)

North American operations
USA
 Santander Private Banking
 Sovereign Bank
 Santander Consumer USA Inc.
 Santander Global Banking & Markets
 Roadloans -- www.roadloans.com

Related pages
 Inter-Alpha Group of Banks

References

Notes

Sources
Guillén, Mauro and Adrian Tschoegl (2008) Building a Global Bank: The Transformation of Banco Santander. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press).

Other websites
 

Banks of Europe
1857 establishments in Europe
Cantabria
Companies of Spain