Tuesday September 10 are filled ten years since the appointment of Ana Botín as executive president of Banco SantanderAfter his father’s death, Emilio Botin.
In a brief interview published on the group’s website and conducted by journalist Miguel Ángel Noceda, Botín reviews some of the highlights of that decade, from the memory of his father and grandfather to the bank’s future objectives, going through this whole period marked by the cultural and technological transformation of Santander.
Since her term as president began in September 2014, the Cantabrian-based bank has increased its customer base by more than 60 million, reaching 168 million. Furthermore, if the expectations announced by the group for 2024 are met, Over the last ten years, Santander has tripled its profitssix times the shareholders’ remuneration, thus increasing its profitability by 70% and the capital ratio by 50%.
Even this year, Santander’s shares have been trading around historic highs (discounted dividends) and the entity has once again been the eurozone’s leading bank in terms of market value.
Ten years have passed since you became president of Santander. What memories do you have of your childhood, of your grandfather, your father, of your time before working in banking? Were you clear about your world and did you want to dedicate yourself to finance?
For me, it is very important to understand the past in order to succeed in the future. And September is a special month because, as you say, I have been responsible for Santander for ten years. But it is also the month in which we remember my father and grandfather. Their birthdays are now, one is turning ten and the other is 30-31.
Paraphrasing, I think it was Newton, I think I understand that we can do what we do because we’re building on the shoulders of giants, because we’re building on a very solid foundation that we’ve been building for many years and that I think is super important to understand.
Since I was little, I always joined my father and grandfather at family gatherings or meals. They met alone and I joined them. And he always listened and talked a lot about finances. I remember very well talking with my father about industrial investments, banking or expansion in Latin America.
When I was little and there were meetings, I would sit with my father and grandfather. He listened and talked a lot about finances.
But in the family we also had, in my case, my mother, who has been convinced for many years that education is the most important thing she can leave us. And she has always instilled in us music, culture, art, sports and other interests. Well, it is something that has marked us since we were very young.
In any case, the bank is currently a global bank. What steps would you highlight in this international leap in which you have clearly been very involved?
Well, the first big international leap was made by my grandfather. But in reality, at that time, in the 50s, he was president for more than 30 years, the first big step was, and today we are in this building of Banco Mercantil, to buy Mercantil, which was its biggest competitor. I would say that at that time, in the 50s and 60s, there was a great expansion, but this expansion was also consolidated, which was not only national, but also international.
In my father’s time, the expansion was bigger, even faster. We became the first bank in the eurozone, the first bank in Spain, we made many purchases. I would like to highlight in my father’s time, the disruptions that broke the status quo. You will remember this time well, with the Superaccount.
José Antonio Álvarez, Ana Botín and Héctor Grisi.
I experienced it very closely…
It was my turn, and my father was at the helm for about 20 years, but it was my turn to first consolidate and then also reinvent, to transform the bank. I mean, I think that’s kind of what I would highlight about those ten years.
Ten years that have not been easy at all, because the bank and you, at the head of the bank, have had to fight against increasing geopolitical, economic and regulatory headwinds. A series of circumstances that, of course, have not made management easy at all. What makes you most proud of all that you have accomplished during these years at the forefront and with all these difficulties?
I have no doubt that what I am most proud of is having achieved these numbers. But I always say it in the right way. That is, when they ask me what is the most difficult thing in my position or my responsibility, it is ultimately finding a balance between delivering today, that is, making numbers, increasing profits, increasing the customer base, but also making sure that we do it in the right way. In a sustainable way, we always think that it is for the planet, which is of course one of the goals, but also to invest for the future.
And that balance is sometimes difficult because the market is very short term and what rewards you the most is when you deliver higher and higher results very quickly. In these ten years, we have tripled profits, we have increased capital by more than 50% and we have multiplied shareholder returns sixfold, and I believe we will increase by 60 million customers.
This is one of the goals that we set for ourselves, financial inclusion, and we set 10 million people who would have access to a bank for the first time and we reached that number two years early. These are goals that I think we can be proud of, but also very confident that we will continue to improve and that we will continue to progress.
The market has to be convinced that my technology, which I develop, is as good as anyone else’s, and that has to show in the numbers. You’re starting to see it in the numbers.
As you say, there has been a big change in the way banking works. What are the pillars of this transformation that you have led?
When I took on this position ten years ago and, as I always say, this responsibility, in 100 days we increased the capital and carried out, in January 2015, the largest capital increase ever carried out in Europe in 48 hours.
We changed a large part of the team and the board of directors and, above all, we established a vision and a strategy where, among other things, we said that we wanted to do things differently.
This change of culture is what takes the longest. And it must be said that we have not finished really leaving the bank in an advantageous situation compared not only to banks, but also to other players, to new players like the big platforms or to new digital competitors.
So we decided to be an open and responsible financial services platform and that requires a big cultural change, it requires changing the way we organize ourselves.
This requires really thinking about the customer and the product that this customer, that is to say you, you question me with your mobile phone, you realize, that is to say that in the end, you, me and we all live with the mobile phone. Hence this idea that in banking we want to be a commercial bank, the territorials, the managers, are the link with the customer.
We aim to be an open and responsible financial services platform
That’s true and that’s my big difference. But we spend much more time with our mobile phones than with a bank manager. Therefore, if we don’t have a digital product that is equal to or better than our competitors, banking and non-banking, we will not survive. And that requires a radical change in the way we manage banking, the culture, the profiles…
And this is the big change that we started ten years ago. It requires us to organize ourselves as a single bank, not only in Spain, but in different markets, and it requires understanding that technology is no longer a support function, but an integral part of the business.
And what are your immediate plans?
Well, we have very ambitious plans in the US. In October of this year, we are going to launch Openbank in the US, and this is something that really differentiates us from all our European peers.
Ana Botín, President of Banco Santander
Digital banking is going to allow us to have much faster growth in the US market. And that is something that really makes a difference and that we have already shown that we are profitable. Where we have had the greatest value creation for the Santander Group in the period 19-20-21-22 is in the United States, and the growth potential that we have there, with our bank in Latin America, is enormous.
Do you think you have succeeded in convincing people that the group is worth more than the sum of its parts? Are you already seeing the results of the technological bet you are talking about and that you seem to like so much to compete in the same league as the big technology companies?
It’s not that I seem to like it so much, it’s that I have the absolute conviction that it’s the only solution. I’m building my own technology. It can’t be done just by Santander Spain or Santander Brazil. We have to do it once for the whole group.
We had a vision, and I had a clear vision, that we had to run the group for global businesses. The transformation had to leverage the size of the group and work together, taking advantage of these unique advantages that we have. So what happens? On the one hand, the market has to be convinced that my technology, which I develop, is as good as anyone else’s and that has to show in the numbers. You’re starting to see it in the numbers.
He had a clear vision that the group should be managed for global business and leverage the size of the group.
But the market is always looking in the rearview mirror. So the reality is it took us seven or eight years to start delivering results that match everything we built and that’s why we had two years where the stock improved by almost 60%.
And very importantly, we have announced capital buybacks, which brings us to a buyback of 13% of the bank’s capital in recent years. And this is something that, without a doubt, will allow us to continue improving the market perception of Santander.
But we still have a lot to go. Without a doubt, Santander is today the European bank, I would say the world bank, with the greatest potential for value creation in the coming years. And this has been recognized by the market since 2023. We have progressed and improved more than our peers.
