Santander Bank history

Santander Bank was founded on January 1, 1907 and has been serving the financial needs of their customers for over 114 years.

Banco Central was founded in Madrid on December 6, 1919 by the Marquis of Aldama, the Count of Los Gaitanes, and Juan N é nez Anchustegui.

1921: Banco Central acquires Banco de Albacete.

Government measures passed in 1931 to meet the crisis in Spanish banking consolidated Banco Central's position.

In 1942 it opened in Madrid.

In 1956, our Latin America Department was created.

He expanded the bank throughout Spain, so in 1957 it was Spain's seventh-largest bank.

In 1960, Emilio Botín Sanz de Sautuola y García de los Ríos joined the board of directors.

In 1962 the reforms continued with the establishment of a new government department to plan and coordinate economic development, and laws reforming Spanish banking were passed in April and June that year.

To comply with the new banking regulations, Banco Central also formed Banco de Fomento in 1963 to compete in the newly established industrial bank category.

Established in Miami in 1979, Banco Santander International offers holistic private banking and investment services to high-net-worth individuals and non-United States residents, with a focus on Latin America.

From their base as operators of their wives' construction company Construcciones y Contratas (Conycon) and executors of family money, the cousins began to buy Banco Central stock in 1988, eventually joining forces with the Kuwait Investment office (KIO) for about a 12 percent stake.

After banking laws were changed in mid-80s, Abbey National became the first building society in the UK to demutualise, with listing on the London Stock Exchange completed in 1989

1990: Banco Central fails to acquire Banesto.

In 1994, the acquisition of Banco Español de Crédito (Banesto) marked an important milestone in our history by making us the leading bank in the Spanish market.

Banco Santander Central Hispano S.A. (BSCH) was created from the merger of Spain's number one bank, Banco Santander, with its number three rival, Banco Central Hispanoamericano, in 1999.

With more than 106,000 employees across more than 6,200 branches at the time of the merger, BSCH, under new management led by Angel Corcostegui, is expected to streamline its operations beginning in 2000, cutting payroll back as much as 30 percent.

In June 2006, Banco Santander purchased almost 20% of Sovereign Bank for US$2.4 billion.

As Banco Santander owned 25% of Sovereign, it had the right to buy the bank for $40 per share for one year beginning in the middle of 2008.

On January 30, 2009, Banco Santander completed its acquisition of Sovereign Bank, for about $2.51 per share.

In August 2011, the bank announced its plans to formally relocate its United States headquarters from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, to Boston, Massachusetts, where its top executives had already been located for the previous few years.

In 2013, the shareholders’ meetings approved Santander’s merger by absorption of Banesto and Banif, a process that was gradually carried out over the course of the year.

In March 2015, Scott Powell was appointed head of United States business at Santander, and CEO of Santander Holdings USA, replacing Roman Blanco.

Powell left his role as CEO in December 2019.