Banco Santander Credits Technology Platforms for Achievement of Record Results – PYMNTS.com

By PYMNTS  |  February 5, 2025

Banco Santander credited its technology platforms with helping it achieve record results in 2024.

“As one of the largest retail and consumer banks in the world, we have the scale to build our own technology platforms, making it possible to offer customers the best products and services while constantly reducing the cost-to-serve,” Banco Santander Executive Chair Ana Botín said in a Wednesday (Feb. 5) earnings release. “This is a key competitive advantage and is reflected in our results through continuous improvement in operating leverage.”

In 2024, Banco Santander achieved record levels in net interest income, net fee income, total income and profit, according to the earnings release.

The bank also added 8 million new customers during the year. It now serves 173 million customers in 10 core markets in Europe and the Americas, per the release.

Santander’s launch of Openbank in the United States and the partnerships of Zinia with Amazon and Apple demonstrated the bank’s progress on its strategy to “deliver the best solutions to customers and transform our operating model,” it said in a presentation released Wednesday.

Santander launched Openbank, its digital bank, in the U.S. in October, offering high-yield savings accounts. Botín said days later that it will have a full-service digital bank in the country by the end of 2025.

The bank said in August that Zinia, its consumer finance platform, teamed up with Amazon to launch a new Amazon Visa card in Germany. Santander said at the time that its goal is to expand its digital consumer finance business by signing deals with global tech companies.

In June, Santander said that Zinia would become the new consumer finance provider for Apple in Germany.

Santander’s global platforms also helped it accelerate its wealth business’ connectivity with customers and seize a growing opportunity for its payments business, according to the presentation.

Botín said in the Wednesday earnings release that Banco Santander is “only scratching the surface of our potential.”

“As we said at our Investor Day, Santander is in a new era of value creation, and we are confident that our scale, diversification and the impact of our transformation will enable us to increase profitability again in 2025,” Botín said.