Banco Santander focused on efficiency and technology in the third quarter with the ongoing implementation of its One Transformation plan.
One Transformation is a common operating business model, across retail and commercial banking that is improving the bank’s customer service and profitability, Chief Executive Hector Grisi said today during the bank’s earnings call.
“We are progressing in our new phase of value creation, transforming the bank in the right way by changing our model to improve both cost and revenue,” Grisi said.
BIGGER PICTURE: As Santander prioritizes One Transformation, the bank also continued its digitalization efforts, Grisi said.
“We are making good progress with our digital self-service model, increasing the availability of products and services in our digital channels and reducing the use of our contact centers by 16%,” he said.
The bank also added fully digital end-to-end onboarding in Mexico that can be complete in just six minutes Grisi said.
BY THE NUMBERS: For the quarter, Santander reported:
- Net interest income increased 6.6% year over year to 11.2 billion euros ($11.9 billion);
- Information technology costs increased 1.5% sequentially to $650 million;
- Headcount ticked up 4% YoY to 212,219; and
- Branch count fell 5% YoY to 8,652.
NOTEWORTHY: In September, Santander teamed up with independent asset manager Inveready to create a $106 million fund to finance startups in Spain’s venture debt market, according to a Santander release. Santander contributed $71 million and Inveready contributed the rest.
The fund will provide capital to startups that have already been through at least one finance round and have proven that they are tech efficient, according to the release.
FLASHBACK: Last year, Santander and Google Cloud teamed up on Dual Run, which simplifies the migration of legacy mainframe systems to the cloud.
Editor’s note: All amounts have been converted to U.S. dollars.
