Santander Group puts aside $22.5bn for digital transformation
Banco Santander, the Spanish multinational finance giant which trades as Santander Group, has announced it has €20bn (US$22.45bn) earmarked to spend on digital technology over the next four years.
Santander hopes that its digital transformation will enable it to remove €1.2bn in annual costs from its balance sheet, thanks to the efficiencies brought about by new technology investment.
At the bank’s annual investor day on 3 April, executive chairman Ana Botin said: “We are positioning the company to capitalise on the world class assets we have across the Group, including our technology, talent and scale. This will allow us to benefit from the opportunities presented by digital innovation and will result in us becoming a digital leader in global financial services for the next decade.”
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As a multinational organisation, Santander is undergoing a significant technology transformation journey, leveraging the latest innovative solutions to improve its operations and, in turn, the service it provides its customers and the communities within which it operates.
In an exclusive interview with Gigabit, Santander UK’s Chief Data Officer David Hayes and Managing Director of Technology Andy Pearson stressed that the company is on a continuous journey with the overall aim of improving lives.
“Technology is fundamental to banking and fundamental to what we do here,” said Pearson. “Our aspiration is to be the best open digital bank so we need to stay abreast of the latest developments and adapt to new ways of working, and be responsive to what the market and the customer needs.”
Hayes added: “I firmly believe technology will completely change banking in the next 20 years. The challenge for the industry will be to embrace those technologies – and the winners will be those who can do that in a way which is right for the customer.”