Banco Santander on UK expansion tour
January 1, 2008
The Spanish Bank Santander is currently looking for “buying opportunities”. The bank which already owns Abbey National has been in talks with another UK mortgage lender until the talks soured over price. Banco Santander is the largest bank currently in the Euro zone and the eight largest bank in the world with a market value of $136 billion with $1,330 billion in assets in Spain, Portugal, Latin America and the UK. It is also understood that the Spanish bank turned down the assets of the troubled Northern Rock, a UK bank that is having trouble with credit crunch.
Emilio Botin, chairman of the bank recently told reporters that “We are very close to our ideal size now”. Although the bank is on expansion tour, the chairman is firm on “staying in retail banking and not expanding into Asia”.
Written by Greg · Filed Under Business
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