Santander consolidates retail, commercial, and consumer operations under two new global businesses

Banco Santander (NYSE:BME:SAN) announced on Monday that it is restructuring its retail-and-commercial and consumer operations under two new global business units, Retail&Commercial and Digital Consumer Bank. This move is part of the bank's strategy to align its operations with the rest of the group's model.

The Spanish financial institution revealed on Monday that these two new segments will join its existing payments, corporate-and-investment banking, and wealth management-and-insurance businesses. As of January 2024, these five areas will serve as the bank's primary reporting segments. Country and region-specific data will become secondary segments in the bank's future reporting.

Santander's retail-and-commercial business will be headed by Daniel Barriuso, combining all its retail and business banking globally. Meanwhile, Jose Luis de Mora will lead the digital consumer bank, which includes all the group's consumer-finance activities worldwide.

Under this new arrangement, global heads will define the common business and operating model based on global platforms. Country heads will continue managing the business while regional heads drive implementation of the model across different markets.

The bank didn't disclose whether this restructuring would result in any job cuts. However, Santander reiterated that its financial targets outlined in February remain unchanged.

In February, Santander set ambitious goals for return on tangible equity of 15%-17% in 2023-2025, an efficiency ratio of approximately 42% by 2025, maintaining a fully-loaded CET1 above 12%, and delivering double-digit average annual growth in tangible net asset value per share plus dividend per share throughout the cycle.

Despite the announcement of this consolidation, Santander's stock fell 1.0% during regular session trading on Monday but recovered slightly by 0.1% after-hours.

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