Banco Santander expects to earn more than €20 billion in 2028
The bank, chaired by Ana Botín, expects to more than double its dividend per share by 2025.
BarcelonaThe new strategic plan of Banco Santander for the period 2026-2028, presented this Wednesday, is ambitious: the entity chaired by Ana Botín expects to earn more than 20 billion euros in two years –It already closed 2025 with record profits of 14.101 billion euros– and also plans to more than double the cash dividend by 2028 compared to the last fiscal year. Investors have applauded this plan, which has already boosted the bank's share price by more than 3.5% by midday.
Furthermore, the new plan anticipates exceeding 210 million customers by the end of the period, compared to 180 million at the end of 2025; a return on tangible equity (RoTE) of over 20%; and growth in tangible book value per share plus dividend per share of 20% by the end of the plan. The bank also expects revenue to grow at a mid-single-digit rate and for costs to decrease each year, resulting in an efficiency ratio of around 36% by 2028.
“Our 2026-2028 strategic plan sets a new standard for profitable growth, with the goal of serving more than 210 million customers in Europe and the Americas,” Botín stated. “Customer growth, together with the disciplined execution of One Transformation—the bank’s technology transformation plan—will allow us to increase revenues and structurally reduce costs, placing the efficiency ratio at around 36% and RoTE above 20% by 2028,” the chairwoman affirmed.
The US, the big challenge
The Santander agreement was only made public a few weeks ago. to acquire Webster Financial Corporation, the parent company of Webster BankSantander acquired TSB, a US retail and corporate banking entity, for $12.2 billion, approximately €10.15 billion. The bank explained at the time that the acquisition would create a "stronger and more competitive" bank for its customers. The United States has long been a strategic market for Santander, but the geopolitical situation is not favorable. "The acquisition will make us one of the top ten US retail and corporate banking entities in terms of assets," Santander stated. Furthermore, it has also recently completed the acquisition of TSB, Sabadell's British subsidiary. Botín referred to these two acquisitions in terms of costs: "The bank's capital position creates optionality," which allows it to invest in "selective acquisitions" where returns exceed share buybacks and maintain "a sustainable distribution profile." By 2028, the bank will generate €50 billion in capital, which it can use for these acquisitions, provided they fit within its established capital allocation hierarchy. Regarding costs, Santander asserts that the One Transformation plan will generate cost savings of between €4 billion and €5 billion by 2028. Meanwhile, the synergies from the TSB and Webster acquisitions will result in cost savings of €1.2 billion. "Allocating capital dynamically across geographies and global businesses is something we are constantly improving at," Botín emphasized. Along these lines, the bank explained that global businesses generate a momentum effect, increasing profits with low capital intensity and generating higher returns. More dividend payouts
Furthermore, Santander's board of directors will propose to its shareholders the distribution of a supplementary dividend of €0.125 per share and the appointment of Deborah Vieitas as a new independent director. Consequently, the total cash dividend per share for 2025 will be €0.24, representing an increase of over 14% compared to the cash dividend for 2024 (€0.21). This final cash dividend for 2025 will be paid on May 5, 2026.
With this payment, total shareholder remuneration from 2025 results will amount to approximately €7.05 billion (around 50% of the group's attributable profit on 20 shares). This represents an equivalent yield of approximately 4.5%, based on the bank's market capitalization as of February 24, 2026.
However, the bank has also announced changes to its dividend policy: it will maintain the pay out –the percentage of profit allocated to shareholder remuneration– at 50%, split equally between cash and share buybacks for the 2026 results. However, from 2027 onwards, and with the same plan of pay out Of the 50%, the entity intends to allocate 35% of the profit to dividends and 15% to share buybacks, and expects to more than double the cash dividend per share in 2028 compared to 2025. In addition, it has committed to distributing excess capital to shareholders when the strategic plan is completed.
