Santander rules out major operations in the next three years
The sale of the subsidiary in Poland boosts the bank's earnings by 60% in the first quarter, to 5,455 million euros.
MadridIf 2025 was marked by corporate operations at Banco Santander, no major ones are foreseen for 2026, at least not large ones. Nor in 2027, nor in 2028. "We do not foresee any important or significant operations in the next three years," assured the bank's CEO, Héctor Grisi, during the press conference for the first-quarter results of 2026, where he only opened the door to "small" moves that help strengthen the business in the markets where it has a presence.
The fact is that Santander faces two important challenges regarding the bank's organic growth. On one hand, the integration of the British entity TSB, after buying it from Banco Sabadell for 3,361 million amid BBVA's hostile takeover bid. And, on the other, the integration of the American bank Webster Bank, acquired just this February for 12.2 billion dollars (about 10.3 billion euros).
In the case of TSB, Grisi explained that they already have authorization from the UK regulator, so the process is on track. The acquisition of Webster Bank, however, will not be finalized until the second half of this year, although the executive said the process is going "faster" than expected. In this case, he also wanted to dismiss a "problem" regarding private credit, especially after BlackRock's alarm regarding the limitation of redemptions from one of its flagship funds: "It is not a core business. [...] We should not worry," he said.
Grisi did not want to specify whether the bank will reap benefits from these two operations in 2026. That is, whether profits can be added to the income statements. "It depends on the regulators and the consolidation process [of the entities]," indicated the CEO.
On the other hand, the operation that has indeed left its mark is the sale of the subsidiary that Santander had in Poland, Erste Bank, which explains the stratospheric gains of the first quarter of 2026. The capital gains obtained from this move have resulted in a profit between January and March of 5,455 million euros, 60.3% more compared to the same period last year. Without this operation, the profit stands at 3,560 million euros, 12% more.
Pending interest rates
Regarding the bank's business, total income (gross margin) between January and March reached 15,140 million euros, up 3.8%. Net interest income (net interest margin) was 11,019 million, up 3.7%, while net commissions rose 4.9%, to 3,357 million euros.
Numbers that could improve considering that, as a result of the conflict in the Middle East and price pressure, financial institutions now expect a change in attitude from central banks regarding interest rates. Grisi said that in the case of the United States, a rate cut "is not expected", while in Europe, where the market expected "stable" rates, "increases" could now occur. However, these "would not exceed" a rate of 2.5%, the executive pointed out.
