José Luis De Mora

CEO of SCF

José Luis de Mora is a senior executive vice-president of Banco Santander, CEO of Santander Consumer Finance (SCF) and Group Head of Strategy, Corporate Development and Financial Planning. 

Since he joined Santander in late 2003 as head of Corporate Development, he has taken part in the group’s major dealings, including acquisitions of financial institutions in the UK (Abbey, Alliance&Leicester, Bradford & Bingley), the US (SCUSA, Sovereign Bank), Europe (ABN AMRO, in a deal with the UK’s Royal Bank of Scotland and Belgium’s Fortis to take over Banco Real in Brazil and Banca Antonveneta in Italy), Poland (Zachodni WBK), Spain (Popular) and Germany (Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken) and consumer outfits in Europe (GE Money and Royal Bank of Scotland, GE Nordics, AIG Polska, among others). 

Before joining the group, he had worked in London, at Kleinwort Benson as an analyst of the Spanish market and European banks, and at Merrill Lynch as the analyst in charge of strategy for pan-European banks, covering banks on the Iberian Peninsula and in Italy and France. He was ranked in the top 3 banking analysts by Extel. He began his career in Spain at Banco de España and in London at Daiwa Securities (head of analysis in Spain).

He represented Santander on the European Banking Federation’s banking affairs committee. He is also chairman of CFA Society Spain, part of the global investment managers association, CFA Institute, where he manages initiatives to provide the training, accreditation and information stakeholders (associates, investment managers, candidates, sponsors, employers, administrators and the financial sector) demand, promoting new sustainability certifications such as CFA UK’s “Certificate in ESG Investing” and the “Women in Investment Management” initiative for gender diversity. 

He holds a combined degree in Economics/Business Administration and Law in Spain (ICADE E-3) as well as an MBA from Boston College (on an ICADE scholarship). He is also a CFA charterholder in London. 

He has been a lecturer at the Instituto de Empresa (teaching fundamental analysis) and the Swiss Finance Institute (banking strategy). He has also given numerous talks at Fundación Rafael del Pino and other institutions.

His interests outside of work are basketball (he plays and watches all the games he can), tennis and reading books.