Euromoney magazine named Santander the ‘Best Bank in Portugal 2020’ and the ‘Best Investment Bank’.

Lisbon, 15 July 2020. 
Santander also took home the ‘Best Investment Bank in Portugal 2020’ award. According to the magazine, Santander's ‘business consulting and capital market activity’ qualified it to ‘win the award for best investment bank in the country’ over international competitors.

The awards recognise banks that offer customers the best services while demonstrating leadership, innovation and energy in their markets.

The magazine, which is celebrating 51 years, noted that ‘Santander Portugal, the best bank in the country, has increased lending to companies and made strides in attracting new customers’. It also pointed out that the bank's ‘investment in digital channels and new work methods has allowed it to cut mortgage processing times drastically. Its agility was particularly important during the covid-19 pandemic’. Santander has won ‘Best Bank in Portugal’ 18 times.

Euromoney also mentioned Santander's 5.5% net profit increase in 2019 to a record EUR 527 million while ROE also climbed to 12.7%; cost-to-income fell to 45%; NPEs dropped to 3.3% and CET1 capital rose to 15.2%.

Regionally, Santander earned recognition as the Best Bank for SMEs in Western Europe and in Latin America. Like Santander Portugal, Santander Spain also took home a country award for Best Bank in Spain. Euromoney also created special honours in light of the covid-19 crisis, giving Excellence in Leadership awards to Santander for Western Europe and to Santander Bank Polska for Central and Eastern Europe.

The Euromoney Awards for Excellence, the first of their kind in global banking, began in 1992.  The magazine’s editors, journalists and analysts choose winners based on profitability, growth, efficiency and other objective criteria, combined with analyses from staff who report on international financial markets.

Founded in 1969, Euromoney has made its mark as the world’s top magazine on financial markets. Its 145,000 readers include company executives in more than 170 countries. Most of its subscribers are in Continental Europe (30%), the United Kingdom (23%) and the US (23%).