Thanks to the new app, Santander ranks first in its sector in functionality and performance in the second quarter of 2020.

New functions have been introduced, such as the predictive financial agenda, a global text search engine and a geolocator featuring a map showing the purchases made by card, all of which make the app even more personalised.

The number of users has risen fourfold over the past three years and since the new design was launched in July, usage has increased by 25%.

This launch pays testament to the digital transformation at Santander, which received the Best Bank for Digital Services Spain 2020 award from the prestigious Global Banking and Finance Review.

Madrid, 4 September 2020 - PRESS RELEASE
Banco Santander has launched a new mobile app to meet customers' needs in the new covid-19 era, in which there is greater demand for more personal relations via digital channels to minimise the need to visit branches in person.

This new app enhances customer experience by simplifying their dealings with the bank. It also features tools for interacting with managers. It offers more personalisation than any other banking app, enabling users to choose between visual aspects and, above all, their preferred type of use, allowing them to carry out both the most complex transactions and the most basic enquiry activities. Furthermore, it simplifies management of products by minimising the visual data load.  

One of the app's chief innovations is the global search engine, which enables transaction searches by text along with other significant past actions carried out. It also offers analysis tools for monitoring saving and expenditure and uses artificial intelligence to enable future payment planning. Through this advanced activity analysis, the app can personalise recommendations for customers. 

The new app also includes improvements in card payments management, such as a search engine to locate the latest payments on a map and verify activity precisely. Customers can also register their new card with a single click on Apple Pay or Samsung Pay without leaving the Santander app and withdraw money at ATMs using just a code.

After a brief testing phase, the new app is now available for all Santander mobile banking customers. Its design and features are based on customer recommendations and suggestions. During the development phase, Santander compiled customer opinions using the fintech Opinator's feedback management approach. This enabled the bank to listen to over 387,000 suggestions, which provided detailed insights into customers' actual needs. 

Innovation and technological development have driven a fourfold increase in the number of users of the bank's app in Spain since 2016, when the new digital banking model was launched. Santander now has over 3.8 million customers who communicate with the bank via their mobile devices, or over five million including website access. The number of users has grown fourfold over the last three years, while weekly accesses have risen 22% and the average connection time has increased by 27% thanks to greater use of the new capabilities.             

Furthermore, the recent lockdown and new social behaviours have resulted in increased use of digital channels, which are key to ensuring the bank's normal operations. Digital transactions accounted for over 50% of total sales on key dates, with customer service via remote channels up by 63%. Up to 600 ICO facility transactions per hour have been carried out. And in just one day the bank registered over 4.2 million accesses to online channels, 650,000 transactions with a digital signature and five million position enquiries. In total, Santander Spain recorded over 720 million digital accesses in the first seven months of the year, 37% more than in the same period in 2019.

This growing digital activity by Santander customers has come alongside new digital products, such as the fully online mortgage launched in July. The loan can be arranged in just seven steps, with all the procedures carried out remotely within four weeks from the application.

More payment options 

The new app simplifies money transfer and incorporates customisable direct accesses for the most common services, such as transfers, Bizum and One Pay FX, Santander's exclusive technology for transferring money to multiple international destinations instantly and without fees.

In addition to the growing use of digital payment systems and new functionalities, customer security is being strengthened. The app incorporates new in-app transaction confirmation codes, a system that is more secure than SMS codes and simpler as the codes are loaded automatically, with no need to copy them. The customer is also notified of any unusual activity while additional customer security is provided by the inclusion of technologies such as Trusteer and Lynx.

Digital leaders, according to Aqmetrix

Investment in new technological capabilities and development of these channels have been recognised by Aqmetrix, which ranks Santander first in its sector in functionality and performance in the second quarter of 2020. Indeed, the bank is first for corporate channels, both website and app; for all apps, both for individuals and corporates; and for its Customer Service department in all instances.

This company, which specialises in rating the service quality offered by online banking, has recognised the improvement in functionalities, availability and response time of Banco Santander's digital channels compared to those of its competitors. 

Santander's new app has also been recognised as the best banking services app in Spain (Best Bank for Digital Services Spain 2020) by Global Banking and Finance Review.