The magazine highlights the agreement between Santander and Correos, Spain’s public postal service, to provide rural areas with basic financial services, as well as the bank’s initiatives to teach digital banking to the elderly.

Santander has helped six million people through financial inclusion projects since 2019, and plans to reach 10 million in 2025.

Madrid, 2 August 2021- PRESS RELEASE
Santander has been recognised as the most innovative bank for its financial inclusion initiatives by The Banker, the Financial Times magazine, which recently held its annual awards for innovation in digital banking. During the past year, marked by the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent financial impact, Santander has undertaken numerous initiatives across the world to help those at risk of financial exclusion by giving them access to basic financial services, supporting entrepreneurship and employment.

The publication points out the agreement reached with Correos in Spain, enabling Santander to offer its cash deposit and withdrawal through the 4,650 Correos locations. With this initiative, the bank has expanded its offer of essential financial services in 1,500 municipalities and started taking cash to any locality in Spain through the post office mailmen. The Banker has also positively valued the simplicity of requesting this service through online banking as well as in the Correos locations.

Jose Antonio Álvarez, Banco Santander CEO, said: “Financial empowerment can help lift people out of poverty, while also creating significant opportunity for economic growth.  We are making progress and are pleased this has been acknowledged by ‘The Banker’, but we also recognise that there is much still to do and are committed to playing our part.”

Santander’s goal is to help people and businesses prosper. In inclusion and financial empowerment, Santander’s strategy is to address the specific needs of those individuals and SME’s in Europe, Latin America and United States with difficulties accessing credit, weak financial education or who are suffering financial difficulties. Santander Finance for All is Grupo Santander’s initiative to facilitate access to financial services, provide financing and help individuals and companies to improve their financial knowledge through education. The bank’s objective is to financially empower 10 million people between 2019 and 2025, and from 2019 Santander has empowered financially six million people worldwide.

In 2020, Santander Spain doubled its efforts to support low-income and struggling families and businesses through moratoriums and affordable credit lines amounting to €32.800 million. The bank was the leading provider of financing through guaranteed credit lines in Spain, with a market share of 27%.

The award also recognises Santander’s various financial empowerment programs across the world as Superdigital, a mobile application to make cash deposits, reimbursements and payments available in Brazil, Mexico and Chile, or Tuiio and Prospera, both microcredit initiatives designed to finance productive activities of people without access to the formal financial system, already present in Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia and Peru.