Santander has featured in the indices, which measure the performance of 245 banks worldwide using environmental, social and governance criteria, for the last 21 years.

Madrid, 13 November 2021
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) have ranked Banco Santander as one of the world’s 10 most sustainable banks in 2021. The indices, an international corporate sustainability benchmark, measure companies’ performance using environmental, social and governance criteria.

Santander scored 85 points out of 100 and is in the 97th percentile of all banks reviewed. The bank scored high in every category: economic (96th percentile), environmental (98th) and social (97th). It also obtained the maximum score in financial inclusion and environmental reporting, and improved significantly in such areas as human capital and sustainable finance.

Santander has featured in the DJSI for the last 21 years and always ranked among the top performers. Santander is present in other sustainability and ESG indexes, such as FTSE4Good Index.

Santander is a world leader in financing renewable energy projects. Between 2019 and the first nine months of 2021, the bank raised or mobilized €51.2 billion in green finance as part as its target to reach €120 billion in green finance from 2019 to 2025 and €220 billion by 2030 to aid the transition to a low-carbon economy.

In February, Santander announced its target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across the group by 2050 to support the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. By 2030, the bank will have aligned its power generation portfolio with the Paris Agreement. It also published its first decarbonization targets, which are to have stopped providing financial services to power generation clients with more than 10% revenue dependency on thermal coal and will have eliminated all exposure to thermal coal mining, also by 2030.

Since 2019, Santander has helped more than four million people through its community investment programmes, collaborating with NGOs and other social entities. It has financially empowered more than five million citizens by providing access to the banking system, financial education and financing for individuals and SMEs with difficulties accessing credit. It has also awarded more than 225,000 scholarships and grants to students, researchers, professionals and entrepreneurs.