The Banker has valued the efforts made by Banco Santander to ensure a responsible and sustainable path to growth through its commitment to “serving financially excluded communities and small businesses on a large scale with its ‘Finance for All’ initiative, a comprehensive suite of services that blends digitalisation with financial education”.

Santander has also been named Bank of the Year in Argentina.

Madrid, 2 December 2022.
Santander has been named Bank of the Year for Financial Inclusion by The Banker magazine, which recognised the bank’s proactive efforts to ensure a responsible and sustainable path to growth, “serving financially excluded communities and small businesses on a large scale with its ‘Finance for All’ initiative, a comprehensive suite of services that blends digitalisation with financial education,” according to the magazine. The Banker has also named Santander Argentina as Bank of the Year in that country.

Banco Santander has a commitment to financially empower 10 million people between 2019 and 2025 through multiple microfinance activities, financial education programmes and other tools that give access to financial services based on three main pillars: access, finance and resilience. One such tool is Superdigital, a 100% digital platform developed using Santander proprietary technology for financial inclusion in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Colombia. This mobile platform enables the unbanked and underserved to access financial services and products, make cash deposits, withdrawals and payments, and receive credit.

The Banker has also acknowledged Santander’s tailored solutions to people with less access to credit, as we also aim to foster social mobility by helping low-income and underbanked entrepreneurs set up and grow their businesses through microfinance programmes in eight countries in Latin America. A large part of its lending (72% in 2021) goes to women, who are less likely to have access to financial services in developing countries.

Santander also promotes financial health by making financial concepts easier to understand and helping people make better choices through financial education programs. In 2021 alone, 1.3 million people had access to financial education initiatives promoted by the bank. The Banker highlights programmes tailored to local needs such as Finansiaki in Poland, which teaches financial awareness to children, and Sanodelucas in Chile, an online education platform that has benefited more than a million individuals since 2019.

Carlos Rey, regional head for South America at Banco Santander, said: “It is an honour to be named Bank of the Year in Financial Inclusion, as this award gives special recognition to all our efforts in Latin America. This encourages us to continue to focus on providing financial inclusion programs that help people and businesses prosper, and generate sustainable growth of the bank in the region.”