Last update: 28/05/2024

Our Work Cafés speak to our commitment to banking innovation. This original concept, which brings together a free co-working area, cafeteria and banking services, affords open access to Santander branches for customers and non-customers alike. Since the opening of the inaugural Work Café in Chile, we now have 229 in the countries where we operate.

Though at first glance our Work Cafés may look like simple coffee houses, they are much more — they are collaborative spaces open to everyone. These innovative branches are part of our transformation to engage with people and businesses in a different way. We have left behind the traditional banking model to pave the way for an innovative experience as a digital bank with branches. As Santander's Executive Chair Ana Botín believes, the aim of the Work Café is for customers to "want", rather than "have", to go to a branch.  

They are a new way to engage with your local branch and get the financial solutions you need, not to mention free WiFi in a co-working environment, meeting rooms and events to help you grow personally and professionally. What’s more, you can do all this while enjoying a fine coffee prepared by one of our expert baristas and a wealth of sweet treats. 

Spaces designed to help you grow

As part of our commitment to entrepreneurship and prosperity, the co-working spaces within our Work Cafés enable people to work while networking with other professionals.

We have set up a channel in these open spaces that helps entrepreneurs and business people raise the profile of their enterprises. They can advertise their services on our digital screens and bulletin board or in our virtual community, Santander Smart Talks. According to Gorka Lázaro, head of this initiative: “The idea is to create a different, more open environment without walls or stuffy routines. And this changes not only how we work, but also our relationship with our colleagues". 

A global initiative

This revolutionary branch concept was born in Chile in 2016 and has since been exported to the USBrazilArgentina and Mexico in the Americas, as well as to SpainPolandPortugal and the UK in Europe. And the numbers don’t lie: there are now 229 Work Cafés worldwide (some 95 in Chile and 91 in Spain). 

 

Find your Work Café

Argentina      Portugal

Brazil              Spain

Chile               UK

Poland           US

Mexico           

Work Café is testament to our global scale and local presence, where we share best practice between subsidiaries to implement in our markets. This is the essence of our ONE Santander model.  

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