Santander sells a majority of his Polish business in the Austrian bank ERSTE Group.
The agreement of $ 7.9 billion, announcement Monday, May 5, will also see that both lenders will train a partnership that will see Santander give Erste access to its payment system.
“With payments, banks will explore opportunities for Erste, including with Santander Polska after completion, to take advantage of Santander's capacity and payment infrastructure, including Santander Pagonxt activities,” the Spanish bank said in a press release.
Under the terms of the agreement, Santander will sell around 49% of Santander Polska's share capital and 50% of Polish asset management activities that Santander Polska does not have.
Landers say they are also training a partnership in corporate and investment banking which “will take advantage of the regional forces of the other to offer local solutions and market information for their respective business and institutional customers via a reference model that will facilitate interactions and service offers for transparent customers.”
Meanwhile, the executive president of Santander Ana BotÃn said last month that the bank sees an opportunity to help customers manage volatility linked to American prices and geopolitical uncertainty.
“Recent announcements in the United States concerning prices reflect an escalation of trade tensions,” said BotÃn at the Santander annual general meeting. “As a bank, we focus on customers to navigate volatility, and we agree to do so.”
She added that geopolitical uncertainty and volatility of the market observed during the first months of this year contributed to five -year growth forecasts for the world economy falling to 3.1%, its lowest level in 16 years.
Santander sails in this environment using its global scale and diversification, which acts as a stabilizer, said BotÃn, adding that the bank plans to continue to increase its profitability in 2025.
“While we monitor the implications of recent tariff announcements in the United States, it is in the difficult period when the value of our diversification is the most apparent,” said BotÃn.
In other news from the intersection of banks and payments, Pymnts wrote last week on the importance of banks offering real -time payments by attracting and keeping customers of small and medium -sized businesses (SMB).
Pymnts intelligence research has shown that most SMEs would even pay costs to take advantage of the advantages of instant payments.
“Even the most restrictive companies would pay costs for the most effective cash flows that result from real -time payments,” wrote Pymnts, added that “88% of the smallest SMEs – those with annual income less than $ 100,000 – would be willing to pay a percentage to receive instant payments.”
