Santander bank goes from strength to strength

Banco Santander's earnings almost doubled last year due, due to lower provisioning needs, although the margins of Spain’s biggest lender remained under pressure, while earnings from Latin America fell due in part to currency factors.
Santander said Thursday that its net profit climbed 90.5 percent from a year earlier to 4.37 billion euros, although the contribution from Spain declined 45 percent to 478 million, with the economy only emerging from its longest recession in decades in the third quarter. Group net income in the fourth quarter alone rose to 1.06 billion euros from 423 million a year earlier.
Despite the crisis, Santander's release boasted about the fact that it is one of the few lenders to have turned a profit "quarter after quarter for the last five years." This, said the bank, was thanks to its geographical diversification, which allowed 53 percent of earnings to come from developing markets and 47 percent from mature markets.
Latin America represented 47 percent of the group's profits, particularly Brazil with 23 percent, while Europe represented 43 percent. Spain contributed seven percent, Britain 17 percent and the United States 10 percent.
Despite the crisis, Santander's release boasted about the fact that it is one of the few lenders to have turned a profit "quarter after quarter for the last five years." This, said the bank, was thanks to its geographical diversification, which allowed 53 percent of earnings to come from developing markets and 47 percent from mature markets.
Latin America represented 47 percent of the group's profits, particularly Brazil with 23 percent, while Europe represented 43 percent. Spain contributed seven percent, Britain 17 percent and the United States 10 percent.
However, net attributable earnings of the Latin American division declined 23.6 percent, while those of Brazil were down 27.9 percent.
Net interest income, the difference between what a bank earns from loans and pays out on deposits, declined 13.3 percent to 25.935 billion euros.
According to Santander, these results indicate "a turnaround" after the dwindling profits of recent years, themselves a result of the international economic crisis, which which forced lenders to clean up their balance sheets.

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Am I surprised? NO. We banked with them here in Jerez and their charges and never overdrawn once, were a disgrace. When tackled I received approximately 40% back but the charges were still horrendous and we closed the account. Even then they demanded money to close the account despite still have money in the account. Stay well clear!!

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That surprises me. I have been using them for over 10 years and never had a problem. No commissions. I also banked with Banco Popular and they did have very high charges, well I think to be honest most banks nowadays do. I can't see why they would charge you to close your account if you still had money in the account, did you have special conditions with your account? It makes no sense.

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You are lucky to have an old account as other friends here have had the same problem and yes we too were with Banco Popular in the Castellon and they were wonderful, no charges but again an account opened 8/9 yeara ago. However down here they charged but nothing like Santander did. They said I to pay to close the account and neighbours here were charged much more than they asked from me to close their account. I refused and stayed in her office until she finally agreed but still demanded money to do this. I had withdrawn that am all but 6€, so left them with that!!

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Having had fee-free banking for some years we have just been notified that it is about to end. The account we have/need is very basic, no bells & whistles, no cards, just 1-2 direct debit payments every month, & deposits at the counter in cash. Does anyone know if there are any banks offering no/low charge accounts to new customers?

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All I can say is Barclay's here in Jerez do not charge, but a certain amount has to go through the account over a year but not like Santander who said when they changed our account without notifying us!! that a certain amount had to go through every month and would not allow for it averaging out over the year, as I transfer money from the UK approx every 3 months. Barclays do not charge for direct debits or the one standing order we have. I would just check a few banks before opening a new account, and see what they say with a very good English speaker . The only card I have with B's is their debit card which again was free.
When Santander here changed the rules they also started charging us for every withdrawal (their machines) and amazingly every single debit card transaction. Can you believe? There are no charges for any withdrawals or debit card use with B's.

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