Santander ‘recruits’ bankers to ‘hunt’ fortunes of Mexican millionaires – El Financiero

Santander he has hired to 40 private bankers so far in 2024. What is the reason? To serve high net worth clients and ultra-rich in Europe and Latin America as part of its attempt to increase assets under management.

Santander, Spanish bank, began boosting the high- and ultra-high end of its private banking business last year and has since hired 90 bankers, according to a person with direct knowledge. Most of the hiring has been done in Santander subsidiaries in Miami and Mexico.

The assets managed in the Wealth Management & Insurance division of Santander, led by Víctor Matarranz and which includes private banking and asset management, grew 14 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period of the previous year, up to 519 billion dollars. The bank aims to reach a target of 500 billion euros by the end of 2025, said the cited source.

Part of the reason for these hires is the growth of the Wealth Management & Insurance division of Santander, which had revenues of 519 billion dollars.

Which other Spanish bank is increasing its private banking business?

This year, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) opened a new office in Miami to serve wealthy Latin American clients.

In addition to the private banking division, Santander’s corporate and investment banking unit has also embarked on a hiring spree, taking advantage of the weakness of its Wall Street peers to grow. The Spanish bank last week reported the highest quarterly revenue in its history, although the expansion drive in investment banking has also raised costs.

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Asset management and insurance one of the five global divisions that created the bank to organize itself more by business areas than by geography. The unit obtained a net profit of 400 million euros in the first quarter, which represents 14 percent of the Santander group’s profit.

Recent hires include Andres Rodriguezwho joined Santander’s Miami office in April as a senior private banker after working at Citigroup for nearly 19 years, according to his LinkedIn page.

In total, Santander has 1,300 private bankers who work with wealthy clients from Spain to Switzerland to Miami. Its operations in Miami are mainly focused in Latin American clients who want to invest their money in the United States.

Santander ‘has its eye’ on Mexico

Jeanette Leyva, columnist for The financialhighlighted that Spanish investors are seeking to expand their presence in Mexico according to comments from the Santander CEO Latam Conference 2024 held in New York.

Among the Mexican businessmen invited by Héctor Grisi, global director of Santander, were Enrique Beltranena of Volaris; André El-Mann of Fiber One; Daniel Servitje from Bimboamong others.

“The main themes, of course, were Mexico and the nearshoringas well as the upcoming elections both in our country and in the United States, and in general everyone agreed that there is a fairly positive environment for Mexico, because it has become clear that if the US economy continues to grow, all of this naturally drives Mexico,” he explained. Leyva in his column of last March 1.