By Jesús Aguado
MADRID, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Santander aims to boost its profit to more than 20 billion euros by 2028, helped by growth in its U.S. and UK markets, a rise in customer numbers and cost savings from its IT transformation, Spain’s number one bank said on Wednesday.
Santander, which reported a record net profit of 14.1 billion euros for 2025, also lifted its profitability ratio target by almost four percentage points to above 20% to reflect expected synergies from recent acquisitions of U.S. bank Webster and Britain’s TSB.
For decades, the bank’s geographical diversification- spanning 10 core markets – has insulated the bank from economic downturns in individual regions but left it vulnerable to currency depreciations, particularly in Latin America.
At 0918 GMT, shares in Santander, the euro zone biggest lender by market value, climbed above 2%.
The Webster and TSB deals raised developed markets’ share of Santander’s gross operating profit to nearly two thirds on a pro-forma basis, up from 56% previously.
“Our (2026-2028) strategic plan sets a new standard for profitable growth, with the aim to serve more than 210 million customers across Europe and the Americas,” Executive Chair Ana Botin said in a statement.
Santander had around 180 million clients at the end of last year.
Botin said that the execution of the bank’s global business model would boost revenues and drive structurally lower costs. Part of its savings are centred on creating a common IT platform and the deployment of a unified global operating business model.
It aimed to improve its efficiency ratio to around 36% by the end of 2028 from a reported 41.2% in 2025.
The bank sets a 50% shareholder payout ratio, evenly split between cash and shares, but from 2027 onwards, the cash proportion would rise to 35% in keeping with its goal of reaching a core tier-1 capital ratio of around 13% by 2028, compared with 13.5% at the end of 2025.
($1 = 0.8472 euros)
(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; Editing by David Latona and Tomasz Janowski)
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