The most powerful woman in British banking is now Ana Botin, a glamorous and hugely clever Spanish mother-of-three, and a skilled golfer. As executive chairman of Banco Santander, Spain’s number one bank, Botin is known as a winner in the poker game of finance.
Last week, she entered British banking’s big league after orchestrating a £2.7billion deal to buy high street bank TSB from fellow Spanish group Sabadell.
The takeover of TSB means Santander’s UK arm is now poised to challenge Britain’s ‘Big Four’, NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays and HSBC, for dominance.
Size matters in the global banking industry, and Botin, whose pay in 2024 was €13.8million (£12million), is not slow to remind people of Santander’s clout.
Botin, 64, was on the stage at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as a panel member for US President Donald Trump’s keynote address.
She introduced herself thus: ‘I believe you don’t know me as well as my fellow panellists. Santander is one of the largest banks in the world by number of customers – 170million. That’s more than my friend Brian or my friend Jamie have.’
She was referring to Jamie Dimon, boss of the US banking titan JP Morgan Chase, and Brian Moynihan, chief executive of Bank of America.
The purchase of TSB shows Botin’s acumen, but also suggests that she does not like to be second-guessed.
Ana Botin, executive chairman of Santander, in 2023 at an Institute of International Finance meeting in Marrakech
Some months ago, it was thought that it would be Santander selling its UK arm: NatWest even made an £11billion bid for the business. Yet now Botin seems resolved to go for growth in the UK big time, providing a much-needed vote of confidence in the British economy.
TSB, established in 1810, had been put up for sale by Banco Sabadell, Spain’s number four bank. Until early last week, Barclays appeared to have believed it had TSB in the bag. But then Botin arrived on the scene.
Currently, Santander UK has about 28million retail and business customers. But, as a result of the purchase of TSB, it will have more current account customers than even the mighty HSBC. The company can also, at last, aspire to overtake NatWest as the number three in Britain’s mortgage market.
This would be a milestone for Santander UK, which was formerly known as Abbey National but was rebranded when Santander acquired it in 2002.
Back then, Santander was led by Botin’s father, the formidable Emilio, who raised Ana to be his successor at the family banking dynasty, in a tough management training course. The Botins may own just less than 2 per cent of Santander’s shares, but such is their legacy that their position in the boardroom is mostly unquestioned. As a teenager, Botin wanted to become a journalist, but after school in England and university in the US, she went into the family business. She started out at JP Morgan in New York and then moved to Santander during the bank’s expansion into Latin America.
When her father suddenly died in 2014, she was appointed to the executive chairman role. In the UK, a bank chairman is not an executive in charge of operations. But at Santander, the reverse is true.
All eyes are now on how Botin reshapes Santander and TSB in the UK once the takeover secures the thumbs up from regulators early next year.
Ana Botin reacts during a news conference at Santander headquarters in Boadilla del Monte, Spain, in February
TSB’s costs could be halved because of the deal, which is likely to result in the closure of some of its 175 branches. Santander’s network is already set to be cut from 444 branches to 349, and there could now be more closures in areas with both TSB and Santander outlets.
But Santander’s shareholders will be happy, for the moment. The shares, which are listed in Madrid, are up almost 70 per cent this year, and the bank’s dividends are considered generous. But Botin will be under close scrutiny, as she is now really bidding for the big time in British banking.
Keeping Botin under surveillance will be her closest rival in the women’s banking rankings: Debbie Crosbie. A former chief executive of TSB, Crosbie is now boss of Nationwide, the largest building society which – if it were a bank – would be jostling to join the Big Four.
In competition, however, Botin has form. She was, after all, able to compete on the golf course with her late brother-in-law, Severiano Ballesteros, one of the sport’s greatest champions.
Will buying TSB be the equivalent of a triumphant golfing hole-in-one – or un hoyo en uno, as the Spanish call it? The Big Four will be watching closely.
