Banco Santander SA is reconsidering its presence in the UK, and may exit the market as it contends with lower returns relative to other markets, the Financial Times reported Saturday.
The Spanish lender is exploring a range of options, including keeping the business, and no deal is imminent, people with knowledge of the matter told the newspaper. Santander is also dealing with the effect of a British court ruling on car loans, the FT said.
“The UK is a core market for Santander and this has not changed,” a spokesperson for the bank said Saturday in an email.
The bank set aside £295 million ($359 million) last year to cushion against potential legal costs and payments after authorities in the UK ordered an industrywide regulatory probe into the suspected mis-selling of car loans.
Spain’s most valuable bank became a UK household name with its 2004 acquisition of building society Abbey National, in a deal Santander’s then-chairman Emilio Botin said would “reinforce our pan-European franchise.”
Santander in recent years has trimmed the relative size of the British business: Risk-weighted assets in the UK have been falling from around 14.7% of the group’s total in 2018 to around 12.7% in the first half of 2024.