Banco Santander has announced that it will abandon its current model, by which it structures its businesses by dividing them geographically, to group all its insurance activities in the same company. To do this, it will unify its businesses into a single global holding company.
The creation of the new Santander Insurance Holding, under which it will manage its entire insurance business, aims to boost the company’s growth in this sector and improve the service offering to customers by simplifying the management structure.
Francisco del Cura, who until now was global head of Seguros de Santander, will occupy the presidency of the new holding company and will have Armando Baquero as CEO. The position of head of the global Wealth Management & Insurance area, on the other hand, will continue to be held by Víctor Matarranz.
The holding company will be created by the end of the year
The bank’s forecast is that the integration of all businesses, subsidiaries and participations under the umbrella of the new holding company will be completed by the last quarter of the year.
“The new structure will allow us to improve the offer and quality of service for clients, it will organize the structures of insurance companies and improve their management and supervision,” stated Matarranz.
Del Cura has 18 years of experience in the bank and has held different positions of responsibility within the insurance business. He will have responsibility for the board of directors, the relationship with the insurance partners and the dialogue with the supervisory bodies, as well as with the representative bodies of the insurance industry.
Baquero joins Santander again after spending just over three years outside the group having founded the ‘insurtech’ Asistensi, based in Madrid but with business in Latin America. Before leaving the bank, he became Chief Financial and Strategy Officer of Wealth Management & Insurance. In addition to being CEO of the holding company, he will replace Del Cura as global head of Insurance.
Santander develops its insurance business through its own companies and specific distribution agreements, as well as through different alliances with insurance partners, which in Spain and Portugal include Mapfre and Aegon; in Latin America to Zurich and HDI Global; in Poland to Allianz and, for Santander Consumer’s global business, to CNP Assurance.
The reorganization of insurance is one more step in the restructuring of Banco Santander into an operating model organized in global businesses and not in geographies. This week, the bank said it was simplifying the structure of its retail and commercial and consumer banking businesses to divide its entire business into five global areas.
Starting in January 2024, Banco Santander’s business will be structured into five global areas: Retail & Commercial, Digital Consumer Bank, Payments, Corporate & Investment Banking and Wealth Management & Insurance.
