Merger faces the strains of success

The continuing success of the bank now known as Santander Central Hispano in growing profit, forging alliances elsewhere in Europe and taking major market shares in Latin America is a tribute to the skills of the two banks that came together to form it. But behind this public face the marriage of two distinct banking cultures has not come easy.

Few banks know more about the agony and the ecstasy of merging two distinct business cultures than the recently renamed Santander Central Hispano. The Spanish bank’s two years of existence as a merged entity have been dogged by a bitter power struggle. This culminated in the summer in blood on the carpet after a spectacular boardroom row led to the departure of one of the two men supposed to meld its two parts into a seamless whole (see page 30).

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