Isabel Guerreiro, head of retail and digital for Europe at Banco Santander, describes her employer as a digital bank with branches. This is what is behind the Spanish bank’s continued success with the small and medium-sized enterprise segment across Europe.
“SMEs are becoming more digital,” she explains. “Over 70% of SMEs have told us they want a digital-first self service. For this you need an omnichannel approach, which we have.”
Launched in October 2019, Santander’s paytech business PagoNxt saw revenues increase by 72% in its second full year of operation, and its pan-European acquirer Getnet Europe has also added a stronger proposition for SMEs and saw active merchants increase by 33% last year as a result. In Europe, Getnet is active in Spain and Portugal and will be launched in Poland next year. But several other Santander initiatives for SMEs have really moved the needle.
One of the most interesting of these is Santander Growth, which provides investment banking services to SMEs that the bank identifies as having particular potential.
Known as ‘Gazelles’, these firms clearly represent an excellent opportunity for strong relationship building as they grow.
“Santander Growth is providing CIB [corporate and investment banking] type services to SME clients with higher value that want to grow,” says Guerreiro. “These clients are outstanding in their sectors, and we have a specialist team to structure transactions for them.”
Alongside investment banking products, the bank is also working on other sources of funding for Europe’s SMEs.
“We have created direct lending funds for SME companies with 50 specialized bankers,” Guerreiro explains. “This makes a difference in the market. We are focusing on 400 clients at the moment but want to take it to other companies.”
Being pan-regional offers good benefits as ideas migrate from one geography to the next. Santander banks over 2.5 million SME companies in Europe and has a full 25% of the market in Spain. It also has 6% of active customers in the UK, 18% in Portugal and 11% in Poland. The common mobile platform, MyBusiness, is a good example of how this reach can be put to good advantage.
“The MyBusiness common mobile platform is a good example of cross fertilization across markets,” says Guerreiro. “MyBusiness was launched in Spain, and now we are taking it to other countries.”
We have created direct lending funds for SME companies with 50 specialized bankers. This makes a difference in the market
Isabel Guerreiro
In the UK, the bank has focused on helping SMEs to expand internationally – something that has become more challenging since the UK left the EU. In 2022, the bank launched Santander Navigator in the country. This is a digital platform that brings together expertise and knowledge to help businesses overcome trade-related obstacles and to understand how to do business in a new market. The platform is powered by Salesforce technology.
In its other European markets, Santander has signed a long-term cooperation agreement with the European Investment Bank to provide new financing to SMEs. The SME sector in Poland represents 99.8% of enterprises and is responsible for 67.7% of employment. The EIB and Santander Portugal will support SMEs and mid-caps in the country with €820 million of funding.
In its home market, Santander has worked to make this process more seamless.
“We have created a platform in Spain to provide access to NextGenerationEU funds,” says Guerreiro. “We have created a platform with more than 200,000 accesses to help deliver the EU funds through our network.”
