If necessity is the mother of innovation, then it is perhaps no surprise that Santander Private Banking’s digital platform – which spans all the main Latin American private-banking clients – was the one that impressed the judges the most.

With the growth in wealth in all regions – and particularly in Latin America, which has seen a soft commodities-boom generate large increases in the high net-worth segment in recent years – the key to serving these clients is efficiency.

Santander Private Banking in Latin America enjoys certain natural advantages thanks to the bank’s geographical footprint and strategy. Overlaying the global bank’s strength within the region is dominance in Spain and Europe more broadly, as well as a presence in the US. This perfectly matches the domestic market for private banking in Latin America – the local presence is essential to serve these clients – while also offering access to the main markets that Latin Americans tend to think of first when seeking portfolio diversification.

Santander Private Banking’s ultra-high net-worth segment is called Private Wealth and covers clients who have more than €20 million. The bank has been growing this segment in recent years and it now has more than 100 dedicated bankers and specialists in Latin America.

Santander’s presence in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay means it is well positioned to support clients across Latin America.

There is no better wealth manager in Latin America than Banco Santander. It won the award for best private bank in Latin America in Euromoney’s 2023 private banking awards.

Banco Santander’s headquarters are in Europe, but the centre of gravity of its operations has been drifting westward to Latin America for many years now. Over the review period, the bank posted a solid year of progress among many of its Latin American markets, which comprise Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Peru.

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.

The growing weight of non-European markets speaks volumes about the Spanish bank’s EM capabilities as other global banks have headed for the exit.

Servicing demanding SME clients pays off if you take the long-term view.

The Spanish lender continues to demonstrate the business case for inclusivity.

Santander’s progress in its family office business is recognised by the judging panel not because of any specific innovation or differentiated approach, but rather for the focus on service quality that sets the bank apart.

The consistent growth in both the scale and the quality of Santander’s private banking business in Latin America this year has impressed the judging panel.

Not many new private banking mandates are won thanks to an institution’s abilities in succession planning. But many a client has been lost over a bank's poor succession planning capabilities when this becomes a touch point for clients, as it inevitably does at some stage.

The echoes of 2014 have been loud in Brazil’s private banking industry over the past 12 months. A precipitous fall in interest rates – followed by a meteoric rise – has left the market completely the same but also very different.

Banks like Santander, BNP Paribas and SocGen see auto finance and the future of mobility as critical pieces of their overall group strategies. But as mobility becomes an increasingly fractured business, what does the auto finance bank of the future look like?

Santander executive chairman Ana Botín has stepped back from the M&A-based restructuring many assumed former CEO candidate Andrea Orcel would oversee. Euromoney asks Botín and her new chief executive, Héctor Grisi, how they plan to make this international retail bank succeed.

Traditional banking career paths may be becoming a thing of the past.

Central and eastern Europe’s best bank for corporate responsibility this year inevitably goes to an institution that has focused on aid for Ukrainian refugees. For many banks in the region, this was an overwhelming priority during the first days and weeks of the war.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are particularly vulnerable to the economic shocks that have buffeted the region in recent months. Any bank that serves these businesses needs to be acutely aware of the challenges they face and have deep experience across the region in how to deal with them.

Banking in Europe remains a national sport, with only a handful of domestic champions also running large businesses beyond their home markets. Banco Santander is recognized as the region’s best bank this year as a reflection of its progress in moving operations in Portugal, Spain and the UK onto a single operating platform along with those in Poland, which it also includes in its Europe division.

The financial inclusion skills within the bank are becoming more relevant for broader retail banking.

The war in Ukraine has further highlighted the benefits of Banco Santander’s diversification across Europe and the Americas, according to executive chairman Ana Botín. However, its European home market may be a big disadvantage in Citi’s looming auction of Mexican lender Banamex.

Public blockchains have been shown to allow near immediate settlement of new issues. Why aren’t the primary markets embracing them?

JPMorgan is named the world’s best wealth manager in Euromoney’s latest private banking and wealth management survey. It is testament to the US bank’s global strength in serving the wealthiest families, along with its drive to constantly transform itself and boost diversity as it hires the most talented relationship managers in core markets.

Non-bank lenders are offering growing volumes of embedded finance both wholesale to merchants selling on e-commerce marketplaces and to their retail customers.

Executive chairman Ana Botín will be under pressure after adverse ruling in Madrid

Covid barely dented the strength of the banking system and most banks have been steadily releasing the provisions they took. Euromoney talks to the leaders of our 25 reviewed banks and others about the challenges they face as the world normalizes.

After years when the UK and the US banks were Santander’s problem children, those markets are now leading its recovery.

Rising inflation expectations matter to the banking industry. Santander CEO José Antonio Álvarez explains, however, that negative real rates will probably persist for the next five or 10 years because of Covid.