Redundancies start at UK HQ
It’s not been a great year for Santander. In May, the Spanish-owned bank announced that it had been hacked, and 30 million customers and staff had their details exposed. Profits have slumped, and recent data shows that the bank is seeing a repeat of its experiences in 2013 when it saw its mortgage lending book drop by millions.
Even though the Spain-headquartered bank hasn’t been idle – it was the first bank to cut rates after the Bank of England’s recent interest rate reduction, the battle for a share of the mortgage lending landscape has been heating up. The biggest loser (of market share) in Q2 however, is Santander, which saw an 11.4% market share slump to just 6.7%.
“Right now we see a slight pick-up in demand [and] obviously pressure to compete for that increased demand,” José García Cantera, Santander’s chief financial officer told the FT at the time. “But it looks like the worst in the mortgage market in the UK is behind us. We should gradually see an improvement both in volumes and in profitability.”
And now, to help that profitability no doubt, news is breaking that Santander has started slashing jobs at its UK headquarters. “We continuously look at our operating model to ensure our teams are organised in the best way to support our customers effectively and efficiently,” a spokesperson for Santander said in a statement to Bloomberg.
On Friday, the bank lost its head of corporate and investment banking Alexandra MacMahon to rival ING to head up wholesale and oversee a hiring spree at the Dutch bank. The bank is Europe’s third biggest lender by market value, and has announced that it will have a full-service digital bank in the US by the end of next year.
A brief history of Santander in the UK
Santander entered the UK banking market in 2004 by acquiring Abbey National, a former building society turned retail bank. This acquisition marked the beginning of Santander’s presence in the British financial sector, followed by further expansions in 2008, when it acquired Alliance & Leicester and the savings business of Bradford & Bingley. These acquisitions helped establish Santander as a major player in the UK, offering a broad range of retail and commercial banking services.
In 2010, the bank rebranded all three acquired institutions under the Santander name, unifying its UK operations into Santander UK Plc. With a focus on mortgages, personal banking, and business lending, Santander UK grew rapidly, becoming one of the country’s largest retail banks.
Over time, Santander shifted its strategy to emphasise digital banking, reducing its branch network and expanding online services. The bank has undergone multiple restructuring efforts, such as a series of branch closures in 2019 and 2021, to adapt to the evolving financial landscape and enhance efficiency.
Santander UK is now a full-service bank with headquarters in Milton Keynes, operating independently from its Spanish parent but under its global umbrella. As of 2023, the bank had over 19,000 employees and continued to focus on mortgages, savings accounts, and business lending, while also participating in the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to protect depositors.
