Global businesses (9M 2026 vs 9M 2025)
To better reflect the performance of each business, the year-on-year changes provided below are presented in constant euros unless stated otherwise. Variations in current euros are available in the financial report.
Retail & Commercial Banking’s underlying profit grew 12% to €6,445 million, supported by higher activity and net fee income, lower costs (-1% or -5% excluding M&A) and efficiency gains from the bank’s global platforms, which are also improving customer service. Loans grew by 16% (+3% excluding M&A), mainly driven by higher mortgage lending, while deposits increased by 16% (+6% excluding M&A), reflecting strong customer activity across its footprint. ONE Transformation continues to progress at pace, with product digitalization driving digital sales (+19%), the customer interaction platform now deployed in Spain and the global app launched in Uruguay, now live in five countries. RoTE improved to 17.7%.
Openbank, which integrates Santander’s global consumer finance businesses and its digital bank, achieved a profit before tax of €2,544 million, excluding UK motor finance provisions, up 13%, supported by revenue growth, mainly driven by higher net interest income, and lower costs. Underlying profit amounted to €1,407 million, affected by the UK motor finance provisions and the end of electric vehicle tax incentives in the US in 2025. The efficiency ratio improved to 40.4%, while cost of risk stood at 2.10%. Loans increased 7% (+3% excluding Webster), driven by auto lending, while deposits increased 37% (+2% excluding Webster), supported by the digital bank.
CIB reported an underlying profit of €2,433 million (+15%), driven by strong revenue growth (+14%) across all business lines, especially in Global Banking and Global Markets supported by continued success of growth initiatives and a diversified business model. The solid execution of the strategy, focused on disciplined capital allocation, drove RoTE to 19.2%, while maintaining a leading position in efficiency.
Wealth Management & Insurance, which comprises the Private Banking and the Insurance & Asset Management Solutions businesses, increased its underlying profit by 19% to €1,651 million, driven by revenue growth on the back of client inflows and the focus on fee-generating activities. Assets under management reached new record levels of €588bn (+11%) thanks to solid commercial activity and market performance, while Insurance’s gross written premiums increased 20% to €10 billion.
Payments, which brings together the group’s digital payment capabilities and provides global technology solutions to Santander businesses and third-party clients, generated an underlying profit of €105 million, more than double the previous year, driven by strong revenue growth (+15%) as it continued to scale its global platforms and expand its integrated payments ecosystem. Getnet’s total payment volume increased 9%, while Getnet Platforms processed 14 billion account-to-account and card transactions, three times more than in the same period of last year. Ebury, Santander’s cross-border payments and foreign exchange platform for small and medium-sized businesses, increased its active customers by 25% to 29,500. The EBITDA margin improved by 2.4 percentage points to 34.0%, reflecting the benefits of greater scale and operating leverage.
Banco Santander is one of the world’s largest banks, with 186,000 employees, serving 189 million customers, 3.6 million shareholders and a market capitalization of €179 billion at the end of September 2026.
[1] All references to M&A across the press release refer to TSB and Webster.
[2] All figures are year-on-year unless otherwise stated. Volumes (lending, deposits, etcetera) in constant euros. Reconciliation of underlying results to statutory results, available in the ‘Alternative Performance Measures’ section of the financial report at CNMV and at santander.com.
[3] Targets market dependent. Based on macro assumptions aligned with international economic institutions. Targets assuming cost of risk stable. 2026 targets are set excluding Poland, TSB and Webster. CET1 ratio target including all the impacts from inorganic transactions.
[4] Total share buybacks as of 9M’26 including: i) €1.7bn share buyback against H1’25 results (completed); ii) €1.8bn share buyback against H2’25 results (completed); iii) €3.2bn additional share buyback to distribute approx. 50% of the CET1 capital generated following the completion of the sale of 49% of Santander Bank Polska to Erste Group on 9 January 2026 (completed); and €1.8bn share buyback against H1’26 results (underway). The board of directors intends to: i) apply an ordinary shareholder remuneration policy for 2026 to 2028 results that entails allocating approximately 50% of the Group’s underlying profit (excluding non-cash, non-capital ratios impact items), split approximately evenly between cash dividends and share buybacks for 2026 results; and additionally ii) distribute excess capital at the end of the 2026-2028 period to shareholders. From 2027 results on, the ordinary shareholder remuneration policy is expected to comprise around 35% of Group underlying profit (on the same basis) in cash dividends and around 15% in share buybacks. Execution of the shareholder remuneration policy and of the distribution to shareholders of excess capital at the end of the 2026-2028 period is subject to future corporate and regulatory decisions and approvals.
Note: Figures are presented on a basis reflecting the changes made to the presentation of the Group’s financial information, effective from the first quarter of 2026 and communicated through Other Relevant Information filed with CNMV on 10 February. Group underlying profit excludes: i) charges for intangible asset impairments and integration costs associated with the M&A transactions in Q2’26 and Q3’26 (-€666mn); ii) the capital gain resulting from the disposal of the Poland business in Q1’26 (€1,895mn); and iii) results related to the business subject to the Poland disposal in 9M’25 (€713mn). In the Group’s consolidated balance sheet, balances as at 30 September 2026 include TSB and Webster, affecting comparisons with prior periods.