MADRID, 15 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -
Banco Santander has agreed to the appointment of Pedro Castro e Almeida, current CEO of its Portuguese subsidiary, as the new regional head of Europe, as reported by the entity on Thursday.
Castro e Almeida will replace António Simões, who is leaving the entity to become CEO of the Legal and General Group, an asset management and insurance company based in the United Kingdom.
The appointment will be effective as of September 1, subject to the relevant approvals, until which date Simões will maintain his current responsibilities to ensure an orderly transition.
In his new role, Castro e Almeida will be responsible for Santander's businesses in Europe (banks in Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland and Portugal) and for leading the transformation in the region, for which he will report to the group's CEO, Héctor Grisi.
Castro e Almeida will maintain his current position as CEO of Santander Portugal. The bank's CEOs in Spain, the United Kingdom and Poland will report directly to you.
The new regional head of the bank in Europe joined Santander Portugal in 1993, where he has held the position of CEO for the last five years.
"During this period, the bank has carried out a major transformation, simplifying and automating operational tasks, and becoming the most efficient and profitable entity in the country," the entity highlighted.
Before becoming CEO of Santander Portugal, Castro e Almeida was a director of the bank for more than 10 years and went through various areas of the bank.
For his part, António Simões joined Santander in 2020 and, under his leadership, the bank made progress in integrating its activities in Europe and in the construction of One Santander.
"All this has resulted in ordinary profit in Europe increasing from 1,138 million euros in 2020 to 3,810 in 2022, a trend that has continued in the first quarter of 2023, with a profit increase of 19% year-on-year", highlights the entity.
Likewise, the bank underlines that the profitability (RoTE, return on tangible capital) of the region has gone from 3% in 2020 to 13% in the first quarter of 2023, due to the growth of the franchise, whose customer base increased in a million in the last year.
The president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, has appreciated the appointment of Castro e Almeida and thanked Simões for his work.
"Pedro has done a great job leading Santander Portugal. With him at the helm, customer satisfaction, efficiency and profitability have improved significantly," said Botín, who added that Castro e Almeida is "the ideal person to lead Europe and continue the good work" carried out by Simões with One Santander.
For his part, Castro e Almeida has been "very excited" about the opportunity to lead the European business of Banco Santander. "In recent years, we have made great progress to build One Santander in the region and we have an extraordinary team. We will continue working to achieve the goals that the group set for itself on the last Investor Day," he added.
