MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s Santander will invest around $6 billion between 2022 and 2024 to promote digital transformation of its Latin American operations, the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
Santander’s diversification overseas, especially in Latin America, has helped the bank cope with tough conditions for lenders in Europe in the years since the financial crisis.
It hopes that expanding in emerging economies will help it deliver faster growth than its core markets in Europe of Spain and Britain.
Santander has previously said it invests around $5.6 billion in technology per year as a group.
Around 40% of Santander’s profits come from Latin America, with Brazil being its biggest market there.
The whole region is home to 80 million of its 152 million customers and to half of its 193,000 employees.
Santander has recently raised its stake in its Mexican unit to 96.2%.
(Reporting by Jesús Aguado; editing by Andrei Khalip)
