Santander set to beat last year’s record earnings and hand £5bn to shareholders

Santander has said it expects to beat its record high 2023 earnings this year, as it plans to hand out more than six billion euros (£5.2 billion) to shareholders.

The Spain-based Banco Santander group said it was in the midst of transforming to become a “digital bank with branches”.

The update is being given to investors during its annual general meeting in Madrid.

The bank said it is on track to meet its 2024 targets, having added two million customers this year which is set to boost its income by about 10% over the first quarter, compared with last year.

It comes after a bumper 2023 for the group which posted a record 11.1 billion euro (£9.5 billion) profit, helped by higher interest rates which have pushed up the cost of borrowing.

It resulted in a record amount returned to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks of 5.5 billion euros (£4.7 billion).

But Santander said it is confident it could beat that amount this year.

Banco Santander’s executive chair Anna Botin said: “I am very confident that we will deliver a considerably better performance in 2024 than 2023, which was already a record year, and will meet our 2024 targets.

“That being the case, cash dividends and share buybacks against 2024 results would amount to over six billion euros (£5.2 billion).”

Ms Botin added Santander’s retail bank has “embarked on a global transformation to become a digital bank with branches”.

It comes amid a wider push across the sector to shift to online and mobile banking, with the UK’s major high street lenders announcing the closure of hundreds of branches last year.