Isabel Guerreiro, head of retail and digital for Europe at Banco Santander, describes her employer as a digital bank with branches. This is what is behind the Spanish bank’s continued success with the small and medium-sized enterprise segment across Europe.
“SMEs are becoming more digital,” she explains. “Over 70% of SMEs have told us they want a digital-first self service. For this you need an omnichannel approach, which we have.”
Launched in October 2019, Santander’s paytech business PagoNxt saw revenues increase by 72% in its second full year of operation, and its pan-European acquirer Getnet Europe has also added a stronger proposition for SMEs and saw active merchants increase by 33% last year as a result. In Europe, Getnet is active in Spain and Portugal and will be launched in Poland next year. But several other Santander initiatives for SMEs have really moved the needle.
One of the most interesting of these is Santander Growth, which provides investment banking services to SMEs that the bank identifies as having particular potential.