Santander has produced a rare combination in global private banking for high-net-worth (HNW) clients: rapid growth, seamless cross-border services and outstanding efficiency. What is more, the Madrid-based bank has transformed a dense regional footprint into a coordinated global platform suited to internationally minded clientele.
It helps that Santander has the numbers to prove this narrative. Client assets and liabilities reached a record $397 billion as of June 2025, up 17% year-on-year, reinforced by the strength of its net new money and one of the most efficient cost-to-income ratios in the entire private banking industry. As global head of Santander Private Banking International Alfonso Castillo puts it: “When a client onboards anywhere within our booking centres … he becomes a truly global client.” That promise has become a powerful differentiator in the HNW space.
Operating across 14 jurisdictions and thousands of points of contact, the bank can follow clients’ lives and businesses between Europe, Latin America, the US and, more recently, the Middle East. One banker can orchestrate needs across geographies: a client who starts in Miami can finance a business acquisition in São Paulo and buy a home for their children in Madrid through a single relationship manager, rather than being handed off to multiple booking centres. “These clients get the feeling that the service they receive everywhere globally is unique,” says Castillo.
But such high-touch service means little without the product capabilities to back it up. In this area, however, Santander also excels. Discretionary portfolio management and advisory mandates reached tens of billions of dollars of assets by mid-2025, as Santander pushes towards a 60:40 fee to net interest income revenue split globally – a target it has already reached in Argentina and Mexico. Structured products revenues climbed by a third year-on-year globally, and more than doubled in Mexico. Castillo highlights “huge steps forward” in the way the bank structures tailor-made trades: “The way we are able to structure something … in record time is impressive.”
Private markets and real assets have also become central to the HNW value proposition, with assets under management rising significantly despite a challenging fundraising environment. This was helped by a curated shelf of strategies and innovations such as evergreen vehicles and feeder structures into tier one private credit programmes where Santander is the exclusive global distributor among wealth managers. Club deals – co-investment opportunities in trophy assets from New York office towers to prime real estate in London and Marbella – allow top entrepreneurs to transact together, broadening wallet share and network effects. “You put very important decision-makers together from different countries and they love that,” says Castillo.
When a client onboards anywhere within our booking centres … he becomes a truly global client
Alfonso Castillo
Geographic expansion has underlined the strength of Santander. In 2024, the Spanish bank entered the Middle East via a new branch in Dubai International Financial Centre. It is already seeing momentum in terms of net new money from this channel, a result Castillo calls “unprecedented” in what he describes as “probably … the most sophisticated market on average that I’ve ever come across.” The success, he argues, proves Santander’s value proposition – global connectivity, a powerful balance sheet, fast-moving structuring and access to private markets and real estate.
Digital innovation is also underpinning the HNW offering. AI-powered tools in the chief investment office have halved report preparation times and enabled pre-market, multilingual content, while the Santander Digital Wealth app in Miami has cut offshore onboarding times for affluent Latin American clients significantly, driving a sharp increase in funded accounts.
In Brazil, the integration of Toro Corretora has given clients app-based access to structured equity ideas and push order execution, with automatic settlement and real-time alerts, supporting more active HNW traders.
Internally, a shift from star banker models to team-based coverage – bringing together real estate, wealth planning and investment specialists who are accountable for large revenue pools – has been crucial in driving scalability and a more efficient cost-to-income ratio.
Talent recruitment completes the picture, with hundreds of new professionals joining Santander Private Banking over the past year, supported by global programmes such as the global private assets programme, which has trained more than 300 bankers in private markets.
In a year when many competitors were distracted by restructurings or strategic pivots, Santander’s consistency and clarity of strategy – coupled with hard proof in growth, efficiency and product depth – have helped it capture wallet share. For HNW clients that need a private bank that can follow their wealth across Europe, the Americas and the Middle East – all tightly coordinated through a single relationship focal point – Santander has become one of the few global players that can credibly tick all those boxes.
