However, the company continued with strong trading activity in the quarter despite the uncertainty in the markets. The customer resources reached their highest figure, which is equivalent to €1.13 trilliona 4% more thanks to deposit growth (+6%). The credits increased by 7%, until the 1.04 billion, with the mortgages and consumer credit growing by 7% and the cincome to companiesa 6%. The credit card of the bank remains highly diversified both by business lines and geographical areas, with 65% of the credit with collateral.
The number of customers grew by eight million in the last twelve monthsuntil the €159 million. The use of digital services continued to grow, with 56% of sales via web or mobile. The number of customers using digital channels grew by more than three million and exceeded 50 million for the first time.
Insurance and wealth management businesses (Wealth Management & Insurance) and Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB) also recorded remarkable growth.
The sharp rise in inflation led to a general increase in costs (+6%), although, in real terms, that is, discounting inflation, costs fell by 5% thanks to the improvement in productivity and connectivity between the different markets. Thus, the group’s efficiency ratio closed at 45.5% in the first nine months of the year (improves 0.1 percentage points compared to the same period in 2021), which places Santander among the most efficient entities of its peers .
In application of the shareholder remuneration policy for 2022, The board of directors approved the first distribution on account of the 2022 results, which will consist of two parts: a cash dividend of 5.83 euro cents per share to be paid to from November 2, 2022 and what does a 20% increase against the first interim dividend of the results of 2021, and a share repurchase program of up to 979 million, which will start once the pertinent regulatory authorization has been obtained. With that, the total remuneration of the first payment will exceed 1,900 million euros (16% more compared to 2021) and It represents approximately 40% of the ordinary profit for the first half of 2022.
In this way, Santander is on track to meet its revenue year targets (growth of around 5%), cost effectiveness (RoTE above 13%) and capital (12%), while it expects to improve the efficiency ratio for 2021 and close the year close to its objective (45%) despite inflationary pressures. The board of directors maintains its commitment to generate returns for shareholders, among which there are almost four million minority shareholders in Spain, the United Kingdom and other countries. It also maintains its dividend policy for 2022under which it intends to distribute approximately 40% of ordinary profit, distributed approximately equally between cash dividends and share buybacks.
Source: Ambito
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