Santander Consolidates Global Tech Platforms to Drive Record Profits

Santander’s digital transformation and targeted deployment of artificial intelligence helped it achieve record profits in the first half, the bank said in a Wednesday (July 22) earnings release.

The bank’s underlying profit rose 15% to reach a record 7.3 billion euros (about $8.3 billion) in the first half. In the second quarter alone, its underlying profit rose 17% to reach 3.8 billion euros (about $4.3 billion), according to the release.

“We performed strongly in the first half, adding 12 million customers year on year,” Banco Santander Executive Chair Ana Botín said in the release. “Revenue grew 6%, and costs fell, with ONE Transformation driving further improvements in operating leverage and supporting record profits.”

ONE Transformation is Santander’s initiative to scale common technology platforms across its global businesses to increase efficiency. The initiative includes investments in data and AI that will be embedded in the businesses and focused on delivering “hyper-personalized customer journeys,” the bank said in February.

As part of ONE Transformation, Santander has added digital self-service to its contact centers, used AI to maximize cross-selling across its businesses, built global technology and deployed it across the group, and used common architectures, cloud capabilities and data, the bank said in a presentation released Wednesday.

During the first half, the ONE Transformation enabled efficiency gains that helped drive a 2% reduction in costs. The lower costs, together with strong customer activity, drove the record profit in the first half, according to the Wednesday earnings release.

Looking ahead, Santander reiterated its 2026 targets, which include mid-single-digit revenue growth, lower costs in constant euros and higher profit than the 14.1 billion euros (about $16.1 billion) the bank reported in 2025, per the release.

“Revenue growth is expected to continue to be supported by customer activity, with net fee income growing faster than net interest income, while cost discipline and ONE Transformation will continue to drive positive operating leverage,” Santander said in the release.

Santander also reiterated the three-year plan it outlined at its Investor Day in February, which includes profit above 20 billion euros (about $22.8 billion) by 2028.

When outlining its strategic plan for 2026-2028 in February, Santander said that it was using AI to boost its profit and its customer base over the next 24 months.