Santander Merges Openbank With Consumer Finance Unit

Santander’s digital consumer banking unit Openbank and its consumer finance business are merging.

The banking giant announced the merger Wednesday (Oct. 15), saying it plans to eventually operate its European consumer finance businesses under the Openbank brand.

“This combination will strengthen our position in key markets like Germany and across Europe, enabling us to offer customers a broader range of products and a seamless digital and in-branch experience,” Nitin Prabhu, head of Santander’s Digital Consumer Bank global business, said in a news release.

“By leveraging Openbank’s advanced technology and Santander’s consumer finance expertise, we’re creating a more efficient and innovative digital-first bank ready for the future.”

According to the release, Openbank operates in Spain, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands and has launched in Mexico and the U.S. Santander Consumer Finance (SCF) operates in 18 countries, with an auto loan volume of more than €140 billion in Europe.

The combined management of Openbank and SCF has driven new business by retail partnerships with companies like Apple, Amazon and Vodafone, the release added.

“This move will now allow SCF and Openbank customers to access a broader range of products as they will be able to enjoy the full offering of the combined business through a simplified and unified digital platform, with a single access point for banking, lending and payment solutions,” the news release added.

In other digital banking news, PYMNTS wrote recently about the way intelligent assistants can help build trust, something long considered fragile in this sector.

That’s according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Beyond the Bot: Why Embedded Conversational AI Is Banking’s Next Strategic Advantage.”

“Embedding AI into customer interactions is more than a technology upgrade. The findings signal a shift in the business model of banking itself,” PYMNTS wrote.

“Early adopters are discovering that when digital assistants act less like search boxes and more like financial advisers, the payoff is not just efficiency but stronger customer relationships, higher satisfaction and, ultimately, new revenue streams.”

At the same time, the report also stresses that banks that treat conversational artificial intelligence (AI) as a plug-in feature rather than a core strategy run the risk of repeating the mistakes of legacy chatbots that left customers distrustful and frustrated.

The research found that 29% of customers were satisfied with chatbot support, compared with 60% for mobile apps and 57% for ATMs, “underscoring how poorly first-generation bots have performed,” PYMNTS wrote.

Meanwhile, 72% of consumers said personalization helps guide where they bank, pointing to the weight customers give to relevance and context in financial interactions.