Spanish Regulator Imposes $47 Million Fine on Santander

Banco Santander was reportedly fined 40 million euros ($47 million) by a Spanish regulator due to past deficiencies in internal processes in Spain at its digital unit Openbank.

The fine was imposed by Spain’s anti-money laundering watchdog known as Sepblac, Bloomberg reported Friday (Jan. 23), citing unnamed sources.

Asked about the report by Bloomberg, a Santander spokesperson acknowledged a Sepblac review but declined to comment on the size of the fine, according to the report.

The spokesperson said that the regulator’s review had to do with issues “dating back some years” and that those issues “have now been fully addressed,” per the report.

“It is unrelated to any money laundering case and concerns interpretive matters regarding procedural and control rules, in particular regarding inactive customer accounts that were either blocked or not operational,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg.

The spokesperson added that Openbank has challenged the review and “remains fully committed to the highest regulatory and compliance standards,” per the report.

PYMNTS reported in October that the Openbank digital banking unit now operates in six countries: Spain, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Mexico and the United States.

Santander said in October that it was merging Openbank and its consumer finance business and that it plans to 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, who is now senior executive vice president of Banco Santander and global head of digital consumer bank, said at the time in a press release.

Openbank went live in the United States in October 2024, with Santander saying that the launch of the digital banking platform marked a significant expansion of the bank’s U.S. consumer banking operations beyond the Northeast, enabling it to serve customers nationwide.

Santander announced in February that Openbank surpassed $2 billion in deposits in the U.S. four months after its launch in the country, and the bank said in May that the digital banking platform gained more than 100,000 customers in the U.S. during its first six months.