Santander to grow financial advice arm

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Santander to grow financial advice arm

Santander’s UK arm has revealed plans to expand its financial advice teams.

According to a market update, published today (26 April), the banking giant stated: “We are expanding our wealth management business by growing our private banking and financial planning advisory teams.”

The Spain-headquartered bank said: “Our ongoing focus is to maximise return on capital, by effectively leveraging our transactional banking products, foreign exchange and advisory services.”

Last year, Santander announced it was planning to re-enter the investment advice industry.

 Looking ahead, we anticipate a changeable and potentially more challenging macro environment. Nathan Bostock

The bank also enhanced its direct-to-consumer investment platform in the first quarter of 2017, providing customers with educational content to help them understand their investment needs and risk. 

Its digital customer base continued to grow, gaining an average of 1,400 new active mobile users per day for a total of 2.3 million mobile customers. 

According to its results, the UK arm saw a slight dip in profits before tax in the first quarter of this year, hitting £525m from the £533m posted in the same period in 2016.

However, the bank said it was seeing “solid momentum” in its business activities.

Nathan Bostock, Santander chief executive, said the bank's performance was underpinned by "operating income growth, cost discipline, and good credit quality".

He also said cost management will remain a key focus going forward, having set out a programme of ongoing cost initiatives, including streamlining services and a shift towards digital channels.

Looking at mortgage lending, the bank said it continues to focus on customer service in what it claimed was still a “highly competitive market”. 

In the first quarter of this year, mortgage approval volumes were higher than in the final three months of 2016, and the bank said it expected mortgage completions to normalise in the first half of 2017.

Mr Bostock said: "Looking ahead, we anticipate a changeable and potentially more challenging macro environment, but remain confident of our ongoing ability to meet the needs of our customers and shareholders."

katherine.denham@ft.com