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Underlying business performance
All variations are year-on-year unless otherwise stated.
Banco Santander reported a record underlying profit of €11,176 million in the first nine months of 2026, up 16%. The result was driven by strong customer activity and the continued execution of ONE Transformation, which is delivering efficiency gains and higher revenue. Attributable profit reached €12,405 million, up 20%. This includes a €1.9 billion net capital gain from completing the disposal of Santander Bank Polska in January, partly offset by €666 million in charges, including integration costs associated with TSB and Webster. Underlying results exclude these non-recurring items to give a consistent view of the operating performance.
Santander continued to grow its customer base, adding 17 million customers over the last twelve months to 189 million. This reflects strong commercial momentum across all businesses and the addition of eight million customers from TSB and Webster following the completion of both acquisitions, on 30 April and 20 August, respectively.
The bank continued to improve profitability and create value for shareholders. Underlying return on tangible equity (RoTE) was 16.0% (+1.1 percentage points). Statutory earnings per share (EPS) increased 25% and tangible net asset value (TNAV) plus cash dividend per share increased 11%, reflecting higher profitability and disciplined capital allocation.
Business volumes remained strong. Loans and customer funds (deposits + mutual funds) both increased 16% in constant euros, supported by solid commercial momentum across the global businesses and the incorporation of TSB and Webster. Excluding acquisitions, loans increased 6% and customer funds 8% (deposits +6%) in constant euros. Loan growth was driven by mortgages in Retail, auto lending in Openbank and double-digit loan growth in CIB and Wealth with a focus on capital-efficient growth.
Total revenue increased 8% to €46,807 million. Net interest income increased 10% (+7% excluding M&A) to €34,614 million and net fee income increased 9% (also +9% excluding M&A) to €10,349 million, reflecting higher customer activity, deeper customer relationships and business volume growth across all global businesses. Around 95% of group revenue is linked to customer activity.
Total costs fell 1% excluding TSB and Webster (-2% in constant euros), reflecting continued efficiency gains from ONE Transformation, the group's programme to move to a common operating model built on shared global platforms. Net operating income increased 14% to €26,882 million and the efficiency ratio improved by 2.8 percentage points to 42.6%, supported by structurally lower costs and higher revenue. The group also continued to deploy AI across its businesses at scale. This generated €194 million of business value (higher revenue, lower costs and lower loan-loss provisions) during the year through better customer service, higher productivity and commercial growth.
Loan-loss provisions increased 13% (+10% in constant euros), mainly reflecting broader market trends in Argentina. Excluding Argentina, provisions increased 6% in constant euros, in line with organic loan growth. Credit quality remained solid, with a cost of risk of 1.16%, supported by prudent risk management, diversified exposure and low unemployment levels across the bank's markets. The non-performing loan ratio improved to 2.90% from the previous quarter (-3 basis points) and remains at low levels, with a coverage ratio of 64%.
The CET1 capital ratio stood at 12.7%. Excluding the -147 basis point impact from the Webster acquisition, the ratio increased 14 basis points in the quarter, with 19 basis points of net organic capital generation. Santander remains on track to meet its year-end CET1 target of 12.8% to 13%, at the high end of its 12-13% operating range.
Santander continued to deliver attractive shareholder returns. In September, the board approved an interim cash dividend of 12.70 euro cents per share against 2026 results, 10% higher than its 2025 equivalent, to be paid on 2 November. In August, the bank launched a share buyback programme of up to c.€1.8 billion against H1 2026 results. Total shareholder remuneration against H1 2026 results will be approximately €3,660 million, 8% higher than a year earlier and equivalent to about 50% of H1 underlying profit.
With that programme, Santander will have delivered c.€9 billion towards its plan to distribute at least €10 billion through share buybacks against 2025 and 2026 results and excess capital[4].
Outlook
Santander reiterates all its 2026 targets, which exclude the impact of M&A in 2025 and 2026. These are mid-single-digit revenue growth and lower costs in constant euros, profit above the €14.1 billion reported in 2025, and a CET1 ratio between 12.8% and 13%3. Revenue growth is expected to continue to be supported by customer activity, with net fee income growing faster than net interest income. Cost discipline and ONE Transformation will continue to drive positive operating leverage. Santander also reiterates the three-year plan set out at its Investor Day last February: by 2028, the group targets a RoTE above 20%, profit above €20 billion and more than 210 million customers, supported by scale, network effects and continued improvements in productivity and capital allocation.
We once again delivered strong results in the first nine months, with earnings per share up 25% and growing momentum across the group. We added 17 million customers over the last twelve months, driven by strong commercial activity and the addition of TSB and Webster, while loans and customer funds both increased 16% year-on-year.
Global businesses (9M 2026 vs 9M 2025)
To better reflect the performance of each business, the year-on-year changes provided below are presented in constant euros unless stated otherwise. Variations in current euros are available in the financial report.
Retail & Commercial Banking’s underlying profit grew 12% to €6,445 million, supported by higher activity and net fee income, lower costs (-1% or -5% excluding M&A) and efficiency gains from the bank’s global platforms, which are also improving customer service. Loans grew by 16% (+3% excluding M&A), mainly driven by higher mortgage lending, while deposits increased by 16% (+6% excluding M&A), reflecting strong customer activity across its footprint. ONE Transformation continues to progress at pace, with product digitalization driving digital sales (+19%), the customer interaction platform now deployed in Spain and the global app launched in Uruguay, now live in five countries. RoTE improved to 17.7%.
Openbank, which integrates Santander's global consumer finance businesses and its digital bank, achieved a profit before tax of €2,544 million, excluding UK motor finance provisions, up 13%, supported by revenue growth, mainly driven by higher net interest income, and lower costs. Underlying profit amounted to €1,407 million, affected by the UK motor finance provisions and the end of electric vehicle tax incentives in the US in 2025. The efficiency ratio improved to 40.4%, while cost of risk stood at 2.10%. Loans increased 7% (+3% excluding Webster), driven by auto lending, while deposits increased 37% (+2% excluding Webster), supported by the digital bank.
CIB reported an underlying profit of €2,433 million (+15%), driven by strong revenue growth (+14%) across all business lines, especially in Global Banking and Global Markets supported by continued success of growth initiatives and a diversified business model. The solid execution of the strategy, focused on disciplined capital allocation, drove RoTE to 19.2%, while maintaining a leading position in efficiency.
Wealth Management & Insurance, which comprises the Private Banking and the Insurance & Asset Management Solutions businesses, increased its underlying profit by 19% to €1,651 million, driven by revenue growth on the back of client inflows and the focus on fee-generating activities. Assets under management reached new record levels of €588bn (+11%) thanks to solid commercial activity and market performance, while Insurance’s gross written premiums increased 20% to €10 billion.
Payments, which brings together the group’s digital payment capabilities and provides global technology solutions to Santander businesses and third-party clients, generated an underlying profit of €105 million, more than double the previous year, driven by strong revenue growth (+15%) as it continued to scale its global platforms and expand its integrated payments ecosystem. Getnet’s total payment volume increased 9%, while Getnet Platforms processed 14 billion account-to-account and card transactions, three times more than in the same period of last year. Ebury, Santander's cross-border payments and foreign exchange platform for small and medium-sized businesses, increased its active customers by 25% to 29,500. The EBITDA margin improved by 2.4 percentage points to 34.0%, reflecting the benefits of greater scale and operating leverage.
Banco Santander is one of the world's largest banks, with 186,000 employees, serving 189 million customers, 3.6 million shareholders and a market capitalization of €179 billion at the end of September 2026.
[1] All references to M&A across the press release refer to TSB and Webster.
[2] All figures are year-on-year unless otherwise stated. Volumes (lending, deposits, etcetera) in constant euros. Reconciliation of underlying results to statutory results, available in the ‘Alternative Performance Measures’ section of the financial report at CNMV and at santander.com.
[3] Targets market dependent. Based on macro assumptions aligned with international economic institutions. Targets assuming cost of risk stable. 2026 targets are set excluding Poland, TSB and Webster. CET1 ratio target including all the impacts from inorganic transactions.
[4] Total share buybacks as of 9M’26 including: i) €1.