Openbank and Santander Consumer Finance To Integrate in Europe, Expanding Range of Products and Services to Customers

Banco Santander has announced that it will merge Openbank and Santander Consumer Finance (SCF) into a single legal entity and will gradually operate its European consumer finance businesses under the Openbank brand. Germany will be the first market to initiate integration, with other markets to follow.

Openbank and SCF are part of Santander’s Digital Consumer Bank (DCB) global business. The integration of these European businesses is therefore a natural step in simplifying the business, improving customer offering, and helping the group ensure that it provides the best service and financing solutions for partners, such as auto manufacturers, dealers or merchants, and their common end customers, further strengthening its ability to offer competitive solutions.

Openbank is Santander’s flagship brand for digital-first consumer banking, embodying the freshness and innovation of its cutting-edge technology. By combining intuitive design and continuous product innovation, it has achieved one of the highest net promoter scores (NPS) in its largest market in recent years. Openbank will carry the endorsement “by Santander,” which conveys the strength, stability, and trust of being part of a global banking powerhouse.

Openbank currently operates in four European countries (Spain, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands) and has already launched in the United States and Mexico. Santander Consumer Finance (SCF) is the auto finance leader in Europe by loan volume (over €140 billion), with successful operations in 18 countries. Together, Openbank and SCF already support around 16,000 new customers every day with their financing needs across Europe, whether it is to buy a car, a mobile phone, a washing machine, a house or any other kind of personal finance.

In recent years, the combined management of Openbank and SCF has driven new business through partnering with large retailers such as Apple, Amazon or Vodafone in different European countries. 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. Among other things, Openbank offers in different markets an automated investment service, Robo Advisor – a broker platform equipped with artificial intelligence-based tools that delivers target prices for European and US stocks and has recently launched a crypto trading service.