Santander replaces its U.S. CEO

The Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has shaken up its leadership in the United States, with Christiana Riley succeeding Tim Wennes as the CEO of Santander U.S.

The transition took place Friday, according to a company spokesperson. It was announced that same day by Banco Santander CEO Ana Botín in posts on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Riley, a longtime Deutsche Bank executive who served as that company’s CEO of the Americas, joined Santander in 2023 as its regional head of North America. At Santander, she has been in charge of businesses in both the U.S. and Mexico.

Wennes, who was named CEO of Santander U.S. in 2019, had been reporting to Riley since she joined the company.

Riley is based in New York City. In her new role, she will oversee about 12,000 U.S.-based employees.
Reuters reported on the leadership change on Friday.

The restructuring is part of broader changes in which Banco Santander is moving away from regional reporting and regional leaders, the spokesperson said. Since 2019, the company has had regional divisions in Europe, North America and South America. The regions were meant to improve productivity and efficiency.

“Having done an outstanding job in transforming Santander U.S. and laying the foundations for continued growth and success, Tim Wennes has decided that now is the right time to pursue other opportunities,” Botín wrote. “Christiana will become CEO of Santander U.S. and I am confident she is well-placed to lead the next phase of growth in this critical market.”

The company, which is due to report its fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, did not offer more details about Wennes’ future.

The announcement of Wennes’ exit comes about three months after Banco Santander launched Openbank, a nationwide digital bank in the U.S. that’s designed to reel in deposits to help fund Santander’s auto lending business in this country. The effort is part of Santander’s goal to be “a digital bank with branches,” a strategy that it teased last year after the U.S. arm hired Swati Bhatia, formerly of Goldman Sachs, to be the head of retail banking and transformation.

As of Jan. 29, Openbank, which went to market in October, had $2 billion of deposits, Banco Santander announced Monday in a press release. “Reaching this deposit milestone at record pace is a testament to our customer-obsessed mindset, commitment to innovation, and global connectivity,” Bhatia said in the release.

In addition to a high-yield savings account, Openbank will begin offering certificates of deposit, payments and checking accounts “this year and beyond,” and the retail bank “remains a priority for Santander U.S,” the release said.

Openbank has been available in parts of Europe for years. By rolling it out in the U.S., Santander can collect deposits beyond its existing nine-state, 400-plus retail branch franchise, which is mostly based in the Northeast. The bank had about $75.4 billion of U.S. deposits as of June 30, 2024.

In her social media posts, Botín also said that Roman Blanco Reinosa, the country head in Chile, will be replaced by Andres Trautmann Buc, current head of corporate and investment banking at Santander Chile. Reinosa will “will assist with an orderly transition over the next few months,” Botín said.