Santander will invest around $6 billion between 2022 and 2024 in digital transformation projects aimed at improving customer experience in Latin America.
Santander’s diversification overseas, especially in Latin America, has helped the bank cope with tough conditions for lenders in Europe in the years since the financial crisis.
Santander hopes that expanding in emerging economies will help it deliver faster growth than its core markets in Europe of Spain and Britain.
Santander has previously said it invests around $5.6 billion in technology per year as a group.
Around 40 percent of Santander’s profits come from Latin America, with Brazil being its biggest market there.
The whole region is home to 80 million of its 152 million customers and to half of its 193,000 employees.
Santander, at the bank’s Investor Day in April 2019, confirmed it invests €5 billion (c.$5.6 billion) in digital and technology per year as a group.
The bank aims to invest in tech infrastructure and transformation to further improve customer service in Latin America.
Santander chairman Ana Botin said: “Latin America is part of our history, of our present and, will be an important part of our future. It has the resources, social capital and experience necessary to prosper and we are committed to supporting the communities, customers and businesses we serve in the region, as we have done for the past three decades.”
Santander also serves over 700,000 customers through Superdigital, a financial inclusion platform that aims to reach five million active customers by 2023 in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and other Latin American countries.