Madrid (EFE).- The president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, today asked the Government to implement structural reforms to take Spain “to the next level” and resume convergence with Europe in terms of “income, well-being and quality of life”.
Botín added, in his speech before the general meeting of shareholders meeting in Madrid, that despite the economic slowdown and the impact of the increase in energy prices and inflation, “the Spanish economy is recovering”, it is creating employment and inflation is slowing down.
And all this is possible “thanks to the leadership of millions of freelancers, SMEs and companies” who strive every day to improve their businesses, as well as the improvement of tourism, the good level of savings that companies and families have, since they has maintained the focus on reducing energy dependence.
“We share a common objective with Europe: growth”, and to promote it “we need to invest more to improve productivity”, explained the president of Banco Santander to her shareholders, who today will, foreseeably, approve her re-election as a member of the Board of Directors.
References to turmoil in the financial sector
Botín has also referred to the turmoil experienced by the financial sector in recent weeks with the bankruptcy of two US entities and the rescue of Credit Suisse and has said that the rapid response of the US authorities, Switzerland and the ECB They have been “fundamental” in reestablishing the right conditions and rebuilding trust.
For her, the current situation “is a great opportunity to speed up the last steps to complete the capital market union and the banking union” in the European Union, with the creation of a European deposit guarantee fund.
This would be “the best response” to the challenges facing Europe, “it would contribute to generating greater confidence and would be a great basis for attracting the necessary investment for growth” in all these countries, he said.
Challenges of Banco Santander
He has also insisted that Banco Santander is ready to face these challenges thanks to its business model, focused on the client, diversification and scale, thanks to the work of recent years.
Ana Botín took advantage of her speech to welcome the new CEO, Héctor Grisi, whom she said would contribute “his deep knowledge of Santander” to speed up the transformation of the Group and achieve the annual objectives, which he reaffirmed today, together with the rest of the targets set on the last Investor Day.
Likewise, he thanked the outgoing CEO, José Antonio Álvarez, “for his work and contribution to the Group over the last 20 years”, who will remain on the board of directors as non-executive vice president.
Grisi has also thanked Álvarez for his work and his help in the transition process, and has assured that they see “good trends” in the figures for the first quarter of 2023, which they want to consolidate in the coming quarters to advance the objectives of the year and in the medium-term goals announced on the last Investor Day.