Santander has rolled out Openbank, a digital platform intended to augment the lender’s U.S. growth and generate deposits to fund its auto franchise, the bank announced Monday.
The platform will offer high-yield savings, and Santander plans to introduce more products next year, the lender said.
“The launch of Openbank in the U.S. marks a significant milestone in our group’s transformation,” Ana Botín, Santander’s executive chair, said in a news release. “The U.S. is a key market for us, where we have been expanding our business over the past years.”
Openbank can help to fund some $30 billion in loans for car purchases and expand the lender’s retail business in the U.S., Santander’s U.S. CEO, Tim Wennes, told Reuters.
“We have north of $30 billion of auto assets that are not funded by the bank today, that are wholesale-funded,” Wennes told the wire service.
While direct funding would be more cost-effective than the current wholesale funding approach, Wennes did not disclose potential savings figures to Reuters.
Santander's Openbank savings account is offering an initial 5.25% annual percentage yield — outpacing digital rivals such as Goldman Sachs' Marcus (4.1%) and CIT Bank's platinum savings account (4.7%).
Santander’s digital offering is being rolled out across the bank’s retail and consumer businesses. It is an entirely digital bank in terms of deposits and operates in four European countries: Spain, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands.
Openbank can be accessed through Santander’s website and mobile app.
“Our goal is to offer U.S. customers the best high-yield savings account through a digital-first service, which is fast, simple with a competitive rate, and a superior customer experience accessible anytime, anywhere,” Petri Nikkilä, global CEO of Openbank, said in a statement.
Santander has long floated the idea of launching a digital bank. “Now it’s time to accelerate towards building a digital bank with branches,” Botín said in an Instagram post last year that coincided with the lender’s February 2023 investor day.
In September 2023, Santander revamped its structure, consolidating its retail and commercial business into a new global unit and announcing plans to create a global digital consumer banking division.
In a push to advance its digital bank plan, Santander in March hired Swati Bhatia, Goldman Sachs’ former head of Marcus, to serve as its head of retail banking and transformation.
Wennes said in March that the lender’s journey toward becoming a digital bank with branches “has reached an inflection point.”
Santander’s aim to establish itself in the U.S. market contrasts with some international banks, such as HSBC, Mitsubishi UFJ and BNP Paribas, that have sold their U.S. retail footprint to focus on more profitable markets.