Santander sees LatAm revenues up 20% in 2006

Spain's largest banking group Grupo Santander (NYSE: STD) sees its Latin American revenues growing 20% next year, group director Francisco Luzón said in a statement. The group's Latin American division reported a 20.6% year-on-year increase in gross operating income for the first nine months of the year to 4.95bn euros (US$5.77bn). Latin American profits grew 20.8% to US$1.71bn for the same period thanks to strong retail banking activity. Brazil led with earnings of US$550mn followed by Mexico with US$330mn. Santander will focus on organic growth in Latin America, especially in the fast-growing and high-margin small business and consumer lending markets, Luzon stated. Santander has invested some US$2.8bn in Latin America over the last six years to revamp technology and offices. The group runs the largest banking franchise in Latin America in terms of overall market share, serving 28 million clients through 4,000 branches in nine countries. Santander's group-wide earnings for the January-September period rose nearly 37% to 3.88bn euros.