Santander aims for one billion euro boost from AI and wants 30m more customers

Anna Wise, Press Association Business Reporter

Wed, 25 February 2026 at 8:02 pm GMT+9 2 min read

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Santander has set its sights on a one billion euro (£870 million) boost from investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and data, while it plans to cut costs across the bank for the next three years.

The global banking group, which is based in Spain, set out stretching new financial goals as part of a new strategic plan for 2026 to 2028.

Bosses want to grow the bank’s revenues and reduce total business costs every year, to generate a profit of more than 20 billion euros (£17.4 billion) by 2028.

It is also aiming to grow its customer base to 210 million – 30 million more than the 180 million it had at the end of last year.

Santander is one of the world’s biggest banks with customers across Europe and the Americas, and more than 200,000 staff.

Like other lenders, it is hoping to lean into the AI boom and harness data to save money, automate work processes to make it more efficient, and develop new ways of delivering a personalised service for customers.

By 2028, the bank expects to generate more than one billion euros (£870 million) of business value each year from data and AI initiatives, which will come both from cost savings and increased revenues.

Within its retail business, Santander said the focus was on becoming a “global digital bank with branches”.

Santander recently announced plans to shut another 44 of its bank branches in the UK – which will leave it with 244 full branches by the end of January next year, as well as running smaller and reduced-hour sites.

In comparison, rival lender Lloyds will have a network of around 610 branches following its next tranche of closures.

Banks across the industry have been overhauling their networks which they link to a shift from customers away from in-person banking and towards digital services.

Ana Botin, the executive of the wider Banco Santander group, said: “Our strategic plan for 2026-28 sets a new standard for profitable growth, with the aim to serve more than 210 million customers across Europe and the Americas.”

She is due to lay out more details of the bank’s strategy at its “investor day” in London.

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