Santander UK has requested to transfer 3.5 billion euros of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB) business from Santander UK to the Group’s representative office in London, as learned Vozpopuli by financial sources.

Consolidate this in the branch Santander in London will result in a simplified UK structure for CIB . businesses and will benefit British customers. It would also simplify the British subsidiary’s business model, the bank explained to the media.

The transfer follows Santander’s client protection implementation, which was completed before the January 1, 2019, deadline, when the bank moved most of CIB’s business –about 28,000 million euros– and for large enterprise clients with more sophisticated out-of-bank restricted service requirements.

Investment and Corporate Banking serves corporate clients with an annual turnover of £500 million or more. CIB clients require tailored solutions and value-added services due to their size, complexity and sophistication, the bank explains.

Santander closes UK offices

Spanish bank Santander will close 111 branches in the UK by the end of August, in response to changing trends observed in their clients towards mobile services and online banking.

This new trend has been accelerated in recent months by the coronavirus pandemic, although in-office transactions have fallen by a third in the past two years, before the outbreak of the health crisis, and fell another 50% in 2020, the bank said in a statement.

On the other hand, transactions are carried out using mobile phones and online has grown by 20% every year, and nearly two-thirds are now digital.

After the announced closure, Santander will remain with a branch network of 452 officesAlthough the bank has indicated that it hopes to find alternative roles for the large number of employees who will be affected by the action.