Banking Giant Santander Chairman Emilio Botín Dies Suddenly

Emilio Botin was one of the few bankers to retain his role after the banking crisis. Photograph: Juan Manuel Serrano/AP

By Jill Treanor, The Guardian, September 10, 2014 -

Emilio Botín, the patriarch of international banking group Santander, has died suddenly, clearing the way for his daughter, Ana Botín to succeed him at the helm of Spain’s biggest bank.

In a brief statement, the bank said: “Banco Santander regrets to announce that its chairman, Emilio Botín, has passed away”.

The appointments and remuneration committee and board of directors of Santander is meeting later on Wednesday to appoint a new chairman – widely expected to be Ana, who runs the UK arm of the Spanish bank. The bank has a history of appointing family members to run the bank even though they now only own a stake of around 2%.

The elder Botín, who was 79, had steered Santander to become the one of the biggest lenders in the world – although not without controversy – and took the bank’s first foothold in the UK by taking over Abbey National a decade ago.

He was one of the few bankers to retain his role after the banking crisis during which he played a key part in facilitating the takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro, a deal which crippled Royal Bank of Scotland and Fortis, the two other financial firms involved in the then-record-breaking takeover.

Ana Botín recently hired Nathan Bostock, a senior banker at RBS, to join Santander in the UK and he would be regarded a possible successor to her at the top of the UK operations, which now include Alliance & Leceister and the savings arm of Bradford & Bingley.

Shares in Santander fell almost 2% to €7.60 following the news of Botín’s death.

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