Santander seems to be at splitting automobile finance from remainder of UK division | Banco Santander

The Spanish proprietor of Santander is reportedly contemplating splitting off its scandal-hit motor finance enterprise from the remainder of its UK enterprise as a part of a company shake-up that would make the financial institution extra enticing to potential consumers.

Banco Santander has been reviewing the way forward for its UK enterprise in latest months, amid mounting frustrations over rules and prices. That features the fallout of the rising automobile finance fee scandal, which analysts at RBC Capital say might price the financial institution as much as £1.9bn in compensation to its former debtors.

The potential reorganisation would contain transferring the patron finance division, which homes its automobile mortgage enterprise, out of the Santander UK enterprise, in keeping with Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources. The possible break up would require approval from monetary regulators. A spokesperson for the financial institution declined to remark.

Hiving off the automobile finance enterprise might make the UK financial institution extra enticing to potential consumers. In January, it emerged that Santander UK could possibly be put up on the market, although Metropolis bosses have privately stated it will be tough to discover a purchaser till the ultimate prices of the motor finance fee scandal are determined.

A supreme court docket choice on the matter is due later this yr. If the court docket guidelines in customers’ favour, automobile mortgage suppliers together with Santander might face a mixed invoice of as much as £30bn, in keeping with the ranking company Moody’s.

Santander UK put apart £295m to cowl potential payouts to automobile mortgage prospects in November, when it had been compelled to delay the discharge of its monetary outcomes because it assessed the fallout of a court docket of enchantment ruling on the automobile finance scandal.

That judgment, handed down in October, vastly expanded an Monetary Conduct Authority investigation into motor finance commissions and despatched compensation estimates hovering. The landmark ruling decided that paying a “secret” fee to the automobile sellers who had organized the loans with out disclosing the sum and phrases of that fee to debtors was illegal.

It contributed to a drop in annual pre-tax income on the multinational lender, making the UK the one area to undergo a stoop in earnings in 2024, other than a Santander’s South American arm comprising Peru, Uruguay and Colombia.

It’s unclear whether or not a company overhaul within the UK might result in additional job cuts.

The financial institution, which has 18,000 UK workers and has headquarters Milton Keynes, confirmed in October that it was slicing 1,400 jobs throughout its UK enterprise as a part of its efforts to cut back prices. In February it stated it was how additional “simplification and automation” of the enterprise might “assist drive price efficiencies in 2025”.