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By Jesús Aguado
MADRID, May 12 (Reuters) - Santander on Tuesday
announced the appointment of Antonio Simoes, head of global
private banking at HSBC, as its regional chief for
Europe, one of the Spanish bank's three big geographical
regions.
Simoes joins Santander from the HSBC, where he has led a
number of businesses over the past 13 years in London and Hong
Kong, at a time when the Spanish bank is focused on cost cuts in
Europe.
"Antonio will join the bank on Sept. 1, subject to
regulatory approval, and will have managerial responsibility and
oversight of the bank's businesses in Europe with reporting
lines from the country heads of Spain, Britain, Portugal and
Poland," Santander said in a statement.
Simoes, 45, who is from Portugal, will become a member of
the Santander's group management committee and report to the
group's chief executive officer, José Antonio Alvarez.
Before joining HSBC, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company
in their London office and worked also at Goldman Sachs.
Santander, which created its tri-regional organisational
structure last year, is focusing on emerging economies while
cutting costs to counter a margin squeeze from ultra-low
interest rates in mature European markets.
Sergio Rial, Santander Brazil's CEO, and Hector Grisi,
Santander Mexico’s CEO, lead the South American and North
American operations respectively, with the bank's country heads
acting as the primary group representatives in each market
across all regions.
The bank's aim is to achieve 1 billion euros in cost savings
in the medium term in Europe out of the 1.2 billion euros target
it set globally.
The bank's European businesses serve 9.9 million customers
and 14.2 million digital customers, with around 70,000 employees
and 4,900 branches.
(Reporting By Jesús Aguado, editing by Andrei Khalip and Jane
Merriman)
