Board Changes at Santander UK plc

Santander UK plc

Board Changes

Santander UK plc has today announced the appointments of Bruce Carnegie-Brown and Antonio Escámez Torres as Non-Executive Directors of the Board with effect from 1 October 2012.

These appointments have been approved by the FSA.

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Notes to Editors:

1. Bruce Carnegie-Brown is currently the senior independent director of Close Brothers Group plc and Catlin Group Limited; and is a non-executive director of Moneysupermarket.com Group PLC. Formerly he was with 3i Group, Marsh & McLennan and JP Morgan.

2. Antonio Escámez Torres was a Board member of Banco Santander, S.A. from 1999 to March 2012 and, until 2002, held various executive roles within the Banco Santander Group. He has nearly 40 years of experience in Financial Services, undertaking a variety of executive and Director level roles across a number of international jurisdictions. He is currently Chairman of Santander Consumer Finance, Arena Media Communications, Openbank, Banco Santander Foundation and Spain-India Council Foundation; Vice Chairman of Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco and Konectanet Group; and a member of the board of trustees of the Casa Árabe and the International Advisory Board.

Additional information about Santander UK and Banco Santander

Santander UK is a subsidiary of Banco Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N). Banco Santander is a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain, with a presence in 10 main markets. Banco Santander is the largest bank in the euro zone and is among the fifteen largest in the world by market capitalization. Founded in 1857, Banco Santander had EUR 1.383 trillion in managed funds, more than 102 million customers, 14,760 branches - more than any other international bank - and 193,000 employees at the close of 2011. It is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America. Furthermore, it has significant positions in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Germany, Poland and the U.S. northeast. Santander Consumer Finance operates in the Group's core markets as well as in the Nordic region. In 2011, Banco Santander registered EUR 7,021 million in recurring net profit.

Santander UK is a leading financial services provider in the UK and offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. With 1,312 branches (including agencies), 33 regional business centres and 25,000 employees (on a group basis), Santander UK serves more than 25 million customers at 30 June 2012.

Banco Santander has a standard listing of its ordinary shares on the London Stock Exchange and Santander UK continues to have its preference shares listed on the London Stock Exchange. Nothing in this announcement constitutes or should be construed as constituting a profit forecast.

Further information about Santander UK is available at the group's website: www.aboutsantander.co.uk