Santander In The News

[TowNews]

Santander has laid off its head of commercial banking as it reorganizes its U.S. business.

The bank will be consolidating its commercial banking business with its commercial real estate business and vehicle-financing businesses.

 

Santander has laid off its head of commercial banking, Joe Abruzzo, as it reorganizes its U.S. business.

 

The Boston-based subsidiary of Spain's Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN) will be consolidating its commercial banking business with its commercial real estate business and vehicle-financing businesses.

 

The announcement of the consolidation was made internally late last week in a town hall, according to a source familiar with the announcement. The consolidation went into effect July 24. The two business units had separate structures and reporting lines, and Santander executives announced to employees it plans to combine the two units into one commercial banking department. 

Santander, previously based in Wyomissing when it was known as Sovereign Bank, is the seventh largest bank in the immediate Philadelphia region with $7.8 billion in deposits, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data as of June 30, 2022. The bank has cut its local branch network from 71 in 2020 to 52, including shuttering five in the past 12 months.

The move promotes two employees and cuts Abruzzo's position. New York-based Abruzzo was senior executive vice president and head of commercial banking at Santander since June 2020. Prior to that he had spent six years with HSBC and 26 years with JPMorgan Chase & Co. Santander confirmed Abruzzo's departure from the company.

The new commercial bank will be headed by Providence, Rhode Island-based Michael Lee, who is the current managing director of commercial real estate banking at Santander. Lee has worked with Santander, and its predecessor banks, for over 40 years. Patricia Packard in Boston will expand her role from running government and nonprofit banking to taking on middle-market banking for Boston and New England. In January, Santander hired longtime JPMorgan Chase executive Mark Schrieber to lead middle market lending bankwide.

The consolidation of the two businesses is focused on simplification, a source told the Boston Business Journal, a sister publication. Santander's vehicle-finance business is not to be confused for Santander Consumer USA, the company's Dallas-based consumer auto-financing unit. Santander's vehicle finance business focuses on business clients, not consumer lending.

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to middle-market companies here in New England, and in our important sectors such as not-for-profit and government banking. What we're doing is making internal changes to more effectively serve those clients,” Tim Wennes, CEO of Santander US, told the Business Journal.

Jeff Blumenthal contributed to this report.

https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2023/07/25/santander-lays-off-commercial-bank-chief-consolid.html

[EdsTowing]

I was reading this earlier today. They do a lot of business in our industry. Looks like some big changes...