Ana Botín | Junta General Accionistas 2024 | Banco Santander

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, and welcome back to the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Banco Santander. Thank you to all who join us in person or remotely. 2023 was a very positive year for Santander, with historic results and progress in our transformation. We achieved record profit of over €11 billion, earnings per share growth of 21.5%, return on tangible equity above 15%, added 5 million new clients, and reached a record capital ratio of 12.3%. This led to a 15% growth in tangible net asset value per share plus dividend per share. More importantly, we continued transforming our business to build One Santander. Our vision is that the sum of all businesses and countries is greater than the individual parts. We have diversification across attractive, high-growth regions, global and local scale with 165 million clients, and we are building proprietary fintech solutions like a car leasing platform, a buy now pay later platform, Openbank, and our core banking solution Gravity. We have the best management team in Santander's history. These results allowed us to increase the payout ratio to 50%, with over €5.5 billion in shareholder remuneration, half in cash dividends (up 50% per share vs 2022) and half in share buybacks. For a shareholder holding 1,000 shares since 2021, after the current buyback, Santander will have repurchased about 11% of outstanding shares, increasing each shareholder's stake by over 12% without additional investment, plus gaining approximately €400 in dividends. Investing in our own shares at current prices below book value yields nearly 20% return. Looking ahead, we see a rare investment opportunity. The economic environment in 2023 was better than expected, but with high geopolitical volatility. Our diversification is a key advantage. Europe needs to improve competitiveness, and Spain is expected to grow above the European average. In Latin America, Santander is the leading bank, and Brazil is on track to become investment grade. In the US, we expect a soft landing and we have the scale to compete. Our strategy is based on three pillars: Think Value (creating shareholder value with capital above 12% and dynamic capital allocation), Think Customer (competitive pricing, excellent service, trust, and becoming a digital bank with branches), and Think Global (leveraging global scale and local presence). We have five global business lines: Retail, Consumer, Payments, CIB, and Wealth. In Consumer, we are leaders in auto financing in Europe and Brazil. In Payments, we aim to become a global leader with 165 million clients, nearly 100 million active cards, and 35 billion annual transactions. Our corporate culture is strong, with over 200,000 professionals. We have achieved gender pay equity two years ahead of target, and 53% of our professionals are women. In sustainability, we mobilized €115 billion in sustainable finance since 2019. Our board is independent and effective. We welcome new independent directors Carlos Barrabés and Antonio Weiss. 2024 has started with excellent momentum: client growth, revenue up ~9% in Q1, costs flat for three quarters, efficiency ratio improving to 42.7%, credit cost in line, capital above 12%. We expect retail ROTE above 16% in Q1, consumer net margin up ~6%, and group ROTE of 16% in Q1. We are confident 2024 will be better than 2023, and we plan to distribute over €6 billion in dividends and buybacks from 2024 results. This year I complete 10 years as Chair. During this decade, despite negative interest rates, a pandemic, energy crisis, and war, Santander has added nearly 60 million clients, nearly tripled profit, multiplied shareholder remuneration sevenfold, and increased ROTE by over 50% to 15%. We generated €58 billion in net resources, half to strengthen capital and half to remunerate shareholders. I am proud of my team and what we have achieved. Our roots are in Santander, where the bank was born 167 years ago to serve the business community. We have reinvented ourselves many times. Now we must evolve to become a truly global bank capable of winning in the digital world while staying close to clients. We have an exceptional team and a demanding board. Thank you for your trust. My vision and responsibility from day one and for the coming years is to lead Santander to be one of the banks that leads the transformation of the financial sector while continuously improving profitability and value for shareholders. Thank you.