Santander set to challenge Big Four

SANTANDER is determined to make serious in-roads in the North West corporate banking market, according to regional director Chris Sharkey.

The Spanish-owned giant, which is rebranding its UK businesses, Alliance & Leicester and Abbey, in the next year, has been beefing-up its regional teams in advance of a sustained push on the sector.

Mr Sharkey, who was recruited in May from Royal Bank of Scotland, is himself hiring “high quality, ambitious and dynamic” people to join his team.

He said: “The opportunity to build something meaningful with Santander was very persuasive. Once Santander decides they are going to enter a market they have to have critical mass and that means becoming a major player, and that’s what it intends to become in the UK and the North West.”

The Manchester-based executive, whose patch spans from Cheshire to the Scottish borders, but excludes Merseyside, declined to set a target for the share of the market Santander hopes to win.

The corporate lending market in the North West is dominated by RBS, followed by Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC.

He said the approach to lending would not be “sector driven” but Santander would be about “backing good management teams.”

 “I think we’d rather be working with good management teams in challenging sectors than average teams in sectors doing well. We want long-term relationships with customers, we would like a 10-15 year vision with them rather than making a quick buck after a year.”
Deals will be sized up on an individual basis, he added.

Although there have been a number of departures since the Santander takeover of Alliance & Leicester, chief among them Bryce Glover, managing director of the commercial bank, Mr Sharkey said the model was to build on the foundations laid by A&L.

“Everything A&L did and did well will continue to be part of our proposition. Going forward we will be a stronger force – for example at the corporate end they were a recognised player  in club deals and we will continue to do that and where relevant we are looking to create a lead position.”

Santander’s investment in people – it has increased the numbers of relationship managers by 25% in the last few months – and the quality of new recruits, was testament to its ambitions, he said.

Mr Sharkey said Santander – which has not had to take a rescue package to prop-up its balance sheet – was receiving an encouraging number of calls from  businesses unhappy with their banks.

“I joined in May and there’s been a steady curve of interest since then.”