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View from Davos January 2 2013

Emilio Botín: the secret of Santander's success

Emilio Botín, the chairman of Banco Santander, explains how the bank's geographical diversification and philosophy of operating standalone subsidiaries has helped it thrive during the worst years of the crisis, and stand it in good stead for the future.
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Emilio Botín: the secret of Santander's success

Q. How important is it for Santander to be diversified across different markets? 

A. Geographical diversification is absolutely fundamental for Banco Santander. We are present as a retail and commercial bank in 10 core markets, well distributed across mature economies, where we generated 45% of profit in 2011, and emerging markets, where we generated 55%. No other international bank has leading positions in six G-20 countries. This diversification smooths out our earnings and improves our risk profile.

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