Press Release

"The Best Global Green Brands 2012" and "The greenest bank in the world" reports have named Santander the greenest bank in the world for the second year running.

In "The Best Global Green Brands 2012", the consultants Interbrand and Deloitte analyse and evaluate every year hundreds of leading corporate brands from around the world based on dozens of different parameters relating to environmental commitment and energy efficiency. In this report, not only is Santander the bank that has best integrated environmental strategies within its business policies, it is the only Spanish brand included in the 50 most ecological brands. Each year the specialist magazine "Bloomberg Markets" studies the level of development of each major international bank in this field and Santander was once again voted "the greenest bank in the world" in 2012, having won the title in 2011 too.

Interbrand and Deloitte emphasise that "Santander actively supports communities (of the countries where it is present) and fights for sustainable development and the protection of the environment. They added that "Through its Sustainability Committee chaired by its CEO, Santander is working to integrate sustainability into its business model. It promotes financial solutions that help to protect the environment, such as the financing of renewable energy projects. Santander is a real world leader in the analysis of environmental risks in its loan policy and Works openly with those interested in perfecting and optimising their analytical processes". "Santander promotes business opportunities that combat climate change and encourage practices that make efficient use of energy. Minimising the environmental impact of the entity has become one of the main priorities and has resulted in various programmes to mitigate it, such as paper-free banks and the elimination of any physical correspondence between employees".

Santander’s sustainability policies, which are applied in all local markets in which it operates, are translated into highly rigorous corporate mechanisms in the analysis of social and environmental risk for credit transactions, the promotion of renewable energies and energy efficiency in its products and services, and in the control of the Group’s facilities throughout the world to minimise all its raw materials and energy consumption. Based on the analysis conducted by "Bloomberg Markets", Santander has made a firm commitment to the financing of industrial projects that are environmentally friendly and promote renewable energies.

Santander regularly appears on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which indicates the level of commitment of the major global corporations, and has moved up the scale in the last year.

Banco Santander
Date: 26.07.2012