Alfredo Saenz Abad: Veteran Spanish Banker

Now in his early 70s Alfredo Saenz Abad has been in the banking scene for around 50 years already. He has seen a lot and has also been very much involved.  He guided Banca Catalana through the 1980s Spanish banking crisis and also prevented the closure of Banesto.

His latest challenge has been working with Banco Santander. He became a board member in 1994 and was appointed vice chairman and CEO in 2002.  When he came in as CEO the bank was heavily suffering from the slowing economies in Latin America. He took a tough stance even stopping to give money to the bank’s Argentine unit.  Alfredo at the same time set out to make Santander one the largest banks in the world.

He was able to achieve this by acquiring other banks.  Santander bought Abbey National in 2004. It also bought the consumer finance arm of RBS in the UK and GE’s consumer finance operation in Europe among its many acquisitions.  Today Santander is the largest bank in the Eurozone by market capitalization and one of the largest in the world.  It still has its struggle given the real estate problem in its home country of Spain.

Alfredo remains undeterred even with a legal problem that could have him spend some time in jail. He still has the reputation of being one of the best bankers in Europe.