Boadilla Del Monte, Madrid, Spain
Banco Santander is a Spanish banking group that runs retail, consumer finance, corporate and investment banking, wealth and payments businesses, with 198,403 employees at December 31, 2025. It counted 180 million customers at the end of 2025, up from 173 million a year earlier. Its branch network shrank to 7,124 at December 31, 2025, from 8,086 a year before.
The group runs five global businesses: Retail & Commercial Banking, Digital Consumer Bank, Corporate & Investment Banking, Wealth Management & Insurance, and Payments. With the Corporate Centre they form six reportable segments in the 2025 annual report. Two names change for 2026. Digital Consumer Bank becomes Openbank and Payments becomes Payment Solutions, and the careers site already uses the new names. Headquarters is Ciudad Grupo Santander in Boadilla del Monte, outside Madrid. Average headcount across 2025 was 203,572. The bank describes its model as a digital bank with branches, and 106 million of its customers were active at the end of 2025.
In calendar 2025, H-1B labor condition applications (LCAs) numbered 41 for Santander Bank NA and 26 for Santander Consumer USA Inc, 67 in all. Filings for roles in Massachusetts came to 27 in 2025, and in Texas to 26. No single worksite reached 25 filings. The two cities below, with their 2025 filings, are listed because the company names them in its August 20, 2026 announcement, Boston as its US headquarters and Dallas as a corporate hub:
Most group staff work in Europe and Latin America. At December 31, 2025, Brazil had 52,696 employees, Spain 34,142, Mexico 28,578, the UK 19,931 and Poland 14,219. The careers site, as of October 13, 2026, cites a presence in over 40 countries.
Data roles form the largest block of the calendar 2025 filings. Thirty of the 67 filings that year carry data science, analytics, business intelligence or modeling in the title. Senior Associate, Business Intelligence and Reporting appears 4 times in 2025 across the two entities. Supervisor, IT Audit and Senior Analyst, Analytics appear 3 times each in 2025, all at Santander Consumer USA Inc. At Santander Bank NA, 25 of the 41 filings for 2025 use Associate or Senior Associate titles and 10 include Director. Group-wide, the 2025 20-F sorts management into harmonized levels. Senior Executive VP, Executive VP and VP count as senior executives, and Directors, Managers, Experts and Branch Managers as other executives.
Country heads have reported directly to the group CEO since January 2025, when the board removed the regional layer for Europe, North America and South America. Geographic reporting for 2025 covers 10 main units: Spain, the UK, Portugal, Poland, the US, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and DCB Europe. That last unit holds the European consumer finance business and Openbank in Europe. A Technology and Operations division sets group policy for IT systems. Santander Global Technology and Operations has IT-services companies in Spain, Brazil and Chile, and it signed its own equality plan.
Group headcount fell two years running, from 212,764 at December 31, 2023 to 206,753 at December 31, 2024 and 198,403 at December 31, 2025. The 2025 total still includes staff of the Polish business held for sale. The US had 10,950 employees at December 31, 2025, about 5.5% of the group, before the Webster Financial purchase closed on August 20, 2026. LCA filings at Santander Bank NA went from 56 in 2023 to 37 in 2024 and 41 in 2025. At Santander Consumer USA Inc they fell from 43 in 2024 to 26 in 2025. The 2025 20-F says a high share of central-services staff in the 10 main markets can work remotely or change their hours.