Banco Santander, S.A. (BNC) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for this Q1 2026 results presentation. Today's presentation will follow the usual structure. First, Hector will talk about our results with a special focus on the performance of our global businesses in the context of our new strategic cycle. Then, Jose will give a deep dive on our financials, and then Hector will close the presentation with his final remarks before opening up for Q&A. Before we start, let me remind you that this is the first quarter that we are presenting our results after the disposal of Santander Polska and using the new group reporting structure we announced in February. As a result, all underlying metrics exclude impacts from Poland, both in 2025 and 2026, to make the accounts comparable. Now, Hector, the floor is yours. Thanks, Raúl, and good morning, everyone. Q1 was another excellent quarter for Santander, demonstrating the strength of our strategy and the resilience of our business model. Profit reached a new record of 3.6 billion, up 12% versus Q1 2025, supported by all of our global businesses, even after a 210 million modern finance provision in the U.K. on the back of our solid franchise with a growing customer base as we continue to enhance customer experience leveraging on our global platforms. We achieve this as we continue to execute one transformation, making excellent progress towards a simpler and more integrated model. This is translating into tangible results, with our efficiency improving by 2 percentage points and underlying ROTE increasing to 15.2%. Our balance sheet remains very solid, with robust credit quality and a strong CET1 capital ratio, which reached another all-time high of 14.4%. In this concept of high capital levels, our underlying ROTE adjusted for excess capital would be ar...