Annual report 2009 - Santander

33Santander Consumer Financecontributed EUR 632 million tothe Group’s attributable profit in adifficult economic environmentHeadquarters of Santander Consumer Bank, Mönchengladbach, Germany.Santander Consumer FinanceSantander Consumer Finance is the Group’s division specialisedin consumer finance. Its business model is based on providingcustomers with financial solutions via more than 137,000distributors (auto dealerships and points of sale). Once a relationis started with a final customer, Santander Consumer Financeincreases customer linkage and loyalty by directly offering themother products such as credit cards and personal loans tailoredto suit their needs.Business in 2009Despite the global recession and its impact on consumption,attributable profit was EUR 632 million and the efficiency ratioof 28.0% compares very well with that of the market as awhole.In Germany, Santander Consumer has 144 branches,agreements with 36,000 distributors and 6 million customers(fifth largest bank in terms of customers). The German unitmade the largest contribution to the profits of SantanderConsumer Finance (EUR 385 million), with a good evolutionof revenues and costs.Santander Consumer USA’s attributable profit was 41.2% higherin dollars and made the second largest contribution. This wasdue to the drive from the commercial agreements combinedwith experience in costs and agility in recoveries.Against a very complicated backdrop, Santander ConsumerSpain maintained stable revenues and made a big effort to cutcosts and actively manage recoveries.Acquisitions and global agreementsSantander Consumer Finance progressed during 2009 inintegrating the units acquired from GE Money and from theRoyal Bank of Scotland in Germany, Austria, Finland, the UK,Netherlands and Belgium. In July, Santander and AIG agreed tointegrate their consumer finance businesses in Poland. Theseoperations will help to achieve greater critical mass in thesemarkets and significant synergies in integration.In 2009, global agreements were also signed with variousinternational car producers, aimed at boosting their sales,improving credit stock management and increasing autofinance.Lending by countries%Others 2%The Netherlands 2%Austria 2%Portugal 2%UK 4%Poland 4%USA 9%Nordiccountries 9%Germany 37%Italy 13%Spain 16%The rest of European units improved their performance,particularly those in Nordic countries..Lending by segments%Cars - New 31%Credit cards 3%Other 2%Stock Finance 4%Electrical householdappliances 6%Mortgages 7%Directbusinesses 16%Cars - Secondhand31%Annual Report 2009