Banco Santander S A : Sergio Rial to join the board of Banco Santander as executive director

Madrid, 27 February 2020 - PRESS RELEASE
Sergio Rial, who joined the Santander Group in 2015, will maintain his current position as country head for the Group in Brazil, head of South America and head of Global Trade Services (GTS), the platform Santander is developing to facilitate international trade for SMEs. He will continue to report to the CEO of Banco Santander, José Antonio Álvarez.

In addition to his knowledge of Brazil and Latin America, Mr. Rial brings broad international experience and a long track record in both banking and other businesses, having held senior positions in ABN AMRO (CEO for Asia and member of the global Executive Committee), Bear Stearns, Marfrig (CEO) and Cargill (Executive Vice-President and CFO). He has also been a member of the board of other major Brazilian and non-Brazilian companies.

Sergio Rial will take up the vacancy left by Ignacio Benjumea (67), who will leave the board after five years as director. Mr. Benjumea was previously general secretary and secretary of the board.

Santander's Group executive chairman, Ana Botín, said: 'Since joining Santander in 2015, Sergio has led Santander Brazil's transformation, with profitability increasing from 14% to 21% (RoTE, Group criteria). He has delivered great results and fostered cultural change, increasing the engagement of our teams and the number of customers that recommend Santander. I am certain that his vision will provide great value to the board. On behalf of the board of directors, I would like to thank Ignacio for his many years of exceptional service to the board, first as general secretary and secretary to the board and most recently over the last five years as a non-executive of the board. His loyalty and professionalism throughout his long career at Santander set an example for us all and he will be missed, but we are fortunate he will continue serving the Group in the Santander Spain board.'

After this appointment, the board of Santander will continue to have 15 members, of whom 40% are women. The board of Santander is diverse in terms of gender and nationality (Spanish, UK, US, Portuguese and Brazilian), and has a broad representation of skills and sectors (financial, industrial, technological and academic).

Once this appointment has been ratified, Santander's board will have three executive directors: Ana Botín (Group executive chairman), José Antonio Álvarez (vice chairman and chief executive officer) and Sergio Rial. The rest of the board members are external directors.

^{Important Information}

^{This document contains certain financial measures that constitute alternative performance measures ('APMs') as defined in the Guidelines on Alternative Performance Measures issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) on 5 October 2015 (ESMA/2015/1415en) and other non-IFRS measures ('Non-IFRS Measures'). The financial measures contained in this document that qualify as APMs and non-IFRS measures have been calculated using the financial information from Santander Group but are not defined or detailed in the applicable financial reporting framework and have neither been audited nor reviewed by our auditors. We use these APMs and non-IFRS measures when planning, monitoring and evaluating our performance. We consider these APMs and non-IFRS measures to be useful metrics for management and investors to facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period. While we believe that these APMs and non-IFRS measures are useful in evaluating our business, this information should be considered as supplemental in nature and is not meant as a substitute of IFRS measures. In addition, other companies, including companies in our industry, may calculate or use such measures differently, which reduces their usefulness as comparative measures. For further details of the APMs and Non-IFRS Measures used, including its definition or a reconciliation between any applicable management indicators and the financial data presented in the consolidated financial statements prepared under IFRS, please see 2019 4Q Financial Report, published as Relevant Fact on 29 January 2020, as well as the 2018 Annual Financial Report, filed with the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores of Spain (CNMV) on 28 February 2019, These documents are available on Santander's website (www.santander.com).}