By Cristina Roca


Banco Santander SA said Thursday that Chief Executive Jose Antonio Alvarez will now report exclusively to the company's board as it announced changes to its structure.

The Spanish lender said the move would align it with governance best practices by clearly differentiating the CEO and executive chairman roles.

The bank also said that Executive Chairman Ana Botin will now be in charge of strategy and tech growth engines PagoNxt and Digital Consumer Bank. Mr. Alvarez will continue to be in charge of the bank's regions, countries and global businesses.

"These changes are designed to accelerate Santander's digital transformation initiatives and sharpen operational execution in line with the company's goal to increase connectivity across the group and become the best open financial services platform," Santander said.


Write to Cristina Roca at cristina.roca@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-24-22 1028ET