Large Spanish bank wants to come to Canada | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

Loonie said
I believe it's called Santander. Very large, operating in various countries, Open banking is a strength apparently. Poised to potentially challenge Big Six. One to watch.
If interested, there are some brief articles online.  

Thanks, Loonie. Yeah, I'm not surprised by this news. I've been following the updates in the Canada Gazette for awhile now.

Interestingly, they've already been operating in Canada to some extent since their acquisition of Carfinco (now branded as Santander Consumer) and are the largest non-bank automobile consumer finance company in Canada.

I do not see them bringing branches to Canada, but perhaps bringing their Openbank operation to Canada (think Ally Canada or ING DIRECT Canada). Definitely one to watch.

Cheers,
Doug

Loonie said
I believe it's called Santander. Very large, operating in various countries, Open banking is a strength apparently. Poised to potentially challenge Big Six. One to watch.
…

Unfortunately, the name is just a marketing gimmick.

Openbank is the marketing brand of their digital/online-only offering "built on Santander’s proprietary technology platform." Nothing to do with open banking.

Santander is not going to challenge the Big Six. They could up like Target when it tried to expand into Canada. Canada doesn't need another no-fee higher-rate digital-only savings account like Santander is offering in the US. There are plenty of such digital-only savings accounts already here.

One can see how their Openbank savings account places is the US market:

Investopedia: Best High-Yield Savings Account Rates for December 2024

Pibank – 5.00% APY
Newtek Bank – 4.90% APY
Fitness Bank – 4.90% APY*
TotalBank – 4.86% APY
BrioDirect – 4.85% APY
Jenius Bank – 4.80% APY
Poppy Bank – 4.75% APY
Openbank – 4.75% APY*
Primis Bank - 4.70% APY
Vio Bank – 4.66% APY
My Banking Direct – 4.65% APY
Forbright Bank – 4.60% APY
Popular Direct – 4.60% APY
Valley Direct – 4.55% APY
CFG Bank – 4.52% APY

Similar middling position in our HISA chart would be around where Oaken is, offering 3.00%.

Santander is not dominating anything here in Canada.

According to CMP (2 Aug. 2024): Santander clears major hurdle in Canadian banking expansion, their operations in Canada is small:

Santander’s Canadian arm, based in Edmonton, Alberta, reported revenue of €73 million (CA$109.2 million) last year and employs around 275 people. The bank plans to keep its Canadian headquarters in Edmonton as it expands its presence in the country.

In contrast, Access CU had revenues around $513 million that same year with 900+ employees.

Unfortunately for Santander, there are lots of providers of auto financing in Canada, including the Royal Bank. That's what Royal Bank acquired Ally Canada for in 2012.