Banco Santander is set to make sweeping changes in its private banking and asset management businesses, including appointing a new chief for its alternative investments manager, in the first large reshuffle of the unit under its recently appointed new head.
Spain’s largest lender will name Carlos Manzano as chief executive officer of its alternative assets unit one year after it got regulatory approval, people familiar with the appointment said, asking not to be named because the information isn’t public. The head of private banking in Spain, Adela Martin, will also be replaced as she gets another internal role at the bank, the people said.
Santander in May named Javier Garcia-Carranza as new global head of its wealth management and insurance division replacing Victor Matarranz. Garcia-Carranza is a former dealmaker who joined Santander in 2016 and had previously worked at Morgan Stanley.
The wealth management and insurance division is one of the five global units that the bank has created to organize itself better by business areas rather than by geography. With €480 billion ($530 billion) under management, the unit reported profit attributable to shareholders of €417 million in the second quarter, and contributed 6% to the bank’s revenue.
Santander last week hired Ignacio Julia from ING Groep as CEO of its operations in Spain. It has also tapped Victor Allende, who was head of private banking at smaller competitor CaixaBank.
Manzano will replace Luis Garcia-Izquierdo, who had been named CEO of Santander Alternative Investments SGIIC since its approval by Spain’s securities regulator in May 2023.
Santander declined to comment.
Under the management of chief Samantha Ricciardi, the Spanish bank’s asset management unit has been pushing to sell more alternative products such as private debt or infrastructure funds to institutions such as pension plans and insurers. It had set up the alternatives area at the end of 2019 and created the specialized asset manager in Spain last year to “step up its commitment to this business,” it said at the time.
