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Santander is poised to make its long-awaited name change at Sovereign Bank in Boston, capping years of work on its U.S. unit that included a financial overhaul, systems integration and charter switch.
August 26 -
Santander Bank, which recently changed its name from Sovereign Bank, casts Robert De Niro as an annoying moviegoer in an advertisement for its new checking account that offers a monthly bonus of $20.
October 30 -
Sheila Bair, who ran the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. during the financial crisis, will become an independent director for the Spanish banking powerhouse.
January 27 -
More community banks are establishing credit card loyalty programs in their quest for revenue growth. The programs can work provided they are easy to understand, pay a lot of cash and tie rewards points to local services.
September 12 -
A team assembled by ex-regulator Raj Date is preparing to launch a plastic card for Americans who don't qualify for mainstream credit. It is thought to be the first entrant into the subprime card market in several years.
February 4
Santander Bank seems to be trying to win attention in the crowded market for credit card rewards and the popular mind.
Santander's Bravo MasterCard, released Wednesday, offers triple points for spending on gas, groceries and restaurants. There's a $49 annual fee, though it can be avoided by maintaining a minimum balance in a Santander checking account. Some of the card's other rules for collecting rewards are consumer-friendly.
With the Bravo credit card's "rich rewards offer," Santander is continuing to highlight its new name,
"Sovereign had not traditionally used payments as a brand symbol and this looks to me like they are pivoting to a very innovative play... and really making a statement," Edlund says.
Perhaps the Spanish-owned bank is also compensating for a name that isn't easy for some Americans to speak, she says.
"Maybe they're trying to help the local Boston population pronounce Santander," says Edlund, whose firm is located in Boston, one of Santander's biggest markets.
"It's pronounced many different ways around here," she says. "Bank of America (BAC), on the other hand, is easy to pronounce."
For the record, Santander is pronounced "sahn-tahn-DAIR."
Phonetics aside, Santander is "smart" to try to expand its U.S. credit card business, says Odysseas Papadimitriou, chief executive of CardHub. Previously it was limited to its Sphere Visa card.
"If you want to be in the credit card business, which is very lucrative, it's a very tough business to crack," Papadimitriou says. "You need to have offers that can compete in the national stage."
The Bravo card is available to noncustomers of Santander, although existing Santander customers are the prime target initially, says Euan Campbell, head of cards at Santander. The Bravo card's rewards build off Santander's "extra20 checking" promotion, he says. That checking product transfers $20 per month into customers' savings accounts, if they open a new checking account, use online bill payments and sign up for direct deposit.
The new checking product was launched with
"We're continuing to tell the story about what Santander stands for," Campbell says. "We'll see other innovations taking place."
The $74 billion-asset Santander, the American retail banking unit of Spain's Banco Santander (SAN), operates more than 700 branches, primarily in the northeastern U.S. It dropped its Sovereign Bank brand in October, spending about $200 million on the switch, including branch overhauls and an advertising campaign. The bank has taken other steps to raise its profile, including
Santander will find the U.S. credit card field crowded and cutthroat, Papadimitriou says.
Unlike the new
"It's designed for card users who spend actively on the card and are mass affluent or higher," Edlund says.
"It's rich and bold, and Santander is a bold brand," Edlund says. "They like to make bold statements."