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Spain’s Santander has struck a $12.2bn deal to buy US-based Webster Financial, as the European lender tries to build its presence in the US.
The acquisition, announced on Tuesday, will vault Santander into the top- 10 biggest retail and commercial banks by assets in the US, with a large presence across the north-east.
The deal values Webster at $75 a share, with $48.75 in cash and the remainder in stock. Webster investors will receive just over two Santander American depositary receipt shares for each of their shares.
Santander is unusual among the big European banks in that it is continuing to expand its retail banking presence in the US after retreats from the country by BNP Paribas and HSBC. The deal also comes amid a surge in dealmaking among regional banks in the US, as a favourable regulatory environment is spurring consolidation.
Webster was founded in 1935 in Connecticut, where it remains headquartered. It has more than $80bn in assets and serves individuals, families and businesses across consumer, commercial and healthcare financial services, primarily in the north-east US.
The deal marks the latest step in the reshaping of Santander’s sprawling global business, which is leaving it with a greater presence in the Anglosphere.
The process began in May when it said it would pocket €6.8bn from selling stakes in its business in Poland to Vienna-based Erste Group. Two months later Santander announced it had won a battle to acquire UK high street lender TSB from Spanish peer Sabadell for £2.65bn, a transaction that has yet to close.
The deals have received a broadly positive reception from investors with Santander’s share price rising by roughly 75 per cent since the announcement of the Poland sale.
It is now the EU’s most valuable bank with a capitalisation of about €150bn, ahead of UBS and Spanish rival BBVA.
In the US, bank mergers have gathered pace in the past year. Regional lenders have sought to take advantage of a favourable political climate and looser regulatory environment to gain scale and compete with some of the country’s largest banks.
Last year, Fifth Third agreed a $10.9bn deal to buy Comerica, while Pittsburgh-based PNC purchased Colorado-based FirstBank in a $4.1bn transaction. The industry in the US is highly fragmented with over 4,000 banks across the country, with more of them expected to consolidate.
Santander brought forward the release of its results for the final quarter of 2025, which were due to be reported on Wednesday. It said it was posting record profits for the seventh consecutive quarter, with net income rising 7 per cent from a year ago to €3.8bn.
Growth in net interest income and fee income had more than offset a rise in personnel costs, Santander said.
The companies said the US deal was expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to regulatory approval in the EU and US. Christiana Riley, who leads Santander in the US, will remain the chief executive of Santander USA.
“This transaction is strategically significant for our US business, while remaining a bolt-on for the overall group,” said Santander chair Ana Botín.
Santander said it was targeting a return on tangible equity in the US of about 18 per cent by 2028 as it expects the Webster deal to boost profitability and enable cost savings.
In 2025 Santander’s US business contributed €1.5bn to global net profit of €14.1bn, versus €1.3bn from the UK and €4.3bn from Spain.