Santander Earns an Upgraded Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) Rating from the OCC

BOSTON, April 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Santander Bank, N.A. today announced that it has earned an upgraded Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) overall rating of "Satisfactory" from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for the 2014 – 2016 CRA performance exam period, including "High Satisfactory" ratings on all three CRA tests: Lending, Investment and Service. This new rating makes it easier for Santander to open additional branches within its eight-state northeast footprint and will remove limitations on accepting public deposits.

"When the communities in which we live and work prosper, Santander prospers. We are proud of our achievements in serving and investing in our communities and we are pleased with this rating, which is more representative of our CRA commitment," said Santander US CEO Scott Powell. "This is another positive milestone for Santander this year and underscores the effort we've made toward becoming the best bank in the communities we serve."

The OCC's CRA performance evaluation notes the major factors supporting Santander's improved rating included the Bank's good responsiveness to assessment area credit needs, excellent mortgage and small business lending by geography, a positive level of community development lending, good levels of community development investments and grants and excellent levels of volunteerism. In the major metropolitan areas evaluated, the OCC gave Santander region-specific CRA ratings, including an "Outstanding" rating in Greater Providence, New York/New Jersey and Philadelphia.

"In the past few years we have substantially increased our loans and investments in community development programs for low- and moderate-income individuals and communities and we are committed to being an industry leader in this area," said Duke Dayal, Santander Bank's President and CEO. "We're continuing to work with leading community groups across our footprint and have set ambitious lending, community development and charitable giving goals for the next several years. We look forward to the OCC's next evaluation and are working hard to earn an even better rating in our next exam."

In October 2017, Powell announced Santander's Inclusive Communities Plan, the Bank's $11 billion, five-year commitment to its communities for 2017 through 2021, during which time Santander plans to increase its CRA activity by 50 percent and triple its charitable grants.

Over the next five years, Santander has set of goal of $9.1 billion in lending to underserved communities, including $1.9 billion in community development investments, $55 million in charitable contributions, 10 new retail branches in low- to moderate-income and communities of color and 60,000 community development volunteer hours in underserved communities.

The Bank's 2017 Inclusive Communities Plan results will be released later this spring. The initial results indicate that the Bank significantly exceeded its planned $1.8 billion community lending and investment goals by:  

• Investing approximately $2.4 billion in community development loans and investments, including almost $1.3 billion in mortgage loans.
• Hiring eight new community development professionals to improve engagement with our communities.
• Opening two new branches in low- and moderate-income communities and one lending center in a community of color in our footprint.
• Devoting almost 15,000 team member volunteer hours to financial education programs.

Santander Bank, N.A. is one of the country's largest retail and commercial banks with $74.5 billion in assets. With its corporate offices in Boston, the Bank's approximately 9,600 employees, over 600 branches, more than 2,000 ATMs and 2.1 million customers are principally located in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) - one of the most respected banking groups in the world with more than 125 million customers in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. It is managed by Santander Holdings USA, Inc., Banco Santander's intermediate holding company in the U.S. For more information on Santander Bank, please visit www.santanderbank.com.

Santander Holdings USA, Inc. (SHUSA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Madrid-based Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) (Santander), one of the most respected banking groups in the world with more than 125 million customers in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. As the intermediate holding company for Santander's U.S. businesses, SHUSA includes six financial companies with approximately 17,000 employees, 5.2 million customers and assets of over $128.2 billion. These include Santander Bank, N.A., one of the country's largest retail and commercial banks by deposits; Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC), an auto finance and consumer lending company; Banco Santander International of Miami; Banco Santander Puerto Rico; Santander Securities LLC of Boston; and Santander Investment Securities Inc. of New York.

Media Contacts:       

Ann Davis     
617-757-5891  
ann.davis@santander.us

Nancy Orlando
617-757-5765
nancy.orlando@santander.us

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/santander-earns-an-upgraded-community-reinvestment-act-cra-rating-from-the-occ-300638913.html

SOURCE Santander Bank, N.A.