Santander

Basics

• "Santander is one of the top five financial brands in the world. Since it was founded in 1857, the Santander Group has become a group of leading banks in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Latin America."
• From Forbes Blockchain 50 (Apr 16, 2019):

"The Spanish banking giant made headlines last year when it allowed its investors to vote at its annual meeting via the blockchain. A year ago, Santander launched mobile app One Pay FX, a foreign exchange service using RippleNet, that enables individuals to transfer money to other individuals in a foreign country in less than a day. Full profile"

• From Forbes Blockchain 50 (19-2-2020):

"Best known in crypto for its work using Ripple’s payment system to build a cross-border payments app, this Spanish banking giant broke new blockchain ground in September 2019 when it issued a $20 million bond on the public ethereum blockchain. The 1.98% bond was notable in that it showed how traditional securities could instantly trade in secondary markets if counterparties used a shared, public blockchain, instead of the three days in typically takes."

 Money Links

• Invested in Ethereum, it's foundation and also part of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance. In 2019, Banco Santander settled a $20mm bond on mainnet Ethereum (you can see the transactions here).

• ConsenSys has collaborated with Santander Bank to develop a cash tokenization utility and real-time payment system for domestic and international payments on Ethereum. Payments are cleared, settled, and disbursed in 10–15 seconds.
• In September 2019: "$20M. The size of the bond that Santander settled on the public Ethereum blockchain."
• Invested in Ripple and uses RippleNet
• Builts on/uses Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum (19-2-2020)
• One of the sponsors (3-10-2019) of Hyperledger Avalon.
• Backing Blockchain in Europe, an initiative partly create by Ripple
• Participated in a $64,5M fund raise for Fnality, the company behind USC.

Employees

• Blythe Masters is a member of the International Advisory Board of Santander Group
• Key leader: María de la Concepción de Monteverde, director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence
• Update (19-2-2020) Key Executive: Coty de Monteverde director, Blockchain Center of Excellence
• John Whelan; Head of Digital Investment Banking (also Chair of EEA)

Former Employees

• Julio Faura, Santander's former blockchain lead, now co-founder Adhara which now works together with USC (see below)

Other links 

• Was part of R3 but dropped out in late 2016.
• Partners with UBS in the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) project