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Special 50th anniversary
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03. Birth of the bank
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Bankinter started to operate on 4 June 1965, emerging from its two founding partners: Banco de Santander and the Bank of America. Out of all the financial institutions that were established 50 years ago, only Bankinter has survived, thanks to its constant pursuit of excellence, innovative spirit and capacity to anticipate the needs of customers, which half a century later are aspects that continue to prevail.

Our values yesterday and today


The decree-law of 29 November 1962, under which Bankinter was born, also drove the creation of other banks, such as Banco de Levante, Banco Comercial de Talavera, Banco de Burgos, Banco de Alicante or Banco Industrial de Cataluña. A total of twenty-two banks were created from then up to 1969, and none of them, except for Bankinter, survive to this day today; many of them were absorbed by other larger banks.

The willpower of the two founding partners (Banco Santander and the Bank of America) to maintain Bankinter as an independent bank was undoubtedly instrumental. However, its constant pursuit of excellence, innovative spirit and capacity to anticipate the needs of customers, which half a century later are aspects that continue to prevail, played a defining part in Bankinter finding its own place in the Spanish banking firmament.

Being a pioneering bank in the offering of financial services and products has been a core objective of Bankinter since it started to operate on 4 June 1965, chaired by Emilio Botín Sanz of Sautuola, in the palace of the Marquis of Mudela, a stately building designed by the architect Lorenzo Álvarez Capra, at number 29 of Paseo de la Castellana of Madrid, where the bank's headquarters are still located.

With this objective in mind, Bankinter achieved further success, which has been laid out in greater length in other parts of this commemorative book of its half century of existence. In 1987 it launched the first high return account. In 1992 it created its Telephone Banking department, which marked the beginning of remote banking in Spain. It was the first bank in the country to operate via the Internet, with the purpose of facilitating investment in the stock market through a mobile phone and encouraging a payment system with the mere use of this device.

Bankinter's founding principles have become four brand values, which have also been established as behavioural guidelines for those that work for it, and these are: agility, enthusiasm, integrity and originality.

Agility entails being more decisive, faster and more effective than other banks, not taking anything for granted, detecting opportunities, adapting to a dynamic society and responding effectively.

Enthusiasm to keep moving forwards, to change the way of doing things and to use intelligence when solving customer's problems, always with energy and a spirit of improvement.

Integrity in the sense of honesty in thinking, talking and acting; taking into account the impact that the bank's activity has on society and showing each day that we are true to the real meaning of transparency.

Originality as a result of thinking and acting differently, stubbornly looking for the way to be unique and distinguishable from the competition.

And all this, under three pillars: people, quality and technology.

Two partners with a same dream


Bankinter's history is that of a dream come true. The dream of two major institutions, each one on a different side of the Atlantic, that in June of 1965 established the Banco Intercontinental Español, which shortly after began to be known as Bankinter. These two major institutions were Banco Santander, then chaired by Emilio Botín Sanz de Sautuola López; and the Bank of America, which had entered the U.S. financial elite led by a banker of Italian origin called Amadeo Giannini.

Since its establishment in 1857, by means of a Royal Decree signed by Isabel II, Banco Santander had been a bank open to the foreign market, as in its first years it was closely connected to the trade between the port of Santander and Latin America. With this solid base, it took its first leap forwards between 1900 and 1919, a period in which it doubled its trade balance, reached a yearly profit of half a million pesetas and ranked its profitability above the average of other Spanish credit institutions.

Interestingly, at this time Giannini also laid down the foundations for what would finally become his first banking empire. He created the Bank of Italy in San Francisco in 1904, and two years later he had a bizarre stroke of luck as a consequence of the catastrophic earthquake that devastated the city, which left more than three thousand casualties and 70% of its population homeless. Giannini was able to preserve the money deposited in his vaults and made a fortune giving loans, literally on the street, to those that had to rebuild their houses and, especially, their businesses.

That helped him grow enormously and, by 1929, he merged the Bank of Italy with the Bank of America of Los Angeles, from which it took its name. The Bank of America expanded beyond California, through multiple mergers and acquisitions that enabled it to control large corporations and rise as the largest North American bank.

In the meantime, in Spain, Banco de Santander continued to move forward. In 1923 it founded the Bank of Torrelavega and established a small network of branches in and outside of the province. In 1942 it bought the Bank of Avila, which opened the doors to Madrid. In 1946 it took over its Cantabrian rival, Banco Mercantil, in a fierce competition with Banco Hispano Americano. And, in 1947, it opened the first representative branch in Havana (Cuba), which was followed by others in Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as a branch in London.

The increasing presence overseas encouraged Banco Santander to create the Latin-American Department in 1956. By then, Emilio Botín Sanz of Sautuola and López had been the chairman for six years (replacing his father), and the bank was leading towards becoming the seventh largest bank in the country, which it finally achieved in 1957.

It seemed liked Banco Santander and the Bank of America were due to cross paths, and eventually they did as a result of the entry into force of the decree-law of 29 November 1962 on commercial and industrial banks, which involved the liberalisation of the Spanish financial system after a long period of isolation.

The decree permitted the establishment of new banks, even by other pre-existing ones, but without any of them controlling over 50% of the capital, which could not be lower than one hundred million pesetas and had to be entirely paid-up before the bank's incorporation. In that context, Banco Intercontinental Español was created and jointly held in equal parts by its two only founding partners, Banco Santander and the Bank of America. It remained under their direction until they decided to withdraw from the capital after listing it on the Stock exchange.

Madrid, 1970. Mr Emilio Botín Sanz de Sautuola López, (right), Chairman of the Board of Directors of Banco Intercontinental Español and Banco Santander together with Mr. Rudolph A. Peterson, (left), President of the Bank of America, near the bank headquarters, in Paseo de la Castellana, 29. Below, the bank's former logo.

The dizzying first few years


Following its incorporation, Bankinter experienced a dizzying growth. If in 1965 it attracted customer deposits for a value of over 220 million pesetas, only five years later that figure would practically multiply twelvefold, reaching 2,750 million. The credit balance increased even more, registering 68 million pesetas in its first financial year and easily exceeding 7,000 by 1970.

With the purpose of creating the conditions to loan that money, it launched a product that substantially contributed to increasing external resources: cash certificates, which were marketed through branches of Banco Santander, because Bankinter only had two: Madrid and Barcelona. In the first five years of the bank's life, seven blocks of cash certificates were issued, and none of them took more than a fortnight to place. They offered a yearly net return of 5.75% and were highly liquid because they were daily quoted on the Stock exchange. The Bankinter bond was noted for being the most contracted bond in the Madrid Stock Exchange out of all the bonds issued by industrial banks.

Several additions were also carried out and the share capital (completely paid-up) rose to 700 million pesetas in 1970. Adding reserves, Bankinter's equity exceeded 920 million that year, almost four times more than the 250 million with which it had initiated its activity in June 1965.

All this financial potential was put at the service of the country's economy via investments that had a double aspect: medium and long-term credits and equity capital, usually temporary. In both cases, the beneficiaries were agricultural or manufacturing companies, whether initiating their activity or in process of restructuring, but priority was given always to SMEs, which continues to be a major aspect of Bankinter's policy to this day.

The return grew in line with the business volume. From the 2.3 million pesetas registered in the first year, it progressively increased to 202.8 million five years later.

In the annual report of 1970, the then chairman Emilio Botín Sanz of Sautuola and López was pleased with the fact that, in such a short time, the bank had climbed “to a very prominent place in the Spanish industrial banking sector”, especially when considering its growing weight in the private banking sector.

Proof of the vigorous development of Bankinter was the 3,191 million pesetas of funding it granted that year, which caused the outstanding credit balances to grow in no less than 32.8%.

In 1970, it also launched another emblematic product: certificates of deposit, which had arisen for the first time in the United States at the beginning of the sixties as a formula to mobilise fixed-term deposits.

The great advantage was that it was a negotiable product and that it could be made liquid at any time before its maturity by simply endorsing it to an individual or company, without even needing to inform the bank.

After launching these certificates, customer deposits rose from 2,750 million pesetas in 1970 to 8,388 million in 1972.

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