Spanish banking giant Santander has reportedly applied for a consumer finance license in France to tap demand for higher-yielding consumer loans.
The lender reportedly looks to expand its auto-financing accord with PSA Peugeot Citroen to offer retail loans, as well as cash loans and credit cards in the future, Bloomberg has reported.
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The bank has already appointed Martin Thomas, a former managing director of finance-company FGA Capital UK, as the CEO of the unit.
Last year, the Spanish bank agreed to buy consumer-finance division of Spanish retailer El Corte Ingles, and earlier in 2014 ventured to establish partnerships in 11 countries with Banque PSA Finance, which is the French car group’s lending unit.
In September, the bank agreed to a deal worth about $270m to acquire the Canadian car-financing company Carfinco Financial Group, while in June it gave its consent to purchase GE Capital’s Scandinavian consumer finance arm for nearly 700m.
The bank sold a 51% stake in its consumer-finance insurance business in France in July for 290m euros to CNP Assurances in July.
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By GlobalDataThe consumer finance arm of Santander in continental Europe earned 794m last year, which was equivalent to 18% of group profit for that year.
