Santander Readies Digital-Banking Platform for U.K. Businesses

(Bloomberg) -- Banco Santander SA is working on a digital financial service for small and medium-sized companies in the U.K. as it expands the range of products it offers in its third-biggest market.

“We are excited by the opportunity to help more SME’s to prosper and look forward to sharing more about the platform soon,” the Santander, Spain-based lender said in an emailed statement.

Santander is boosting the range of products it offers in the U.K., where mortgages still make up the bulk of a business that contributed 13 percent of first-quarter profit for Spain’s biggest bank. First-quarter profit from the U.K. fell 23 percent as competition pressured revenues and costs rose.

The Telegraph earlier reported Santander’s plans for a U.K. business banking service.

To contact the reporter on this story: Charles Penty in Madrid at cpenty@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vidya Root at vroot@bloomberg.net, Steve Geimann, Srinivasan Sivabalan

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