Banco Santander said it is on track to hit its targets, after customer gains and higher activity levels helped second-quarter net profit rise on year.

The Spanish bank has sought to reshape its portfolio through dealmaking over the past year, moving to bolster its exposure to the U.S. and the U.K.

Santander is in the process of buying Webster Financial in the U.S. for more than $12 billion and recently closed its purchase of U.K. lender TSB, adding more than four million customers. It also sold its Polish business to Erste Group Bank and committed to return half of the proceeds to shareholders through stock buybacks.

The bank said Wednesday that it received approval from the European Central Bank for a new buyback of 1.8 billion euros ($2.05 billion), and that this puts it on track to achieve a goal to hand 10 billion euros to shareholders through stock repurchases.

Higher profitability and bumper payouts to shareholders in recent years have propelled Santander's shares to make the bank the biggest in the eurozone by market capitalization.

Santander earlier this year set out a target to generate more than 20 billion euros in net profit in 2028, up from 14.1 billion euros last year, driven by top-line growth and cost savings.

The bank said it is on track to meet its targets for 2026, and reaffirmed its midterm objectives.

For the second quarter, the bank said it made a net profit of 3.52 billion euros, up 3% compared with the same period last year. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had forecast a profit of 3.53 billion euros.

The result included 250 million euros in charges associated with the integration of TSB, it said. Excluding nonrecurring items, Santander's underlying profit came to 3.77 billion euros, a 17% increase on year. The bank said this was a record performance that reflected good activity levels and the addition of 12 million new customers from a year earlier.

Total income, the bank's top-line figure, was 15.68 billion euros, up 9% on year. Analysts had expected 15.70 billion euros, according to the same consensus.

Santander's results pointed to strong dynamics for net interest income--the difference between what banks earn on loans and pay on deposits--and cost savings, but there was nothing to get too excited about, analysts at Jefferies wrote in a note to clients.

Shares in Santander were up 0.7% in European morning trading.

Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2026 04:46 ET (08:46 GMT)

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