Banco Santander partners with Bank of Shanghai on the Belt and Road initiative

Banco Santander and Bank of Shanghai announced today the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding which sets out their strategic cooperation for the Belt and Road initiative, with specific focus on Europe and Latin America.

This initiative is China’s proposal to connect the Chinese mainland, the ASEAN countries, the Middle East, and Central and Eastern Europe via road and maritime routes. As part of this initiative, Bank of Shanghai has the opportunity to support enterprises focused on globalizing their business in the main areas of infrastructure construction, international production capacity and equipment manufacturing.

Under the terms of their agreement, Santander and Bank of Shanghai will jointly provide financial services to Chinese enterprises in their overseas investments in areas such as settlement and trade finance, corporate business, treasury and investment banking for all the business opportunities that arise within this initiative. Santander’s core markets fit in well as eight of the Group’s nine main countries are along the Belt and Road.

Antony Hung, regional head for Asia Pacific, Santander Group, said: “Santander’s purpose is to help people and businesses prosper. I firmly believe that Santander, through its close cooperation with Bank of Shanghai, will make the most of the regional complementarity of both institutions and become a firm practitioner of the Belt and Road initiative”.