New record result for Santander

New record result for Santander

Santander Consumer Bank started in Austria in 2009 as a financier of consumer goods. Today it is the market leader in partial payments and the largest brand-independent vehicle financier in the country. The Auto Business Partner's portfolio includes vehicle loans, leasing, dealer lines of credit, insurance and partial payments. In 2022, the financing volume rose by 8 percent to 1.685 billion euros compared to the previous year, reaching a new high. Car loans grew the most with an increase of 28 percent, motorcycles grew by 9 percent and leasing contracts grew by 3 percent. Currently, over 80,600 cars are financed through Santander. “We are approaching the magical 100,000 mark,” says Mike Schwaiger, Chief Commercial Officer at Santander Austria.

“I congratulate our dealer partners on their new record results – after all, they do the business that we process quickly and reliably in the background,” emphasizes Mike Schwaiger. The number of Santander dealer partners across Austria is currently over 1,800 and has grown by around 100 companies in the previous year. At the beginning of the motorcycle season, Schwaiger proudly points out the fact that his institute is Austria's largest two-wheeler financier and counts well-known brands such as Yamaha, Triumph, KTM, Harley Davidson, Husquarna and GasGas among its cooperation partners. In 2022, the Piaggio brand was also added to the portfolio. “In Austria, up to 12,000 Vespas are sold every year – that’s simply unbelievable,” says Schwaiger. Among the captive partners in the passenger car sector, the young electric car brand Fisker will join the existing collaborations with KIA, Ford, Volvo and Polestar in 2023. For Polestar and KIA, Santander offers the innovative “digital order route”, which enables the entire car purchase to be processed from the sofa armchair in the living room. “We want to further expand this business model; there is still a lot of potential,” Schwaiger is convinced. Santander is currently not feeling much of any reluctance to buy cars due to current price increases and inflation.