Sergio Lew, new country head of Santander in Argentina

Banco Santander has announced the appointment of Sergio Lew as the new country head of Santander Argentina. Enrique Cristofani will continue as Non-Executive Chairman of the board of directors of Santander Argentina.

Enrique Cristofani has been country head of Santander in Argentina for more than 20 years. Under his leadership, the bank has doubled the number of employees in the country to around 9,000, and six times the number of customers, which now is around 3.7 million, making Santander the leading private bank in Argentina.

Sergio Lew joined the Santander Group in 1996 and was responsible for international financing (1999-2003) and CFO (2004-2007) in Santander Argentina. He then moved to Madrid to lead Debt Capital Markets (2007-2009) and in 2009 travelled to New York, where he was head of the Global Debt Finance area in the US until 2018. That year, he returned to Argentina as CEO of the bank in this country. Sergio is a public counter by the University of Buenos Aires and holds a master in Finance at the University of the CEMA.

Ana Botín, Group Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, said: “I have known Enrique from Santander’s international move into Latin America in the 1990s. Under Enrique’s leadership, Santander has become the country’s leading private bank. On behalf of the board, I want to thank Enrique for his hard work and dedication to Santander over many years. I have no doubt he has been the best banker in Argentina and it is great he will continue with us. His leadership and professionalism are complemented by his strong personal character.”

With regard to the new country head, Sergio Lew, Botín commented: “Sergio brings a great deal of knowledge of the financial sector in Argentina and adds his international experience after passing through different countries and businesses within the Group. In the last year and a half, Sergio has done an excellent management in a difficult environment and is the ideal person to assume all executive responsibilities in the country. I am sure he will do a great job.”