Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. The ordinary general shareholders meeting of Banco Santander, called pursuant to law and the bylaws, is going to begin. The official announcement of the call to meeting was published on 19 February on the website of the National Securities Market Commission and on the bank's corporate website, www.santander.com, where it has been published until today, as well as in the Official Gazette of the Commercial Registry and in the newspaper, El Diario Montañés. The full text of the announcement of the call to meeting is also available to you at the shareholder office and at the notary's desk. Remote attendees can view it in the software application to which they are connected. I also notify the ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, that the minutes of this meeting will be notarially prepared.
To that end, the notary, Gonzalo Sauca Polanco, who I have the pleasure of presenting to you, is present at these premises. Mr. Notary, would you please rise? The secretary has the floor to report the number of shareholders in attendance and the voting capital present in person and by proxy at these proceedings.
Is EUR 7,912,789,286, represented by 15,825,578,572 shares with a nominal value of EUR 0.50 each. The required quorum for the meeting to be declared validly in session on second call is 25%, equal to a subscribed capital with voting rights of EUR 1,978,197,321. The quorum data is projected for you to see. The data shows the presence at this meeting of a total of 25 shares with 62.48% of the capital who are represented. All remote shareholders are deemed to be present, and if proposals are made regarding matters, we shall see to them.
Pursuant to the information stated, a valid quorum is declared to exist for holding the general meeting on second call. As from this time of stating the announcement of the call to meeting and on the bank's website, those shareholders who attend this meeting remotely may cast their vote, whether in favor, against, or blank, or abstain regarding the proposed resolutions relating to items one through seven on the agenda that the board submits for approval at this general meeting, including the proposal that is put to a consultative vote under item six F on the agenda. Please remember that if the remote attendees do not take any action regarding the voting on the items on the agenda, it shall be deemed that they vote in favor of the proposal submitted to a vote in each case.
If proposals are made regarding matters that do not appear on the agenda, those attending remotely may cast their votes from the time that the secretary reads aloud said proposals. In any event, the period for voting by remote attendees regarding all proposed resolutions, whether or not included on the agenda, shall come to an end when the voting on such proposals begins at these premises, once the secretary has read the summaries of the proposed resolutions. The notary shall take note of the number and direction of the votes of the remote attendees and shall report it to the presiding committee to be taken into account in the proclamation of the voting results. I will now give the floor to the notary for the appropriate legal purposes.
Thereafter, in order not to disturb the normal conduct of the meeting, and without prejudice to the right to make presentations during the shareholder presentation period, during which attendees can make the statements they deem relevant for consideration at this meeting. Anyone who has reservations or objections with respect to the statements made regarding the number of shareholders in attendance or the capital present, may approach the notary's desk, or in the case of those who are in the adjoining room connected to this room by audio-visual means, approach the support staff in that room. On the other hand, remote attendees may use the remote attendance application to communicate with the notary. The notary will take note of their comments and put them in the minutes. The notary has the floor.
Pursuant to Article 101 of the regulations of the Commercial Registry, as notary for the meeting, I hereby advise the shareholders at the meeting that if any shareholder wishes to express reservations or objections with respect to the statements made regarding the number of shareholders in attendance or the capital present, they may do so at this time at the desk of the notary for the meeting now speaking to you, or in the case of remote attendees, by giving notice thereof through the communications to the notary section.
In order to properly organize the conduct of the meeting, the shareholders or their proxy holders present at these premises who wish to take the floor, and if applicable, request information or clarifications upon the terms established by law, are kindly asked to identify themselves as from this time at the notary's desk, or if applicable, before the support staff present in the adjoining room, stating their first and last names, the number of shares held by them, and the number of shares they represent. The secretary has the floor.
I remind you that the right to make presentations is limited to shareholders or proxy holders attending this meeting. If any of those persons wishing to make a presentation has prepared in writing the text of such presentation out of any information or clarifications they wish to request, they are kindly asked to bring the text to the presiding committee at this time. Furthermore, if any of you wish to make a presentation and want it to be recorded verbatim in the minutes of the meeting, you should deliver it in writing to the notary. Shareholders who are in the adjoining room connected to this room by audiovisual means, and who wish to communicate with the notary, sign up to speak or view the communications received, they may request to do so.
I also inform you that until the end of the presentation period, remote attendees may use the remote attendance software application to send their written presentations, requests for information or clarification or proposals. Documents sent by the remote attendees in the legitimate exercise of their rights shall be made available to those in attendance at these premises at the notary's desk as they are received, and remote attendees will also have access to them through the remote attendance application. If any of the persons attending remotely wishes their presentation to be recorded, they may ask for this to happen.
I also hereby state for the record, that upon entering these premises for the general meeting, the attendees have been provided with the following documents: The announcement of the call of the meeting, the text of the proposed resolutions to be submitted to the shareholders, 2023 individual annual accounts and directors' report, including the non-financial information report and auditors' report. 2023 annual report, which contains, inter alia, 2023 consolidated annual accounts and auditors' report, as well as the consolidated directors' report. Which includes, inter alia, the consolidated statement of non-financial information, together with the independent verification report and the annual report on corporate governance, which includes the reports of the board committees, including the report on the directors' remuneration policy, the directors' remuneration policy, and the annual director remuneration report.
All the aforementioned documents have been available to the shareholders at the registered office and on the corporate website of the bank, which is accessible from mobile devices and PCs at least since nineteenth of February, the date of publication of the call to this general meeting. They're also available to you at these premises, at the shareholders' office, at the notary's desk, and at the auxiliary table. Thank you very much.
We will now present reports that I'm sure will be of interest to you. Good morning. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, and welcome to the 2024 Banco Santander's Annual General Meeting. Thank you all for joining us today in person or remotely. Once again, we are holding our general meeting in an open format, so every shareholder can participate virtually and in person in a secure and reliable way. 2023 was a record year for Santander, both in terms of results and because of the progress we made in our transformation. That progress is due to the efforts of the bank's entire team, which has once again gone the extra mile for our customers. I would like to thank and congratulate each and every one of our employees.
At our Investor Day in February last year, we announced new medium-term targets and began a new phase of value creation. We achieved all our targets in the first year of this phase. Record profit of over EUR 11 billion and earnings per share growth of 21.5%. Our return on tangible equity grew to over 15.5%. We added 5 million new customers, and we built capital organically to an all-time high, fully loaded CET1 ratio of 12.3%. We created shareholder value by growing tangible net asset value, TNAV, per share, plus dividend per share, DPS, by 15.5%. We have also made huge progress with our business transformation to build One Santander. One Santander.
The premise of my One Santander vision is that the sum of all the group's businesses and countries is greater than the value of each of them individually. A vision we have been working on since my first day. Just as important as the results, is the progress in building global platforms for all of our businesses. Today, we have all we need to be a bank that leads the future of financial services. We have business and regional diversification, attractive and very profitable, which sets us apart and makes us more resilient. We have global and local scale as a leading bank in each of our markets, and a total of 165 million customers, one of the largest customer bases of any bank in the world. All this gives us the capacity to invest in proprietary technology products and enables us to attract the best talent.
Today, we are a fintech solutions factory, having launched in recent years a car leasing platform, Zinia, a BNPL, Buy Now, Pay Later platform, Openbank, and our core banking solution, Gravity, among others. These are all competitive advantages that enable us to stand out in our customers' eyes and improve profitability for our shareholders. Today, we have a team that is managing both the day-to-day and the transformation of the bank in an exceptional way, the best management team in Santander's history. For the past year, Héctor Grisi has been doing a great job in managing the bank's transformation and new culture. I would like to congratulate him on behalf of the entire board for the successes achieved in 2023. Congratulations, Héctor. Our 2023 results have enabled us to increase the percentage of profits allocated to pay dividends.
We raised our target of 44%- 55%, including the final dividend proposal that you will vote on today, we will pay our shareholders a total of over EUR 5.5 billion against 2023 results. Half of that total, around EUR 2.77 billion, will be a cash dividend, 55% more per share than in 2022. The other half will go to share buyback programs, which create value for shareholders by reducing the number of outstanding shares, so that each shareholder gets both a larger stake in the company and a higher dividend per share. Let me explain what that means for a shareholder who has held 1,000 shares since 2021.
Once the ongoing buyback programs are completed, Santander will have reduced its outstanding shares by 11% since 2021, which means that each shareholder will increase his or her stake in Santander by over 12%. Over the period, and thanks to the buyback programs, they will have earned approximately EUR 400 in dividends, EUR 24 more than if we had not carried out the programs, plus 6.4%. Moreover, investing in our own shares at current prices below book value, results in a return on capital investment of around 20%. In summary, 2023 was an historical year for our shareholders. Looking ahead, Santander is a unique investment opportunity. We saw in 2023 that it offers profitable and sustainable growth, combined with solvency and a medium risk profile, as well as a focus on creating value and dividends above our peers.
The overall economic context in 2023 turned out to be more favorable than initially expected, as the world's major economies continued to grow. All this amid high volatility in the geopolitical sphere, in which the diversification of the Santander model, as well as our geographical footprint, will be more and more a major competitive advantage. In this new global geoeconomic scenario, boosting the competitiveness of Europe and European companies is key to grow more and to improve our position versus the U.S. and China. There is an urgent need for the public and private sectors to work together to improve the competitive position of European companies. The newly elected European Parliament committees will have the great challenge of addressing the reforms needed to regain Europe's weight in the world's economy. Against this backdrop, Spain's economy will continue to grow above the European average, driven by private consumption and tourism.
Speeding up the implementation of European funds would help to increase investment and growth. The European Commission ranks Spain as the country where the funds can have the third highest impact, 3.5% of GDP, compared with the EU average of 1.4%. The entire Santander team is ready to collaborate on the distribution of these funds in order to have the greatest possible reach in the business world. Speeding up growth requires more investment and more balanced public accounts. From an economic perspective, Latin America, where Santander is the leading bank, is better than ever, poised to leverage its strengths. Thanks to supply chains moving closer to the US, for example, it is set to grow faster than other regions. In the past 10 years, 37 million new customers opened accounts with us, and there are still 178 million people financially underserved.
Brazil is the leading country in Latin America. One out of every three Latin Americans is Brazilian. The country's GDP accounts for 33% of the GDP of the entire region, and its companies receive 44% of the foreign direct investment captured by the entire region. Its recent macroeconomic performance confirms its leading profile. Brazil's central bank has responded to the recent inflationary shock faster and more convincingly than many other central banks. Thanks to which, the country is recovering more quickly, and its legislators have designed new fiscal rules that are allowing it to grow in a fiscally responsible manner, and productivity improvements in its economy, allowing the country to generate trade surplus. Brazil is on its way to becoming an investment-grade country, and when that happens, it will bring an economic and geopolitical revolution in the global economy.
We are very pleased to have accompanied Brazil's success over the last two decades, and this year we expect to achieve the best results in history in local currency. It is our largest market, and we have great confidence in the future of the country and our bank. The U.S. is on track for a soft landing with a positive outlook for 2024. It is the biggest and most attractive financial market in the world in terms of risk, return ratio, and growth. At Santander, we have the scale, the strategy, and the team to compete there and grow profitably by creating value, as we have demonstrated over the last five years. In this global environment, we are no longer only competing against other banks. We operate in an environment in which we also compete against large tech companies with less strict regulatory requirements than banks.
This means banks like Santander must change even faster. I have total confidence in our ability to accelerate this transformation, because today, the whole team shares this urgency. Our vision is to be the best open financial services platform and, as a first step, to be the most profitable bank in each of our markets. Our strategy, which is based on three pillars: Think Value , Think Customer , Think Global . Let me go through each one in some detail. With the first strategic pillar, Think Value , we aim to create value for our shareholders with double-digit annual growth average through the cycle, as measured by tangible net asset value plus dividend per share. The starting point is to maintain our capital ratio above 12%. No other bank can optimize capital allocation across the diversity of our markets and global businesses as we do.
The second pillar of our strategy is Think Customer . Always put the customer first. We have a huge and growing customer base across all our products. Our strategy revolves around providing competitive prices, excellent service, and being a trusted partner. For our largest customer base, the retail customer, we have embarked on a global transformation to become a digital bank with branches, combining the best of a digital bank with our branch network and local presence to best advise and support our customers. A simple and attractive personal and digital product offering that provides the best experience for our customers. Some examples of the progress we made in 2023 are the following: In retail in Mexico, we reduced our mortgage products from 17 to just 3. As a consequence, we now underwrite four times more mortgages for every 100 requested than before, with the same efforts.
In payments, Santander Key in Spain already enables more than 4 million customers to approve transaction security with a single click using biometrics. And the fully digital account opening processes in Mexico, Chile, and Spain, which enable customers to sign up in less than 10 minutes. There is much more still to come as we roll out our new platform based on our new core Gravity, which is proprietary technology, and our new apps and websites based on Openbank's native cloud technology.... Gravity is part of the reason why The Banker named us the world's most innovative bank. Less than a month ago, we launched our new Broker AI product at Openbank, which uses artificial intelligence models to provide price estimates for more than 1,000 stocks, putting technology at the service of our customers to help them make the best financial decisions with the most complete information.
Over many years, the group has had success as more than the sum of many individual countries and standalone businesses, and this is why our third pillar, Think Global, is so important. In retail and consumer, very few banks have our unique combination of in-market and global scale, as well as diversification, and this is a major competitive advantage today and for the years to come. The common business models and objectives in our retail and consumer businesses, which represent around 65% of the group's profit, will in fact allow us to grow further in customers and revenue, this is important, and structurally change our cost base, improving profitability. We serve more than 138 million customers, which enables us to build the best in-house and common digital solutions for all our markets.
In 2023 alone, we lowered our technology cost per transaction, with Gravity already processing over 99 billion transactions. We will see the group join in the upcoming 12-15 months. The deployment of our technological platform also helps us simplify processes and automate manual tasks. We reduced the number of resources dedicated to non-commercial activities and resources dedicated to operational activities, significantly. All of this enabled us to improve our efficiency in the retail business by 157 basis points over 2023. These three strategic pillars culminate in a model of 5 global lines of business. We began this path in 2015 with CIB, Corporate Investment Bank, and in the following years, we continued with wealth and payments. Today, we have 5 global businesses, which are retail, consumer, payments, CIB, and wealth.
Let me elaborate further on consumer and payments, and the CEO will cover others. We have defined our consumer business to include our global auto and global consumer finance businesses, plus Openbank. Europe and the U.S. account for circa 90% of revenue, and we are leaders in Europe and Brazil, third in Mexico, and top five in the U.S. This is auto business, practically 70% of consumer total revenues. I'd like to give a little bit of information about the United States. The U.S. is a key market for consumers and for the group. It will be the first example of how we will implement our globalized model. We are going to launch a new digital deposit gathering solution nationwide in the second half of 2024.
This is a solution that is based on Gravity platform and Openbank, which enable us to rapidly scale our digital presence across the country and offer the best customer experience with a fast, simple, and secure onboarding process. This step will begin a new phase for Santander in the U.S., where we see a great opportunity to grow profitably, leveraging the scale and innovation of our new digital platform to achieve a 15%, 15% ROTE in 2025. Payments now. Our vision is to become a global leader in the payment business. This based on our 165 million customers, nearly 100 billion active cards, and 35 billion annual transactions, making us one of the world's largest card issuers and payment processors.
Payments is a high volume, growing, and profitable business, and Santander is uniquely positioned, thanks to its scale, reach, broad customer base, and technology, to grow further and be more efficient than our competitors. Our global payments business, which covers the full payment cycle, operates through two units, which I will detail now. We have PagoNxt, with EUR 1 billion revenue growing at 17.7% in constant euros, reaching a nd also Getnet, the third-largest acquirer in LatAm, and Cards, with more than EUR 4 billion revenues, increasing at 10% in constant euros. These units offer a set of highly competitive solutions for all our customers, both in payments between individuals as well as in purchases in physical and e-commerce or payments between companies, as we said before, and this happening in a growing market.
Our success in the past, and even more so in the future, is powered by a strong corporate culture. A culture that is fully aligned with our strategy and values. A culture that attracts and retains the best talent, who understand how to achieve the results and how to do it the right way. More than 200,000 professionals work in the group, and we will take Santander to the next level. The pride of working for a company that is more than 160 years old, as we can see in our employee NPS, which in 2023, was one of the highest among all global companies and the highest in the financial sector. We have achieved our gender pay gap target. 53% of our professionals are women.
They hold 31.4% of management positions and make up 40% of the board. We have, as I said, achieved our gender pay gap target 2 years early. Our approach to responsible banking is reflected in how we support society as a whole, where we focus on challenges where we can have an impact as they are aligned with our strategy. Supporting the green transition to net zero in 2023, we reached EUR 115 billion in sustainable finance mobilized since 2019, close to the target of EUR 120 billion by 2025. We have financed and advised renewable energy projects with the capacity to supply the energy consumed in a year by more than 10 million households.
Euromoney named us the best bank in the world for financial inclusion for the third year in a row, and through Santander Universities, we invested EUR 105 million in higher education, focusing on the three E's: employability, entrepreneurship, and education. In addition, last year, Santander paid almost EUR 10 billion in taxes in our markets. EUR 10 billion in taxes in our markets. These are taxes that will help finance all kinds of public services, almost double the EUR 5.5 billion provided to shareholders. The best way to rest more for companies is to make a profit, to increase investment, and create more jobs. It's good for companies to make a profit. There is no conflict between making a profit and contributing to a more fair and inclusive society.
On the contrary, corporate profits allow for more financing of investment, which boosts growth and job creation, which in turn allows for the financing of public services, and banking is a key player in this process, channeling savings into investments. As confirmed by the independent consultant, who every few years evaluates the effectiveness of the group's management, our board has a high degree of independence, with effective operations and a very balanced composition in terms of skills, experience, and geographical and gender diversity. In 2023, we welcomed Glenn Hutchins. This year, Glenn will assume the position of Lead Independent Director, which up to now has been held by Bruce Carnegie-Brown, who will step down from the board after nine years. Glenn is a business leader and a highly regarded professional in the U.S. financial sector.
On behalf of the entire board, I would like to thank Bruce for his exceptional contribution and in particular, for his federal approach to his duties as a board member and as lead independent director. Thank you very much, Bruce. I would also like to thank Ramiro Mato, who will soon be leaving the board, for his dedication to the group over the past six years. To fill these vacancies, the board has proposed the appointments of Carlos Barrabés and Antonio Weiss as new independent directors, which we will submit for approval at today's general meeting, subject to regulatory approval. Carlos Barrabés was a pioneer of e-commerce. He brings broad experience in the Spanish and international markets, the application of technology in business and socioeconomic development, as well as in the generation and promotion of talent.
Antonio Weiss has extensive experience in the U.S. market, one of the group's strategic markets, and in particular, the financial sector. 2024 has started with excellent business and commercial dynamics. We continue growing the number of customers, +2 million, and will increase our income around 9% year-on-year in current EUR in the first quarter. Costs have remained flat for three consecutive quarters, and this, together with the impact of our ongoing transformation on costs and revenues, allows for a continued improvement in the efficiency ratio to 42.7%, which we expect to close in the first quarter. The cost of risk in quarter one is expected to be in line with our forecast for the year, with improved performance in Europe offsetting the impact of portfolio growth in Latin America and the expected normalization in consumer.
The capital ratio remains above 12%, in line with our target for 2024. We have many growth levers across the group. We expect our retail business to achieve a return on tangible equity, a ROTE, above 16.6% in the first quarter, annualizing the impact of the banking tax in Spain, registered entirely in January 2024, supported by solid revenue performance in South America and Spain. Our consumer business will show a net operating income growth of around 6%, supported mainly by the strength of our business in Europe and in the United States. As a result, we expect to reach an ROTE for the group of 16.6% in the first quarter, annualizing the impact of the banking tax in Spain with an expected growth of TNAV plus dividend per share above 13.3% year-on-year with today's data.
I am very confident that we will deliver a considerably better performance in 2024 than 2023, which was already a record year, and we will meet our 2024 targets. That being the case, based on the bank's current remuneration policy, cash dividends and share buybacks against 2024 results would amount to over EUR 6 billion. In 2024, I will have been executive chair for 10 years. During this time, we have witnessed negative interest rates, a global pandemic, an energy shock, and war in Europe.
Despite all that, Santander has increased the number of customers by nearly 66 million, almost tripled its profits, multiplied shareholder remuneration through cash dividends and share buybacks sevenfold, increased the return on capital by more than 55.0% to reach 15.15% of ROTE, and generated net funds of EUR 58 billion, around half of which was used to strengthen our capital and the other half, EUR 28 billion, to remunerate our shareholders. I am very proud of my team all over the world and of what we have achieved together, delivering strong results today while investing to secure future growth. Our origins lie in Santander, where the bank was founded to meet a widely felt need among businesses and the community to help finance a society that was undergoing rapid expansion and constant change. We were born with a purpose.
Its essence has remained unchanged, but it has been reinvented several times. This, throughout our 167-year history, 167, to help people and businesses prosper. These have been challenging and rewarding years and moments. The management, the board, the bank's entire team have shown flexibility, determination, and courage in adapting to changing times. The bank has survived wars and financial, economic, and social crises. In 1874, when facing invasion by the Carlist army, we moved our funds to the holds of a tugboat. That was the Hercules tugboat. The city was under attack, and we experienced Spain's first monetary integration with the creation of the peseta in 1868, and then generations later with the creation of the euro.
We have moved from a totally physical and fragmented world in which money was kept literally and transported literally in iron coffers, to today's digital, interconnected, and global world with large digital platforms. Overall, I have witnessed the transformation of a small Spanish commercial bank into a global bank with 165 million customers and a presence in 10 key markets in Europe and the Americas. Now, the time has come to evolve. We are taking the next step to become a truly global bank with the ability to compete successfully in the digital world, with new rules of the game, without losing that closeness to our customers. We will continue to act as a local bank, close to the ground and close to customers. History is never linear, never straightforward.
The great expansion since 2012 has required a great effort all these years, consolidation, as it were. More than this, we can be proud of achieving these results by acting responsibly and delivering for today while securing our future. That is our mandate. Very few banks are able to do both. We can. We have an exceptional team, whom I would like to thank once again for their hard work and commitment to this common goal, each and every one of them, committed and engaged. A team that shares Santander's driving ethos. Let's go for it! When we set our minds to it, we achieve it. We are backed by a board that is committed, but never afraid to challenge. Again, thank you for your support. Thank you for helping us achieve these sustainable results.
Above all, I would like to thank all of you, our shareholders, for your trust. Trust which powers our growth and creates value. My vision and responsibility from day one, and in the coming years, is to make Santander one of the banks that leads the transformation of the financial services industry, while continuing to improve our profitability and create value for shareholders every year. Thank you. The CEO has the floor.
Good morning, shareholders. Thank you very much for attending this annual general meeting. I will focus on the following three main points: First, I will review how we achieved our excellent results in 2023. Then, I will spend a few minutes explaining our performance in our main markets. And finally, I will give a few details on the 2024 priorities that we established for our global businesses. 2023 was a year of some uncertainty at a global level, with new geopolitical conflicts in addition to ongoing ones from previous years. It was also a year with other global trends, such as the emergence of technological advances that could end up representing a paradigm shift. In such a world full of great challenges and constant change, there are some things that never lose their value. In fact, just the opposite, they become even more important.
I will highlight two that are particularly important to us. First, trust, and secondly, working as a team towards a common goal. That is why, before explaining the results, I would like to thank you for the trust that you, our shareholders, have in Santander, and in particular, the trust you've shown in me this first year as the group's CEO. I would also like to thank the more than 200,000 employees who work at Santander. A well-known American sports personality once said that individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, or a society work. Our achievements in 2023, which I will go into now, would not have been possible without the dedication and contribution of each and every one of our coworkers.
As the Chair has already mentioned, last year, we announced the beginning of a new phase of value creation for our shareholders. The execution of our strategy enabled us to drive profitable growth for our businesses in 2023. After recording the highest results amongst our global peers in the fourth quarter, we ended the year with an attributable profit of more than EUR 11 billion. This is a new record profit for the group, with a year-on-year increase of 15% with respect to 2022, an 18% increase in constant euros. We achieved all the financial targets that we had set for the year. Revenues increased by double-digit. We ended 2023 with an efficiency ratio of 44.1% and a cost of risk of 1.18%.
We increased the fully loaded CET1 ratio to 12.3% and increased profitability with an ROTE reaching 15.1%. As a result, the TNAV per share, plus the cash dividend per share, increased by 15% year-on-year. To achieve these record results, we focused on the following management levers. First, a focus on service quality and customer growth, which was reflected in a higher revenue. Customer attraction is key in a business like ours. A larger customer base ensures greater revenue stability and lower operating costs with a better diversification of risks. Our strategy is to become the bank of choice for our customers, deepening the relationship we have with them. In this way, we will be able to better capture the value of the transactional business and improve customer satisfaction.
We already have 165 million customers in the group, and we are continuing to work on increasing their interaction with us, which, for example, has helped us increase the number of payment transactions by 15% in 2023 to 36 billion payments. This broad customer base, along with good commercial dynamics and our diversified business model, has driven a very significant revenue growth. Most of this growth came from net interest income, which was a result of higher volumes in North America, South America, and our consumer division, and the good management of credit spreads, mainly in Europe, in an environment of higher interest rates. Moreover, our geographical and business diversification made it possible to achieve a 5% net fee income growth in constant euros, outperforming our competitors in a context of low fee growth in general.
In the second place, let me talk about the improvement in efficiency. Despite the high inflation rate over the period, we were able to keep all our costs under control while investing in our transformation, technology, and the development of key businesses, such as the U.S., or consumer. We structurally improved the bank's efficiency to 44.1%, and we remain as one of the most efficient banks in the sector, making progress in three basic areas. First, we are still improving user experience through One Transformation. This is a program that leverages simplification and automation. We're working towards implementing a common operating model in our retail business that will help us achieve our value creation objectives. Secondly, we are fostering the connectivity provided by our globe, by our global businesses.
As the Chair already mentioned, at Santander, we have a very powerful competitive advantage that very few can replicate. Our local leadership and global presence with common operating models, which enable us to be more efficient and simpler and faster for our customers. This combination is key to continuing to improve profitability and achieving the shareholder value creation targets we set at our Investors Day last year. The expansion of our merchant services business is a good example of the benefits that connectivity provides to the group. The implementation of Getnet in the countries where we operate, allows us to start commercial relationships with new customers by offering a high quality and differential service, which also serves as a product that boosts loyalty. We have already launched the Getnet platform in five countries with great success and are working on rolling it out to other units.
Just with the implementation of this technology in a country like Mexico, in just 18 months, we managed to go from the fourth place to the second place in terms of merchant services. Finally, we are leveraging our global technology capabilities to capture synergies through the centralization and development of platforms and scalable products. The savings from our new operating model and One Transformation initiatives will become even more evident in the coming years. Another very important lever is active risk management, which has allowed us to maintain good credit quality levels with cost of risks under control, even in a context of rising interest rates. The mortgage portfolio, the largest portfolio in the group, continued to show its strength and resilience in terms of credit quality.
At the same time, we have implemented new initiatives to support our customers, such as the ones we launched in the UK, Spain, Portugal, and Poland. The auto financing portfolio performed in line with our expectations, conditioned by the normalization of customer affordability following the gradual withdrawal of public stimulus programs in the United States. Our personal loan and card portfolios maintained a good risk-return balance, due basically to our use of early indicators that allow us to identify changes in the demand of credit quality in a very agile and effective way. Regarding the corporate segment, we managed to maintain a good profitable growth rate and credit profile in a context of financial de-leveraging. Lastly, we can still boast of a very solid balance sheet and an efficient capital allocation.
Our balance sheet has a low-risk profile, and our loan portfolio, which is well diversified by segment, product, and country, is financed mainly by stable deposits from individuals, more than 80% of which are insured. During the year, deposits increased by 2% in constant euros, driven by term deposits. At the same time, mutual funds grew by double-digit. Total loans across the group decreased slightly, basically due to the effect of higher interest rates on credit demand and early repayments. There were quite a few early repayments, mainly in Europe. This was partly offset by positive dynamics in North America, South America, and our consumer business. As far as capital is concerned, we maintained the fully loaded CET1 ratio above 12% every quarter, thanks to strong organic capital generation, which boosted the ratio to 12.3%.
Key to this increase was profit generation, as well as our disciplined capital allocation. We grew very selectively in portfolios with a better risk-return profile, and we created a new unit, the asset desk, which is focused on asset rotation and on capital optimization. All of this has enabled us to increase total shareholder remuneration against the 2023 results, split approximately equally between cash dividends and share buybacks. Including the dividend that we propose for approval at this annual general meeting and the buyback program that is currently underway, the remuneration will be approximately 44% higher than that charged against the 2022 results. We still believe that at current share price levels, share buybacks are one of the best ways to invest our capital and create value for you, for our shareholders.
Let me now take a look at the performance of our different regions, countries, and businesses in 2023. Starting with Europe, we ended 2023 with a profit of EUR 5.5 billion, with a growth rate of 45% in constant euros. All businesses performed well during the year, especially retail banking and wealth, thanks to excellent spreads management. By country, there was good revenue performance in Spain and Portugal, and also in the UK and Poland, despite these countries being at a more mature stage in the interest rate cycle. It is important to mention that costs remained under control in the region. They grew slightly above inflation, while provisions were affected by increasing the coverage for the Swiss franc mortgage portfolio in Poland.
In North America, profit remained high, exceeding EUR 2.3 billion, despite the impact from the normalization of provisions, which is what we expected. The good performance of CIB, Wealth, and PagoNxt in the region partially offset lower profit in retail banking in the U.S., a country in which we are making great progress in our transformation, investing in building up our CIB advisory capabilities and bolstering our teams to strengthen our franchise in sectors where we have a competitive edge. This will enable us to accelerate profitable growth, both in the U.S. and the rest of the group. Mexico had an excellent year. It recorded the highest profit in its history, with great performance across all businesses, particularly retail banking and CIB. In South America, profit reached EUR 3 billion.
The good performance in CIB, Wealth, and PagoNxt partially offset the weaker results in retail banking, affected by the negative sensitivity to interest rates - to interest rate rises, particularly in Brazil and Chile. However, the beginning of interest rate cuts that we have seen in the second half of 2023 supported a net interest income improvement in the second half of 2023 in these two countries and thanks to our cost discipline, expenses in the region fell in real terms in the region. Also, we managed to contain the rise of provisions, which grew in line with the loan portfolio, supported by our efforts to strengthen our risk model in a complex environment. Our consumer finance business in Europe remained a benchmark in the sector in terms of profitability and efficiency.
We focused our efforts on actively managing our portfolio and on the pricing of new businesses, which increased to EUR 52 billion. Deposits grew by 19% in constant euros, in line with our strategy of adjusting the sensitivity of of our balance sheet to the interest rate environment. We were therefore able to mitigate the impact of higher interest rates on net interest income and boost revenue. Operating expenses increased, partly because of the strategic investments and business growth, and the normalization of provisions continued. As a result of all of this, profits ended the year around EUR 1.2 billion. Now, moving to the performance of global businesses. In CIB, we had another great year, with an attributable profit exceeding EUR 3 billion. This is the fourth year in a row of record profit, which consolidates our leadership position in terms of profitability amongst our peers.
In wealth management and insurance, we also obtained a record profit of over EUR 1.6 billion, which if we add the net fee income ceded to commercial network, we reached EUR 3.3 billion. Both in private banking and asset management, we achieved record net sales, and in insurance, gross written premiums grew by double digits. In PagoNxt, we met the targets we set for the year, obtaining total revenue in excess of EUR 1.1 billion, mainly from our merchant and trade businesses. In 2023, credit card turnover increased significantly to over EUR 300 billion. For 2024, we expect uncertainty due to the global geopolitical tensions, which could lead to a moderation in economic growth in the year.
Inflation is expected to continue to gradually fall back to target levels, which would allow central banks in regions such as Latin America, to continue to cut rates, and others, such as the U.S. and Europe, to slowly start reducing them, particularly during the second half of the year. We believe that the environment in Europe will still remain favorable, although slightly less supportive due to the pressure on margins. But thanks to our business model and our diversification, we expect this to be offset by a more favorable environment for our businesses in South America and consumer. This is something that differentiates us from others.
As the chair has already mentioned, from 2024, we are managing the group through five global businesses, and we have set management priorities for each of them, which will help us achieve our financial goals for 2024 and continue creating value for you, our shareholders. In retail, we will focus on converging towards a common operating model across all our markets. We will expand the transformation process we started in Spain, Mexico, and the United States in 2023 to the other countries. Continuing with simplification, process automation, and development of our global technology platform, to which all our countries will converge, will be essential to be able to fully exploit our unique combination of local leadership and global reach.
This platform is, as the Chair mentioned, based on Gravity, our back-end technology; that is, the systems and processes behind all transactions, and it also relies on the ODS cloud-based technology that we have developed in-house for the front end, which is what customers see when they operate with us. In CIB, we shall deepen our client relationships to increase our market share, especially in M&A, equities, and leveraged finance. We will continue to execute our plan to take the CIB franchise in the U.S. to the next level by selectively expanding our customer base and our capabilities in areas of expertise, which will enable us to complement our capabilities elsewhere across the group's footprint. Additionally, we are accelerating asset rotation and increasing our focus on capital-light products, as well as boosting the use of our global centers of expertise.
In Wealth, we will improve our operational leverage, basically by digitalizing the investment process and significantly simplifying our product offering. We will also keep building our global platform, prioritizing digitalization. In asset management, we will continue to develop our businesses in alternatives and with institutional clients. We're also launching new projects, such as developing our domestic private banking market in the U.S., taking advantage of our strong presence in Miami. In insurance, we will concentrate on products with the greatest growth potential, such as health, savings, and SMEs, focusing particularly on Spain. The chair has already covered the main priorities for consumer and payments. As she mentioned, in consumer, we will continue to progress towards a global business and operating model, while in payments, we will focus on capturing the growing opportunities in the payments industry.
We are fully confident that by achieving these priorities, we will increase the group's profit and profitability in 2024, while making progress on our medium-term goals. Dear shareholders, as I come to the end of my speech, I would like to conclude by reiterating my thanks to all of you. There is a well-known quotation from the writer, Jorge Luis Borges, that says that, "The future is not what is going to happen, but what we are going to do?" This is how we face challenges in Santander, guaranteeing that we will do everything we can to continue growing and creating value for you in a responsible way and remaining committed to society. Thank you very much for being part of the Santander Group, and I hope to continue to count on your support next year.
Now we will hear from the Audit Committee, Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee, in order to provide information regarding their committees and the different chairs and proposed resolutions relating to the areas of their respective powers. In the case of English language presentations, the Spanish language versions will be projected in these premises and will be available at the notary's desk. Remote attendees will also be able to follow a simultaneous translation into Spanish. Buenos días. Good morning. I apologize because I have to address all of you in English today. Report on the matters within our remit, how we contribute to the thorough reporting of financial and non-financial information, and on the audit of the 2023 financial year. The activities the committee carried out in 2023 are found under the committee's report in the corporate governance chapter of the annual report.
Today, I would like to highlight a few of the key activities. The Board Audit Committee reviewed the bank's financial information. It endorsed the financial statements and directors' reports for 2023, which were verified by our external auditor in an unqualified audit and are submitted today for your approval under item 1A of the agenda. The committee oversaw the preparation of those documents and reviewed the effectiveness of internal controls, which the external auditor also verified. Together with the board Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee, the committee also reviewed the non-financial information, which is submitted separately for your approval under item 1B of the agenda. The committee kept in regular communication with the external auditor to remain up-to-date with their work and with regulatory developments more generally.
PwC attended all committee meetings, including two without the presence of executives, where we were able to learn of any concerns about the work. None were raised. The committee assessed the external auditor's performance, which we considered positive. It also verified the external auditor's independence according to regulation and internal policy. Therefore, the committee put forward a proposal to the board to re-elect PwC for 2024, which is submitted for your approval under agenda item four. The internal audit function continues to respond independently and effectively to the challenges we are facing. The committee submitted the internal audit plan for 2023 to the board for approval and subsequently supervised its execution last year and the implementation of the recommendations.
The committee also oversaw adjustments to the plan to make sure they included emerging risks, like cybersecurity and new technologies, and that we have the right internal controls in place to manage these risks and face the challenges they bring. We received detailed information on the group's entities in non-cooperative jurisdictions and on the oversight carried out over such entities, which we are limiting and reducing as much as possible. The committee was informed of the group's implementation of tax policies and the annual tax transparency report submitted to the tax authorities. We also continued to review related party transactions in terms of fairness and transparency, as mentioned in the corresponding section of the annual report. I would like to highlight our coordinated work with the Board Risk Supervision, Regulation, and Compliance Committee and with the audit committees in our subsidiaries.
This enabled us to draw on strong expertise and contributed to sound decision-making. For all these reasons, I wish to express my satisfaction and the Board's Audit Committee's positive opinion in relation to the above-mentioned resolutions submitted for your approval today. Next month will be four years since I became chair of the Audit Committee. Replacing me as chair will be Germán de la Fuente, who I'm convinced will do a fantastic job. I wanted to take the opportunity to say what an absolute privilege it has been to lead this committee and to assure you that as a continuing member, I will do my utmost to enable a smooth transition so the committee can perform its duties effectively. Thank you.
[Foreign language ]. The floor now goes to the Remuneration Committee. Thank you.
[Foreign language]. The 2023 activities report of the Remuneration Committee is part of the corporate governance chapter of the annual report, and has been available to you from the date on which the notice for this AGM was published. The role of the Remuneration Committee, in coordination with the Nomination Committee, is to support the Board's goal of increasing shareholder value. We do this with three key objectives in mind. First, we seek to have a compensation scheme that attracts the talent required for us to succeed in the global markets where we compete. Just as we compete commercially in global financial markets, there is also an intensely competitive worldwide market for the executive and technical skills we need to succeed.
To meet the goals which we communicate to our shareholders, each investor day, we must recruit, develop, retain, and compensate top-tier talent, all of which requires a compensation program that is globally competitive. Second, we seek to strengthen the alignment of interests between employees and shareholders by reducing, over time, the share of our profitability that is represented by compensation. As we grow our profitability, we seek to distribute an increasing portion of our profits to our shareholders. This is something Santander has done consistently over the past 10 years, as total executive director pay, as a proportion of underlying attributable profit, has declined by more than half, from 0.41% in 2014 to 0.19% in 2023.
Third, we strive to balance key objectives such as fair pay, effective risk management, sustainability, meritocracy, cross-collaboration, and comparability to peer institutions, all the while taking account of supervisory expectations and shareholder feedback. Today, we are submitting the 2023 Annual Directors' Remuneration Report for a consultative vote. The report includes detailed information on remuneration and executive and non-executive directors for 2023, as well as the remuneration policy approved at the AGM last year. After a year of record performance in 2023, which led to a total shareholder return of over 40%, outperforming the average of our peers, the Remuneration Committee has increased executive pay by 5% for 2024.
This reflects the strong performance of the bank, is consistent with the average increase applied for all of our employees in Spain last year, and is proportionate when compared to relevant global peers. Shareholder approval is also being sought for the remuneration policy for group directors and key executives for financial years 2024, 2025, and 2026. In 2023, we updated the policy to make it consistent with the new strategic plan for shareholder value creation. The remuneration policy that we are submitting for approval today under item 6A of the agenda is based on these same principles with some minor changes to simplify the bonus scheme. The maximum amount of annual remuneration to be paid to all directors is also proposed for your approval.
This amount is the same as approved by the shareholders last year. It is worth noting that this is the maximum amount. The board may agree on a remuneration which falls below this limit, which was the case in 2023, where the total remuneration accrued was 11% lower. Finally, in 2023, an independent expert conducted a comparative market analysis on the remuneration of the non-executive board members. This analysis showed that they are dedicated to their roles, as shown by their attendance and commitment to the board, and it also confirmed their remuneration is in line with peers.
Under item six of the agenda, we're also submitting for your approval other remuneration proposals, such as the maximum ratio between fixed and variable components of total remuneration of the identified staff, the deferred multi-year objectives variable remuneration plan for executive directors, and the application of the group's buyout policy, all of which are in line with what was approved at last year's AGM. I would also like to mention some of my activities as lead director. In the final months of 2023, I chaired three private meetings with the non-executive directors to consider and discuss topical matters without the presence of the executives. Together with Bruce Carnegie-Brown, I've been in regular contact with institutional investors ahead of this AGM to hear their insights, particularly on the governance, group's governance and initiatives.
Let me end by saying that the group, the Remuneration Committee, and I myself, remain fully committed to a remuneration scheme that attracts and retains the talent essential to our plans for increasing shareholder value, and thank you for your support.
[Foreign language]. Yes, the floor now goes to the Chair of the Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee, Mr. Ramiro Mato.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I stand before you as chair of the Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee to inform you about some environmental, social, and governance matters, ESG matters. Like previous years, the committee's main aim in 2023 was to support the board in achieving the ESG targets set to build a more responsible bank. As part of our ambition to be net zero by 2050, we set 2 new decarbonization targets in the auto manufacturing and auto lending sector in Europe. This means we now have 7 decarbonization targets in 5 high-emitting sectors. We are also making headway with analyzing, measuring, and acting to help decarbonize agriculture, commercial real estate, and mortgages.
Meanwhile, to support our customers' transition to a low-carbon economy, in 2023, we raised over EUR 20 billion in green finance, taking us to EUR 115 billion in total since 2019. We are on track to meet our target to reach EUR 220 billion by 2030. In addition, by the end of 2023, we had a stock of EUR 22.6 billion of green mortgages, and we financed more than 208,000 new electric vehicles in Europe with a volume of EUR 6.5 billion. As regards socially responsible investments, we are progressing towards our EUR 100 billion assets under management target by 2025. In 2023, we reached EUR 68 billion, as we have enlarged our sustainable investment proposition.
Turning to financial health and inclusion, in 2022, we exceeded our target to financially empower 10 million people between 2019 and 2025. So in 2023, we established a new target to financially include 5 million more people between 2023 and 2025. Last year, we contributed to financing and providing other measures of financial inclusion for 1.8 million people. In addition, we invested EUR 175 billion in measures to support communities. Our flagship remains the support of education, employability, and entrepreneurship through Santander Universities. In 2023, we invested EUR 105 million, helping 498,000 people, 2.7 million in total since 2019. Our approach was recognized by Fortune, who ranked us the highest bank in their list of 50 companies that are changing the world.
Diversity and inclusion were also a priority for the group. We set a new targets to have 35% of senior management position held by women by 2025. At the end of 2023, 31.4 of these positions were held by women. Lastly, let me inform you that together with the audit committee, we reviewed our non-financial information, which will be put to a vote under item 1B of today's agenda, and where you can find detailed information of what I have mentioned. Generally speaking, we have made good progress overall, but we know that we must keep improving.
Therefore, in 2024, we will continue to assist the board with our climate change strategy and net zero ambition, our sustainable finance proposition to support our clients' green transition, and to support communities in the communities in which we operate, and ensuring that our policies and strategies address the evolving regulatory and supervisory environment. Lastly, I would like to thank Santander, my fellow board members, and especially our Executive Chair, the CEO, and José Antonio Álvarez, for all their support since I joined the board in 2017. For me, it has been a privilege to be part of this team as board member and to be able to address you every year as chair of this committee. I am certain that it, that I will continue to work tirelessly on boosting the group's work in responsible banking. Thank you.
[Foreign language] Yes, the floor now goes to the Chair of the Nomination Committee, Mr. Bruce Carnegie-Brown.
[Foreign language] Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Committee. The 2023 activities report for this committee is part of the corporate governance chapter of the annual report and has been made available to you from the date on which the notice of this AGM was published. Among the committee's activities, I would like to highlight its work on the selection and appointment of the new lead independent director, a role that I passed to Glenn Hutchins on October 1, 2023. As Glenn mentioned, he and I have worked closely together since he was announced as my successor last summer, to ensure an orderly handover of responsibilities. The effectiveness of the board, its committees, and our overall governance remained a priority in the year.
During the year, we assessed the overall effectiveness of the board and its committees, as well as the board's composition, quality of its work, and individual performance of its members. Last year's assessment, which was conducted by an external consultant, whose independence has been verified by the committee, concluded that our governance model is robust and under constant review to ensure it meets the highest standards and reflects our strong commitment to continuous improvement. The recommendations resulting from that review form part of an action plan, which the committee will monitor.
The plan will also be one of the board's and each committee's priorities for 2024. We also continued to review our board composition, ensuring that its depth of skills, experience, and overall makeup remained appropriate and relevant to the needs of the group. The committee drew up its proposal to re-elect the directors listed under item three on the agenda of this meeting, namely Javier Botín, Germán de la Fuente, Enrique de Castro, José Antonio Álvarez, and Belén Romana.
After reviewing their performance and commitment to the position, and analyzing the skills and diversity of the board as a whole. The committee also proposed the appointment of Carlos Barrabés and Antonio Weiss as independent directors to replace Ramiro Mato and me. Re-election and appointment proposals maintain the necessary balance between the renewal of the board while preserving continuity and corporate memory, all with due regard to the expertise that the board requires. Carlos brings vast experience in the Spanish market and in digitalization and innovation, and Antonio is the expert in the U.S. market in financial services, regulation, and public policy. To conclude, I would like to stress that the group's ongoing commitment to maintaining robust and effective governance to address the strategic needs arising from a challenging macroeconomic environment, which is essential to our long-term success.
As you know, I have informed the board of my intention not to run for re-election at this annual general meeting after nine years on the board, so I will be stepping down as a director. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the trust you've placed in me over those years. It has been a privilege to have served on the bank's board as vice chair, lead independent director, and chair of the nomination and remuneration committees. [Foreign language].
Thank you. The period for presentations by the shareholders will now commence. Among those who are physically present or represented in these premises, 43 have asked to make a presentation. They will do so in the order that I call them. Please remember that your presentation should be limited to the matters that are subject of this meeting. In exercise of my powers, pursuant to Article 29 of the bylaws, I will direct the deliberations and will end the presentations when I deem the issue to have been sufficiently presented. At the beginning of each of your presentations, please state the number of shares you hold or represent. As provided by Article 17 of the rules and regulations for the general shareholders meeting, the time initially allowed for each presentation is 3 minutes per shareholder. Please try to keep to your allotted time.
I will let you know as your time runs out. I would like to remind remote attendees that they may submit their presentations until the end of the period for presentations on these premises. Mr. Jesús Jiménez Martín has the floor, and Mr. Francisco de Borja Martín Garrido, kindly prepare. Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Good morning. I'm Jesús Jiménez, and I represent over 7,300 shares. You presented a record level of profits, and you are making us very happy with the share price and the dividend, and I've noticed it in my current account and my family economy, and I'm thankful for that. I'm also very happy about the care I'm given in my branch in Pozuelo de Alarcón, particularly with my executive, my assets. My question is: how does the dividend for 2023 compare with that of previous years?
[Foreign language]. Thank you, sir. I will answer you afterwards, all of you shareholders. Thank you. Mr. Shareholder, Francisco de Borja Martín, and please, Mr. Francisco Frías Sánchez, Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Mr. Francisco de Borja Martín Garrido.
[Foreign language]. I see that the shareholder is not present. Oh, he is present. All right. I'm sorry, I cannot see from where I am.
[Foreign language] I'm sorry. I had just gone. I was in the toilet. [Foreign language] .
How are you, sir?
Good morning, madam. I'm Borja Martín. I have 262 shares, and I'm director of Global Roaming at the Loyola University. The Loyola University is a Jesuitic university affiliated to a church, and it's an international university. I am also a member, and I represent the General Council of the EAIE, the European Association for International Education, the EAIE. Obviously, in a business environment which is constantly evolving, the achievement of financial goals with social impact is a fundamental pillar for the sustainable growth of any organization, particularly in a bank such as Santander, with a global vocation. From the committed perspective of both institutions, which are nonprofit, and I represent them here, and which promote higher education as a vehicle for social transformation, I would like to ask you a question which is extremely important.
In the context of a year where the institution you preside over achieved extraordinary profits, with such ambitious goals for 2024, among them, the improvement of profitability, there's a crucial question that arises: How can you guarantee that your remuneration policy is aligned with the achievement of financial goals, and at the same time, with your unflinching commitment with social sustainability?
Thank you, sir. The floor goes to Francisco Frías Sánchez, and please, Santiago González Vallejo, could you prepare your question? Thank you, sir.
Thank you, madam. I am Francisco Frías. I have 10,611 shares. I'm aware that in a bank such as Santander... Well, a bank such as Santander needs good and motivated teams with high salaries. You need to have the best people, not just in Spain, but also in other countries, such as in the United States or the U.K., where salaries are higher than in Spain. What do you intend to do in order to attract the best technological talent to be able to keep competing with other companies?
Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Santiago González, please take the floor, and would Eloy Gutiérrez, please prepare your question. Thank you.
Good morning. I am Santiago González Vallejo. I represent a movement for solidarity with Palestine, and I represent 107,000 shares owned by several shareholders. We are here to denounce the responsibility of Santander, the responsibility of Santander in the dire situation facing the Palestinian people, subjected to an illegal occupation and to a regime of apartheid, as many international organizations have also denounced. I'm going to ask you a question, Madam Chair, and the rest of Board members. What is the relationship between Banco Santander and the occupation of Palestine? Apparently nothing, right? The representative of the social responsibility committee would say nothing. But if you look at the figures, you will see that Santander is giving loans to companies that produce weapons.
For example, Boeing, which manufactures fighter planes, which are bombarding those areas. Rolls-Royce, they have lent them EUR 870 million, and they have produced tanks that are attacking the Palestinian people. And then another company that manufactures cannons, Leonardo. But these are not just weapons companies, they are really very aggressive companies, but Santander is also helping the colonization process. They are facilitating the occupation of Palestine. They are making the infrastructure available to perpetuate colonialism. Santander is also giving loans to Caterpillar, which is helping destroy the homes of Palestinians with their bulldozers. Or there's other companies that Santander is giving loans to, which are repressing the Palestinian population. So I ask you the question again: is Santander...
Does Santander have anything to do with what is happening in Gaza? Well, repeating what the chairlady said, the bank should reinvent itself, because the value of the bank should not be blemished with blood. My question is, when is Santander going to cease to give loans to companies that are facilitating the occupation of Palestine? We are really looking forward to your answer, and we would like to join you in ceasing to finance the tragedy that is taking place in Gaza. Thank you.
Thank you. The floor goes to Mr. Eloy Gutiérrez, and I would request Mr. Ignacio Bailén to please prepare your question. Thank you.
Morning. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board, Madam Chair. I'm Eloy Gutiérrez, and I have... Well, I represent the Banca Armada campaign. I represent 25 shareholders with 107,000 shares. Madam Chairlady, once again, we denounce the financial relationship that your group has with the arms industry in general, but in this particular case, with companies that manufacture nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have been prohibited for over three years by a specific treaty that has been ratified by over 70 countries. This treaty, in addition to prohibiting the production and trade of nuclear weapons, it also prohibits any support for this production. However, the reality is that these weapons are still produced, and the by countries that have not signed the agreement, such as Spain.
The volume, the volume of nuclear heads available now is capable of destroying the life on Earth 14 times over. For these companies, funding is fundamental, and you are helping finance them. There is a campaign that issued a report last year saying that Santander, once again, financed companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons at a world level. Specifically, between January 2021 and August 2023, your group financed 8 out of the 24 main companies that produce nuclear weapons, and you have increased the number of loans given to these companies, both in terms of the number of companies financed and in the amount given to these companies. You've lent these companies EUR 6 billion, 35% more than the previous year. So you are directly responsible for the proliferation of nuclear weapons with the risks that that entails.
In a context like the present one, it is essential to demand that banks such as Santander should stop financing these kinds of companies, because the money that your group lends these companies constitute a fundamental pillar for the existence of nuclear materials in the world. So, dear Chair, we have given several figures, although I know that in this bank, you seem to care only about financial figures and about increasing your profits, but preventing war and reducing the probability of a nuclear war is a must. So we would like to appeal to your consciences to stop a war that could have dire consequences. And selling these weapons makes it more likely that such a conflict might arise. If the EUR 6 billion you have devoted to nuclear proliferation had been devoted to promote peace, we would have been very happy.
But until you do it, we will still raise our voice to denounce your doings. And please do not tell us that you have a wonderful corporate responsibility policy, because that is no excuse. We are-
Mr. Chair, I would request-
... at a crucial moment, and you are helping war to proliferate in the world.
Shareholder Ignacio Bailén and Mr. Carlos Catalán, please prepare your contribution. Thank you.
Sir, are you in?
Can you hear me? Good morning, Madam Chair and members of the board. I'm Ignacio Bailén. I have 66 shares, and I would like to share my optimism with the strategy of the bank and the management model followed by the bank. I would like to express that I am particularly satisfied because I can see that you really walk the talk. Of course, there's many challenges in the environment. You're saying that you're going to your profits are going to be higher in 2024 than in 2023, in excess of EUR 12 billion. So are you really convinced about this wonderful prospect? And how it is going to be reflected in shareholder remuneration? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Mr. Carlos Catalán, please, and Noemí Trabado, please prepare your contribution. Thank you.
Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning to everybody. I am Carlos Catalán. I represent the Pescatalan Group . We have 250,000 shares, and we have been working with the Mercamadrid branch for over 25 years, and we're very happy with the service we get. They're a wonderful human team. My question is: the improvement of the profits of the bank has resulted in also an increase in the share price, and this has also happened in other European banks. But European banks are still, their share, their share price is still below the book value, which is different from what is happening in the United States. What are the reasons that may explain this difference between European banks and U.S. banks, and how do you think this can change?
Thank you, sir. Noemí Trabado, now, please, and then María del Coro Soler, please prepare your address.
Good morning. Thank you, Madam Chair, Mr. CEO, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders are. I'm Noemí Trabado. I'm a shareholder. I'm general secretary of UGT, majority trade union in Santander and the financial sector. I represent over 1 million shares. Madam Chair, today, the banking sector is on strike, a historical strike. Over 40 years ago, nothing similar had happened in Spain. Why the strike? Because of our collective bargaining agreement, which has been blocked by AEB, which has not ensured that any one of the proposal comes through. Banco Santander and others are on strike because we would like a wage increase in accordance with the profits, and, because we are, of course, accountable for those increases. We would like to increase our purchasing power.
We believe that all of us deserve to see this increase in our payroll, and we believe that measures should be implemented in order to improve our working conditions. The bank can do what it should be doing. It should be at the lead of defending a collective bargaining agreement good for all, and specifically in Banco Santander. Madam Chair, Banco Santander has achieved outstanding results, over EUR 11 billion. We're happy about that, but again, it's going to be the board and the shareholders who are going to be keeping those results. Let me give you this information: EUR 11.5 million is what one person collects, which is 157 times the average wages of a Spanish employee. This is not equitable. Madam Chair, in Banco Santander, we continue to work in an uncomfortable setting.
For the third year in a row, I have to blow the whistle on toxic managers. We don't know whether those managers pay no attention to the policies implemented by the bank, or perhaps the company doesn't care about how people are treated insofar as, the results are good. The system is opaque. We know that sometimes it's actually difficult to be paid on a quarterly basis. Meritocracy is not really in place. It's not really a meritocracy, it's more of a digital approach to wage increases. And there are issues to take into account, such as the labor burden that is, borne by the different workers. Comisiones Obreras represent the workers of Santander and would want to see a change in the policy with regards the treatment we receive. We want to work in a healthy environment, not a toxic one.
We want for a fair remuneration in accordance with the position of the persons working, and one that motivates us. A fair share out of the profits, men and women workers all, because we are the workers who achieve these results. The pay gap is important. We want to see more women holding leadership positions. We want a fair bargaining agreement, one that is fair, one that reflects the achievements of the bank. Comisiones Obreras is going to continue to fight to defend the working conditions of the employees of Banco Santander, men and women all. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you, ma'am. The floor goes to Coro Soler, and I would ask Miss Julia to prepare her presentation.
Good morning. I'm María del Coro, and I represent 826 shares. As of 2021, we see a buyback going hand in hand with dividend payouts. So payout and buyback, I think it's a good idea because we're looking at the long term, but I would like to understand what the advantages are for shareholders with this combined formula. Thank you.
Thank you. Yulia, now, Kouchova, and then Mr. Andrés Boticario.
I'm Yulia Kouchova, and I represent 117,000 shares. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, members of the board, Madam Chair, I am speaking on behalf of UGT Trade Union in Banco Santander and as legal representative of workers in question, who are the main lever of the company. This board meeting today, this general shareholders meeting today, will be in our minds forever because we see very different things being discussed.
We talk about extraordinary profits, but the workers who have generated the profits have to be visible, and the only way to achieve that visibility is by going on strike. There is an ongoing loss of purchasing power. That is why we are on strike. This reward should have come of its own accord because it is well merited. The past few years have been mission-critical, and the workers of the bank have carried out their jobs in an exemplary way. Today is a special day for you, yes, but only for you, because the employees, the workers of Banco Santander, cannot celebrate anything. There is no wage recognition. The working environment is terrible. Archaic approaches, modern technology, devastating activities, follow-up teams, calls, emails, constant, constant. A combination which is a contradiction in terms, which really is at loggerheads with the values the bank purports to defend.
Banco Santander does not do what it commits to doing, which is be accountable vis-à-vis the employees of the bank. This human engine, now more than ever, needs acknowledgment, the shareholders' acknowledgment and the board's acknowledgment. And for these reasons, UGT reaches out to the company, to all of the workers, in order to be able to truly project a different image in European, national, and global terms. One world, indeed. Please be aware. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you, ma'am. I give the floor now to Andrés Boticario Martínez, and I would ask José Navarro. Thank you.
Good morning, Madam Chairlady, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Andrés Boticario Martínez, and I have over 17,000 shares. I come from the Bankers Trade Union, which is the second most represented trade union in the bank. We are an independent trade union, and we advocate responsible trade unionism. And I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to express the views of thousands of workers of Banco Santander, most of whom are also shareholders. The earnings of Santander in the last year were record, over EUR 11 billion, and as you mentioned, the figure will be even higher in 2024. So the next few years are going to be spectacular for the group, particularly thanks to the work of Santander, Spain.
We would like to express our congratulations to you, to the board, and particularly to the employees of the bank. The employees have always felt part of the company. They have always sacrificed everything for Santander, even at the most difficult, at the toughest moments, for many years. However, their aspirations of prosperity have not really been attended to. We have lost our purchasing power, and we have received some improvements, but we regard them, in some cases, as insulting. For some reason, well, our demands have not been heeded. Well, the inflation rate in Spain and in the whole world is really very high, and this situation has led to another record, which is demonstrations and strikes.
It's really sad because a day like today, with these wonderful results, the workers of Santander are on strike. Madam Chairlady, you are a leader in society, and you are a champion for the women's rights and the climate change. But the employees of the bank have really lost a lot of purchasing power, so we would like to ask you to also be a champion of your main asset, your employees. And regardless of what AEB may decide, Santander has a huge responsibility with its workers, and I would like to ask you for Santander to rise to the occasion and to catalyze a revaluation of salaries of all employees along the lines of the recovery of purchasing power and with the rights of the payroll to prosper.
Madam, are you willing to be a champion of the causes I just mentioned? Are you willing to helping employees of Santander thrive and to achieve social peace?
Thank you. Thank you. I give the floor now to José María Navarro Escolar. José María López Ruiz will follow. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm José María Navarro Escolar. I represent 112,000 shares. There's a lot of talk about the green transition and the fight against climate change, and there is no doubt that this transformation is a huge opportunity for Santander. Could you tell us something further as to how you are supporting customers in this transition?
Thank you. José María López, please, and David Porras, please prepare your contribution. Thank you.
What's up? Thank you very much, madam. I'm José María López Ruiz. I represent a total of 100,000 shares, and I'm here representing ADICAE, the Association of small savers and bank users who have delegated their vote in us to represent their interests. Your entity has one of the lowest CET1 ratios in Europe, which has contributed to maximize your profits. Do you expect to increase this ratio in order to cover your position in the event that there may be an increase in the NPL ratio? Why don't you take advantage of your robustness in order to do this? Now, in terms of the services rendered to customers, Banco Santander has made progress in the field of digitalization. Now, for example, ATMs incorporate the possibility of operating without really touching them.
But, we also believe that, customers should be able to go in person to branches, and you have been following a policy to close down branches. So what has happened with your, alleged, intention of making life easier for your more, more... for your more elderly customers? And, and, what about being able to hire, or take out products, in a different country? Because, for example, Santander offers, better, better, rates in, other countries than in Spain. Also, I want to remind you that people affected by the takeover of Banco Popular are still waiting for an answer from you, and, the Spanish, courts have opened the door to, compensate people who were really harmed by this takeover.
The Spanish courts have accused the leadership of Banco Popular, as well as PricewaterhouseCoopers, which audited the accounts before the takeover, because Pricewaterhouse was found not to have acted diligently. But Pricewaterhouse is still the company that is auditing the current accounts of Santander. Are you going to do anything about this? Now, in terms of sustainable banking products related with the SDG goals, we have some doubts about sustainable investment funds of Santander. The authorities have warned about certain practices and stated that some of the funds may not be aligned with the-
Mr. Ruiz
SDGs.
Please.
I'm about to finish. And the Spanish regulator has really been firm about it. What is your opinion about this? And also, in spite of your efforts to... Well, you said that you would fight the new laws on this, on the banking tax, but you have to take into account that there is a reason for that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. David Porras, and would the following speaker please prepare? Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Hello, I'm David Porras. I represent 34,000 shares. As you mentioned, 50% of what the company earns is returned to the shareholders, and the other 50% is ploughed back into the company to make the company even more sustainable and bigger. The cash dividend this year was really increased significantly. Do you think that next year there will still be an increase? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Mercedes Ruiz, please, and María del Mar Abenades. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Mercedes Ruiz Palacios, and I am here with you, as I have been on other occasions. I am here to ask for help. I asked for help, you said you would help me, but all you did was-... encouraged me. You got my hopes up, and you're a liar, I have to say. You haven't helped at all. You have not helped at all. My money is being lost. I was lied to. I am a woman who wasn't even able to go to school. I believed everything, everything. I came here to ask you. I am so desperate because I have no money, because it's all been lost, and it's your fault because you said you would help, and you are shameless. You haven't helped at all.
I'm doing much worse now than I was doing back then. This is horrible. This is impossible. How can you do this to somebody who is not an expert? You lied. You knew it was a bad product, but I didn't know it was a bad product. You should have offered something else. But all of my savings, all of my life savings... I didn't win the lottery. I worked hard. I worked hard. I worked very hard. You are shameless. You have no shame. Please, I am at the end of my tether. I help you. I beg you, I am on my knees. I need your help. This is terrible. I cannot survive this terrible moment. How is it possible? You said you would help, and you haven't done anything. This is horrible. This is a terrible thing to do to somebody. How can you do that?
I have lost absolutely everything. Why have you done this to me? Please don't do this to me. Help, help, help, please!
The floor goes to María del Mar Abenades, and José Luis Machota , please prepare your contribution. Good Morning.
Good morning, Madam Chair, ladies and gentlemen. My question is related with the expectations of the bank with respect to the reductions in interest rates and the effect that such decreases would have on the bank's performance. A reduction in interest rates should lead to an improvement in economic activity in the markets where the bank is present. I would also like to know what expectations you have for this economic growth and whether these improvements would offset the problems caused by the lower interest rates.
Thank you, sir. Silvia Armengol Sánchez, please. And Hugo Arévalo Álvarez will follow.
Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, Banco Santander staff, shareholders. I'm Silvia Armengol, Secretary General of the Confederación General del Trabajo in Banco Santander, CGT Banco Santander. We have heard about record-breaking earnings. This is the best year ever for Banco Santander. You have talked about how important the people who work in the bank are as an engine for growth for the bank, and that's why I'm here, because we would like to remind you that these profits must be shared between and among those who generate them. As you know, out there, there is a strike, the first in decades, decades! Over these years, we have lost purchasing power. The five main banks have accumulated over EUR 87 billion in profits over these past five years, EUR 40 billion in Banco Santander.
If we compare with a 10% loss purchasing power for bank employees. If we continue to see these embarrassing offers, the conflict may last over time. The consequences will possibly be dire for the sector, but more especially for customers. Then again, independently of whatever is agreed upon at the negotiating table, we have to remember that Banco Santander is at the top of the list, profits-wise. It's not fair that you distribute this among yourselves. This is not reflected in our wages. Our sacrifice is only for your good. Recently, we saw headlines, and we learn that your employees, 100,000 in Latin America, have seen wage increases. Investment banking is wonderful. Wage increases in the U.K. Madam Chair has seen a wage increase, and we see a notable increase for the members of the board.
But the workers of Banco Santander, so very different with regards to other corporate areas. So it is absolutely essential that you think about our hard work and the extraordinary results achieved, thanks to our work, especially if you think that wage issues is not at all well evaluated, not at all appreciated by those of us who work there. And furthermore, we would ask that you participate in the establishment of a threshold of 1% for mortgages issued to the workers and clauses for non-absorption so that we not continue along the track of frozen wages. Also, we are deeply concerned when we think about Banco Santander employees. The branches are in a very difficult position. We are tremendously understaffed, and those of us who are here today. Should realize that it is thanks to the hard work of the workers at--
Madam Shareholder, your presentation period has ended. Please, could you ask the question or make the proposal you deem appropriate, says the Chair. Ms. Silvia Armengol continues to insist on the fact that employees are subject to tremendous. The Chair would again ask the speaker to pose the questions or make proposals. Silvia Armengol continues to say that not only customers deserve to be well-treated, workers need to be well-treated as well. Do something about the working environment, and, you know that sharing is important, so share with all of us who have made the results possible. Thank you. Thank you. I give the floor to Hugo Arévalo now, and then please, Annabel Gregory. Thank you. Hugo Arévalo, please. Mr. Shareholder Arévalo, please, are you here to take the floor? Thank you, sir.
If not, Annabel Gregory, please. Then Fernando Garzo. We hear shouts in the background.
Okay. Hello, my name is Annabel Gregory, and I own 126 shares. And I have a question that has been formulated with ShareAction. I'm asking if Santander will publish a comprehensive plan by the end of 2024, at the latest, to restrict financing for new oil and gas. ShareAction welcomes Santander's commitment in February 2022 to restrict finance for new upstream oil projects and for new upstream oil clients with extension plans. However, neither of these assets and corporate financing commitments apply to gas, a significant omission, and the bank has not placed restrictions on existing oil clients with expansion plans. We're therefore calling on Santander to introduce more comprehensive financing restrictions on both oil and gas companies with expansion plans.
Danske Bank and La Banque Postale require transition plans from their oil and gas clients, which explicitly state they will not develop new oil and gas fields. Crédit Agricole and Société Générale have placed corporate financing restrictions on oil and gas pure players, recognizing that they are unlikely to be able to transition and create additional risk for the banks. Banking on Climate Chaos finds that in 2022, Santander provided nearly $2 billion for fossil fuel expansion, and in that year, the bank was the largest financier of companies extracting oil in the Amazon biome. Yet, the IEA warned back in 2021 that there can be no new fossil fuel investments in viable pathways to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and Santander uses the IEA NZE scenario as a basis for its net zero targets.
Financing restrictions are vital to stay within the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature target. Since we have already reached 1.4 degrees Celsius last year, as reported by the World Meteorological Organization, action by Europe's largest banks is even more urgent. We therefore urge the board to commit today to publishing a comprehensive policy to address financing for new oil and gas by the end of 2024. This should include extending existing asset financing and corporate financing commitments to cover gas and to include midstream, as well as upstream oil and gas. Secondly, the bank should introduce financing restrictions for new oil and gas at the corporate level for existing clients. Will Santander publish a comprehensive plan by the end of this year, at the latest, to restrict financing for new oil and gas? I do also have a second question.
Could I ask you, the three minutes are over. Would you please ask the questions that you would like responded, please? That we have 3 minutes for each intervention. There are 48 interventions. I would ask you to please, ask the questions and finish in the next minute, if possible.
My second question is on behalf of Stand.earth. Will this be the year when Santander publishes an exit plan to stop financing oil and gas in the Amazon? I'm asking it on behalf of nearly 200,000 people globally, who signed the petition calling Santander to stop oil and gas financing in Amazonia. Banco Santander, Santander provided $1 billion to modernize Petroperú's Talara refinery. The Talara oil will be processed from Petroperú's oil blocks in the Peruvian Amazon, including Block 192 and Block 64. Extraction in Block 64 has been fiercely opposed by the Achuar and Wampis people for many years now. And oil will be transported via the aging Norperuano pipeline that crosses Ramsar sites protected under Santander's own policy. Policy violations are material risks and can be considered unlawful and a violation of securities law.
With all the available knowledge on indigenous opposition to drilling for oil, a long history of pollution in protected areas, and poor management of Petroperú's pipeline, why has Santander contradicted its own policies and financed the Talara project?
Yes, and-
Santander should follow the example of European banks like HSBC and Barclays, that committed to excluding Amazon oil and gas financing.
Thank you very much. We will respond all those questions. Thank you so much. And, could we go, [Foreign language].
We continue, then. We give the floor to Fernando Garzo Brunet, and José Manuel Galeote will follow. Thank you.
Good morning, Chair Lady, members of the board. I'm Fernando Garzo, and I represent 5.8 thousand shares. I've been... I'm a shareholder of the bank, and I'm very proud of your performance in 2023. Your results show that you really got it right by diversifying your business. But it should be mentioned that these historic profits wouldn't have been possible without the talent of so many employees in the group. My question is very simple, Madam Chair. Specifically, what are the keys to manage a headcount of 200,000 employees? Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Thank you, sir. José Manuel Galeote, please, and would Mr. Fernando Jiménez prepare his contribution. Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, Madam Chair. I have 11.7 thousand shares. Whenever I listen to you, it's incredible. Do you really believe in what you say? You speak about democracy, but it's all unbelievable. So my question is, how... What percentage of the vote do you obtain through the branches by giving employees a present? Because, you know, you have a salary of EUR 11 million, and you keep increasing your salary, and you keep manipulating all the figures so that you can have a majority representation. So please answer the question, what is that percentage, madam? The second question about related to this one is, when are you going to stop engaging in these practices which are so undemocratic, so much Putin-like?
My third question is, if you look at other banks, BBVA, the share price is over EUR 10, and you're still at a very low level with respect to the pandemic. Of course, it's all very well that we are buying shares back, but what you have not said is that in 2010, there were over 8 billion, just over 10 billion, over 8 billion shares, and now there are 16 billion shares. So if you just think about, you know, this sheer figure, well, it's incredible. It's all mind-boggling. When I paid for my shares, the price was a lot higher. So why do you think that other banks have increased their percentage, and you are still at the same percentage? And my next question is about you.
You keep buying things, certain percentages of things, also through a series of legal figures that are difficult to understand. Perhaps you could explain them, but don't you think that there is a conflict of interest, because you know exactly when the share price is going to go up and down. So don't you think it is illegal for you to buy shares, knowing exactly when the share price is going to go up or down? And my last question is about the takeover of Popular. I was also a shareholder of Popular. And when I was in Popular, I saw that banks are not really very democratic. They call branches to ask to gather as many votes as possible in favor of the board of directors.
So in terms of this takeover, what would you say about the final result of this transaction?
Thank you, Sir Fernando Jiménez Calvo, and then Miguel Ángel Soto, please.
[Foreign language]. I'm Fernando Jiménez Calvo. I have 79,000 shares. I'm very happy about the bank's policy. You have increased dividends. I'm sorry. So you've increased the dividend, in general, 5%, the cash dividend, and the share price is also going up because the bank made a lot of money, and I hope that it will still have wonderful earnings in the future. And with respect to the question on European banks, I really don't have a clue. But you will have to answer that question. And I have to go back to my seat now.
Mr. Shareholder, I, I understand that the question then is: how does our dividend compare with that of other European banks? Is that your question, sir? Is your question, how does the dividend, our dividend, compare with the dividend of other European banks? Thank you. Well, let me just say that it's grown by over 5. Let me... Yes, I'm saying cash dividend, 50, 50% of an uptick year-over-year, cash per share you are the owner of. I'll give you more details afterwards. Yes, you're missing a zero there. You said 5. It's 50, 50. Yes. I'm sorry, sir, I cannot hear you.
I thought the cash dividend had gone up by 5%.
50, 50, 50.
Over a certain number of years?
No, in one year, 50%, the cash dividend per share, total, including buybacks, 40%, 40% in total, yes.
From 40 to 50, right?
Yes, that's the policy. That's our dividend policy, a hike of 40.
This is different from what happened at other European banks?
Absolutely. That's right. That's right. Yes, I can assure you that we are there with banks.
Thank you very much, but I'm old as the hills, so-
Oh, no, no, sir, you're looking great, and you haven't even used up your three minutes. Thank you so much for that. All right. Well, I would love to be in your condition when I'm your age. Mr. Miguel Ángel Soto, please, and then Patricia Satrústegui.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I'm Miguel Ángel Soto. I am representing Greenpeace Spain. Thanks to the delegation of a shareholder who has 10 shares. I'm quite surprised, Madam Chairlady and members of the board, that we are separated into two blocks, because we have the pariahs here, those who do not agree, those who keep complaining, and then you seem to be in a kind of ivory tower. I would like you to have a little stroll in this other area to have an idea of what the civil society is really experiencing. It's very difficult to understand that in a general shareholders meeting, there is a kind of second-class carriage. This is just unheard of. How come we are separated into classes, a first class and a second class carriage in this meeting?
Anyway, last year was the hottest year on the planet and coincided with the best historical results of Santander, and for the European Union, it was the second hottest year. The first one was 2022. This was the year where Santander, by coincidence, had exorbitant profits. I think we should remember, and I was trying to talk about this this morning. In some areas in South America and Southeast Asia, the activities of banks such as Santander promote deforestation. They lend money to companies that are engaged in deforestation, and we're not allowed to film my presentation. This is an utter lack of transparency. There are a lot of people telling us that we cannot film this presentation. What are you afraid of, madam? Don't you think you should be more transparent?
There's a lot of bodyguards here telling us that we can't film my presentation. But let me go back to deforestation. You may go blue in the face writing annual reports, but what is really happening in the world? Well, Santander is lending money to companies that are transforming forests and savannas into soy fields or rubber plant fields or palm oil fields, and let me give you some figures. These are companies in the agricultural sector, and I was surprised that in your presentation, madam, you dedicated less than a minute to the environment, and the chairman of the Responsible Banking Committee didn't say much about it either. He did speak about sustainable finance, but he did not speak about the huge amounts of money that Santander lends to agricultural companies.
Bunge, 196,000 hectares deforested in the Amazon. Cargill, 76,000 hectares deforested, thanks to the money received from Santander. In Bolivia, 15,000 hectares. A huge meat company, exploiting the Cerrado Sierra in South America, and they're still receiving money galore from Santander.
Please, please, you have come to the end. Please, if you have a specific question, please ask the question.
Mapfre, 58,000 hectares. Some other company, 12,000 hectares in concessions of palm oil. So, Madam Ana Botín, it is all very well to protect the Mediterranean area and your father financed the development of the genome of the olive oil plant. But what your father did was good, but what you are doing is terrible because you are causing huge amounts of deforestation.
Please, I would request that-
But let me, let me continue, madam. Let me continue, because the question is: do you agree that the financial sector should be regulated? Do you agree that within the European Union, we need norms and regulatory frameworks that prevent the regulatory impunity that banks enjoy? And the next question is: would your bank be willing to publicly defend at the European Commission, the introduction of specific obligations to make financial institutions like yours guarantee that there will be no financial flows contributing directly or indirectly to the conversion and degradation of ecosystems? Those are my questions. Thank you very much. And, and, and, and you, and, and this question of having-
Thank you, sir.
two classes in these meetings
Thank you, sir.
is really unacceptable.
No, we want... Of course, of course, we want everybody to participate as comfortably as possible, and I assure you that we are streaming this session. There is full transparency, full accountability. We are casting as we speak. Ms. Shareholder Patricia Satrústegui, and please, Eduardo Martín-Duarte, prepare your contribution.
Good morning. I'm Patricia Satrústegui. I represent 100 shares, Fundación Integra. I would like to explain to you that the bank, for 10 years, has backed a project that changes life. We were born in 2001 to ensure that the socially excluded and the disabled could participate in civil life, women, persons who are former prison inmates who need a job. It's been 23 years, and we have raised or encouraged the creation of over 21,000 jobs.
It was the bank employees who believed that 47 women, who were victims, and their families would benefit from this. 47 women who needed for somebody to believe in them, to rewrite their history. A job ensued, and their self-esteem and independence followed. They recovered the possibility of living with their children again. One of the women said that she would never have imagined being the woman she is today. This is symbolic of what the bank has done by banking and backing this and other similar foundations. Thank you. After this, other collaborations followed. This year, we celebrate the 8th anniversary of Woman to Woman. A number of professionals from the bank are mentors to women who are gender violence victims, to encourage them to join the labor force.
Over 200 employees have participated in different projects that are underway, providing training for over 2,500 persons. I can assure you that it is definitely an impact. It's not only financial information that is shared, it's also emotional backing to ensure that they are courageous enough to look for a job. Thank you for backing these social causes. Thank you for making it possible for people who have not had a chance to have one, and thank you for sharing your time as volunteers, because the return on this activity, it maybe is not spelled out in euros, but I can assure you that every action, every step taken, is a life saved. Thank you very much!
Thank you very much, Madam shareholder. Mr. Martín Duarte now, and Gregorio García Cuesta. Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, everybody. I, I have come here to criticize your social performance and to request that you step down, Madam. I would like to start by reassuring you, Madam, do not be afraid. You're not going to become a salt statue if you look at me. And you don't need to hire an extra notary to get me out of this room. You can ask Mr. Renovales, and he's still alive, and even, you know, I've. And I'm a very merciful person, and I ask God to forgive your sins every single day. But let's go into the nitty-gritty. There's two legal judgments here of the of the Madrid courts related to the Mr. Madoff's Ponzi scheme and the bank's attitude.
The judgment says that there could be a criminal case here, and I have some emails that you sent with certain reports, Mr. Clark, Mr. Jay Lee, who warned you about this potential Ponzi scheme. I also have an email that you received from Mr. Echevarria, who was thanking you for defending Mr. Madoff at a bank's executive committee meeting. So could you explain to shareholders why you defended Mr. Madoff at the executive committee of December 2008? And I would like for copies of these documents to be attached to the minutes of the meeting. Why is it that everybody working at the bank and at Optimal and who were related to Mr.
Madoff, Madoff, Madoff's doings, why did they all end up in Nostique, which is an entity where you are a shareholder together with your husband? Should shareholders trust people that may have participated in the most blatant Ponzi scheme in history? Your salary, your official salary is over EUR 12 million a year, even if you haven't demonstrated having an economist degree. Why don't you let us see your degree to demonstrate that you have not been cheating all the shareholders? Would you hire anybody that cannot attest to having a university degree? Can we trust somebody who doesn't hold a university degree? The bank has started criminal procedures against me-
Mr. Shareholder-
But who has really-
Please start up.
-been behind, these legal, proceedings?
Limit yourself to your question.
I'm about to finish, Madam. Why has the bank opposed to the rogatory letters I requested to accredit those facts that you say are false? Are you afraid that these rogatory letters might prove that what I have claimed is true? I want to congratulate you, Madam. I want to congratulate you, the bank, and the Uría law firm for the recent judgment of the Provincial Audiencia that has proved you wrong. But you know, we know exactly what you have done, and you have already heard some-
I would request-
-voices.
Mr. Shareholder.
I'm about to finish, Madam.
You have-
What is your proposal, sir? You need to express what your... Well, I am just criticizing the way you manage the bank. Could you inform us something about M&B Capital Advisers and the golf courses? Are you about to buy those properties, Madam? Thank you.
The floor goes to Silvia de Miguel Puebla. I would like to give the floor to María del Mar, who wanted to take the floor before. She was called before. Could you please prepare yourself? Thank you, ma'am.
[Foreign language] . Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I'm Silvia de Miguel, and I represent 102,000 shares.... I am with the Savesca. This is a family group, as is Banco Santander, and we also are concerned about sustainability, social responsibility, vis-à-vis all of the activities we carry out. Banco Santander works with family companies, such as ours, in order to encourage more sustainable practices, and in order to help us to transition towards a green economy. This must take into account activities that are carried out on a daily basis.
Must also be taken into account when deeming potential acquisitions. Santander is a bank that has grown, the business has grown, and the bank has grown also by buying other banks in Spain and abroad. The authorities now talk about reducing the number of entities, so that the entities remaining be bigger and more profitable. My question would be: What does Santander think about these recommendations? Will we see new acquisitions involving Santander, or do you think that there are barriers, such as regulation, which make this step a little bit more complicated to take? And thank you.
Thank you, Madam Shareholder, María del Mar Abenades. And now, Mr. Clemente de la Cruz Sánchez.
Yes, good morning. I wanted to speak about the values. I wanted to address Ana Botín and the board, Carlos Blesa, perhaps more especially because I talked with him, and I would like to just let you know that you're a bunch of liars. Because you said—you promised that you would help. You talked about the values. We had been lied to, we had been hoodwinked, and this is another lie, another Banco Santander lie. That's what the bank knows how to do: lie, lie, lie, and sell garbage. I don't know whether you have a good product available on the market, because I've got to say that everything you've sold us so far has been garbage. So you promised to do something, and you haven't done it. We talked with Carlos Blesa. What solution? No solution. We were promised everything, a solution.
The problem would disappear. No, no, it was all a lie. So trust? Trust? No.
Trust, what trust? Why would we trust Banco Santander? The only thing Banco Santander does is try and hoodwink its customers into buying garbage, and that is how you've made those hundreds and hundreds of millions. You need to be honest about it. What you need to do is walk the talk, as you said before. We were talked to, but nothing happened. Your word is not an honorable one, I have to say, for me, at all. You should be ashamed of yourself. And then you say it's a bank that deserves to be trusted? By who? Because let me tell you, Santander values and the products, it's a no. Trust, zilch.
The floor now, Clemente de la Cruz Sánchez, and then Francisco González Nieto.
Good morning, Madam. Good morning, everybody. Good morning to the board of directors, to Madam Chairlady. I would first of all like to congratulate you on the results achieved and on the strategy you have adopted in the last two or three years. I want to underscore the buyback program, the share buyback program, which for all shareholders, entails a series of benefits which have already been explained before. My question is on something that is really penalizing us in the P&L, which is that tax, that discriminatory and unfair tax levied on financial institutions. We were told it was going to be temporary, but now the government is saying that it is going to keep it for good. I would like for you to tell us, what has been the impact of the bank tax on the company's P&L, and particularly on the payout of dividends?
It is a very unfair and irrational tax, because I think that Spain is the only country where it is levied, and the way it is levied is also extremely unfair. So the questions I have are the following: What do you intend to do to release us of that penitence? Number two, have you thought of transferring your headquarters, like other companies have done, to some other country, so that we are not penalized? Because this affects shareholders, customers, and the whole of the Santander community. Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Mr. Francisco González Nieto, please, and Leticia Avendaño. You have the floor, sir.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, everybody. I'm Francisco González Nieto, and I represent 3,000 shares. I'm going to be very brief, madam. My question has to do with the share buyback program. I would like to know, how much the number of total shares has gone down, and whether the program will still be applied in the years to come?
Thank you. Madam Shareholder Leticia Avendaño, and then Mr. Alejandro Schwarzky.
Good morning. I'm Leticia. I speak on behalf of Fundación Inclusión, which aims at improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities and their families and relatives. We have worked with over 2,000 persons over the past few years. What we seek is to make sure opportunities exist so that they make their dreams come true. We do it in the field of education, independent living, healthcare. Our foundation believes that strategic alliances are very important, and we're very proud because we work with the bank, thanks to Euros from Your Paycheck, which has helped us broaden the impact. We have helped over 55-year-old persons with mental disabilities who are aging, often enough, prematurely aging, so that their final years are as best as possible, thinking about their interests, their desires, their preferences. Working with the bank has been wonderful, not only economic.
We have a team of professionals with us who hail from different departments, both management, thank you, and there's a volunteer program. They are there with us. They help us design and plan a system that allows for the management of resources for persons with disabilities, which is safe and accessible, more personalized, more dynamic. We believe that our values, inclusion and, social inclusion and social assistance, are possible thanks to working with the bank. We will be happy to live in a more solidary world. Thank you very much for allowing me to address all of you, and thanks, especially, for helping us continue to perform our activities. We are very keen to know what the initiatives are that you have designed for this year. Thank you very much.
Thank you. And now, Mr. Alejandro Schwarzky and Mr. Jorge Arnau Vélez .
[Foreign language] Alejandro Jacobo Schwarzky, are you in the hall, sir? Are you in any one of the halls? No? Then Mr. Jorge Arnau Vélez , please, sir.
[Foreign language]
And then Pedro Guerrero.
[Foreign language] First of all, I'm Jordi Arau. Well, well, Jordi, Jorge, George, it's really immaterial.
I'll call you whatever you tell me to call you, sir.
[Foreign language ]. Okay, Jordi, you've got the floor.
Okay, so I had. First of all, I was a bank employee for 30 years, first of the Hispano Americano Bank, then it became Central Hispano, and finally it became Santander. As a result of that, I was paid in shares at a certain point in time, and I decided to keep those shares as savings, which other people did not do. Other employees, you know, decided to sell them off immediately, but I decided to keep them. That is why I can be here today. Otherwise, I couldn't be here today. But let me tell you something that happened to me, which is incredible. It happened in a branch, and I have written it down so that I could organize my thoughts, and I'll be brief, don't worry. I-- This is not going to take me too long.
The manager of the branch, of branch 3073 in Barcelona—well, made me a seemingly good offer, because I had a deposit which was not giving me too much interest, and it was quite a lot of money, eh? And it was just dormant there. So it was quite a substantial amount, quite a tidy sum. So, you know, I was really, you know, interested in that proposal. I told him that I might mobilize that amount. There's too many cameras. Where do I have to look? Can you see me, madam?
Oh- Yes,
I can see.
I see you. I see you perfectly.
I'm about to finish. Don't worry.
Well, you've got 30 seconds. I'll give you a couple more because I interrupted.
Well, with 30 seconds, I can't do much. I will read fast.
One more. One more, just like I, I did with everybody else.
Thank you. Thank you very much. You're very kind, madam.
Oh, you're welcome.
I'm lost now. I don't even know how to go on. So I told him that I would mobilize this money because my life could change very fast, and I had just, because I had just met a South American lady, a young lady.
Sir, sir, please. I'm sorry, sir.
You know, and I'm a psychologist by profession, so I told the manager I would give him an answer as soon as I made up my mind. Listen, listen, because this is very serious.
Yes. Could you please ask your question or make the proposal?
Well, my proposal is that this gentleman, this branch manager, my proposal is that you should hire some good psychologist. I'm not a clinical psychologist myself, so I'm not asking for a job, but you should hire a few good clinical psychologists in the branches, because some branch managers are starting to display psychopathic behaviors. Do you know what a psychopathic behavior is? If not, I can explain very, very briefly.
Mr. Shareholder, please, we can talk-
We can perhaps talk about this later, but-
Please, your proposal.
Well, this gentleman was giving me nil for my money. You keep interrupting me, madam. Shame on you!
I'm sorry, but you are running out of time.
So he, this man, he was the manager of the branch. In addition to giving me nil for my money, because he made a proposal which I did not accept, because, you know, I told him my life could change overnight. And he said: "But, you know, you're losing money. You're not getting any interest." And I said, "Well, okay, I'm not making any money, but at least I have liquidity because my life can change overnight." So it was not that money.
I'm sorry, Mr. Shareholder.
It was not that much money anyway.
I'm not really, I'm not really hearing a question. Is there a question, please?
The question is the following: How come you have a manager, a branch manager, who is bold enough to... how do you say this in Spanish? To take a customer for a ride, and that customer is also a shareholder. He was bold enough to ring me home. Of course, he didn't, he was not aware that I was also a shareholder because my shares were in a different branch. So those of us, you know, shareholders are owners of the bank. Customers are not the owners of the bank, but the real owners are the shareholders.
I'm sorry, sir. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, but really, you have spoken for much longer than the minute.
He called me, he called me home to ask me if I was going to attend the AGM.
Well, thank you so much. Thank you so much. If you have a question about your branch manager, we'll find out. We'll find out. We'll ask if there's anything we can do, and, of course, we'll take the necessary measures if he has performed in an unseemly manner. Thank you very much for coming, from, I understand, Barcelona. Thank you very much, sir. The floor now goes to Pedro Guerrero and then Jesús Sevillano. You have the floor, sir.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, everybody. I'm Pedro Guerrero. I represent over 1.3 million shares, and I just want to extend my warmest greetings to all of you. Madam Chair, a shareholder of Santander for a decade, I'm very pleased, and I really want to congratulate you for your 10 years at the helm of the bank. Over this period, I have witnessed your exceptional leadership qualities and your unwavering commitment with the success of the bank, of the bank. Your strategic view has been fundamental to keep us as leaders in the industry.
Your focus on diversification, global scale with local leadership, have been fundamental pillars of the new strategic model of the bank, and it is very inspiring to see how you have led this transformation with such vision. This bold and proactive strategy not only positions us for being successful in the current market, but it also prepares us for the future challenges. As a shareholder, I deeply appreciate your approach to maximize shareholder value and to dedication to building a solid and sustainable bank for the long term. I really look forward to remaining a shareholder of the bank in the coming years. Congratulations on this wonderful milestone and for your exceptional contribution to the continued success of our bank. Thank you.
Thank you, sir. I give the floor now to Jesús Luis Sevillano and Jaime Gregori Soler. You have the floor, sir.
[Foreign language]. Good morning. I'm addressing you, Ms. Botín, to tell you that the shareholders of Santander remember your father a great deal. Let him rest in peace. In the events that the bank holds periodically to update us on the performance of the bank, all the shareholders agree that the share price is not in line with the performance of the bank. If you look at Expansión newspaper, where you publish many adverts, well, it would seem that everything is going wonderfully. But when you track the share price, well, it has been between EUR 3 and EUR 4 for many years, a few cents up or a few cents down. Today, we have finally reached EUR 4. It was high time we did.
If we compare our performance with that of other banks, well, our bank has had the poorest evolution. But to be honest, madam, we are one of the most important banks in the world, but our share price is really not very good. Of course, it's difficult to compare. There's many variables that influence the share price. But, well, you haven't really made us very happy since you became chairlady. It's all been very disappointing, because Santander is—has systematically been, been the bank that has had the poorest performance. Let's hope that from now onwards, things may change a little, but, you know, at least we can hope not to lose too much money in the future.
Well, thank you, sir. Let me share with you the piece of news that today we're up 3%, more than anybody else, and we certainly hope that we continue to progress, we continue to be on the upswing. But I'll be happy to give you further details. Jaime Gregori Soler from Spanish Red Cross and Santiago Álvarez, you have the floor, sir.
Good afternoon, madam, members of the board, shareholders. Before I ask my question, I would like to mention the partnership between the Spanish Red Cross and Santander. Santander has supported our humanitarian aid operations, both nationally and internationally. And they have also helped the operations of the International Red Cross and the International Red Crescent. So thank you very much to Santander for that. And I'm going to ask my question without further ado. We should really be mindful of the services provided by the bank, and we need to keep being sensitive to facilitating access to the bank's services by the most vulnerable groups of our population, particularly the elderly, immigrants, refugees.
Although significant steps have been taken in this direction, and considering that economic growth is extremely important for social cohesion, I would ask you about the expectations the bank has for the Spanish economy in the short to medium term, and what is going to happen to the employment in Spain? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. I give the floor to Mr. Santiago Álvarez, and then Pedro Martínez. You have the floor, sir.
I represent 138 shares. On the 26th of February, 2024, the RDCC published the following news item: "Large investment funds abandoned the UN Climate Alliance. BlackRock, Calas, suddenly abandoned the alliance and positioned themselves against the 2030 agenda. This change in the strategy will result in changes by Santander." And I also want to tell you that some shareholders have not received the invitation to the GSM, and this, of course, makes it difficult for them to attend. Do you think that the invitation could be sent by post, rather than... By email rather than by post? Thank you.
Thank you very much, sir. Now, Mr. Pedro Martínez, and then David Pérez Rodríguez. You have the floor, sir.
Thank you very much. Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for allowing me to make some comments. In September last year, you announced some changes in terms of the way the bank was going to be managed. So you announced that the bank would be made up by five business units on a global scale. Of course, it is very important for the bank to explore its global scale. It is very important for the bank to be diversified, because this is going to improve competitiveness and the possibility of offering customers better products. My question, but is about the reasons why you introduced this new change, this structure into five different business units, and what consequences is this going to have for the bank's customers?
Thank you very much, sir. Pedro Martínez-Martínez. David Pérez Rodríguez.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, dear shareholders, Madam Chair, directors. I am David Pérez Rodríguez, and I represent 6.5 thousand shares of a total of 9.1 thousand. See, and I've had. Well, well, the number of shares in my portfolio have gone down, and I've lost 55% of the capital over these years. I don't know how you can say that things are going so well, and the dividend is really worth less and less. So I would like to tell you and ask you, what you're going to do about old shareholders? We must see some improvement, because I have lost 2.6 thousand shares of the shares I had bought, and almost 55% of the capital over these years.
I would be very grateful to Madam Chair, to let me know what she intends to do with old shareholders. What can we expect for the future? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Amador Gómez and Elías? Elías Raúl Piedra.
[Foreign language]. Good morning. I'm Amador Gómez. I represent 57 shares, and I've come here to talk on behalf of Acción contra el Hambre foundation, Action Against Hunger. I want to thank Banco Santander and the GSM for giving us the opportunity to be here today, but particularly for supporting our solidarity programs that we implement in Spain. Over 6 million people in Spain suffer from food insecurity, which means that 13% of Spanish households do not have enough money to afford basic products. In our association, we have been working in Spain for over 10 years, supporting vulnerable people, particularly through social and occupational inclusion. But it was in 2020, as a result of the COVID pandemic, that levels of food insecurity in Spain doubled, and we realized that many of the people who participated in our employability programs could not make ends meet.
That is why we started our solidarity program, which has been extended to the whole of the country. This is a digital program. It consists in money transfers through a wallet, which makes it possible for people, for beneficiaries, to go to the market to buy the products that they need. But the key is that this allays their fears of not being able to feed their families, and makes it possible for them to devote more time to finding a job. And we have executed similar programs in other countries, and we have seen that there's enough reasons for having programs like these, because they promote people's autonomy.
The only thing that is left for me to say is that the contribution of the bank's GSM is going to make it possible for us to continue this program in Spain, and it's going to make it possible for us to reach more beneficiaries. So on behalf of all the people benefiting from the program, I want to express our deepest gratitude.
Thank you very much, sir. Now, Mr. Elías Raúl Piedra and Francisco Buendía. Thank you. You have the floor, sir.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, Madam Chairlady, members of the board. I come from Asturias in the north of Spain, and the north people can be tough, but they are very noble. I represent 2.7 million shares, an investment of approximately EUR 15 million. I now live in Extremadura, and my, and my... And all the, all—and I know I'm, and you know, I'm having a very difficult time with my branch in Extremadura. She calls me to a meeting, and she stands me up, and this has happened five times. Also, another person, the person responsible for risk, Ignacio Pinilla, he doesn't pick up the phone. He... There's no way you can talk to him, let alone the territorial manager, Mr.
Justo Cortés, who I think, you know, he thinks he's Charles the Great, because, you know, he cries because there's no more territories for him to occupy. Please, the question is, will I, will I ever be able to talk to somebody and negotiate some conditions? Because these people just refuse to talk to me. I don't know what they think, and I'm being 100% honest here. I need to resolve a series of issues, so could you please help me, and could you please put me in touch with somebody I can talk to in Extremadura? Somebody who has enough authority to come to some agreements. Thank you, madam.
Thank you, sir. I will afterward give you a name. I think you've already mentioned the name. Francisco Buendía, now, please. Yes, I'm being told Justiniano Cortés, the regional head of Extremadura, will reach out to you. Mr. Francisco Buendía, shareholder, please, and Antonio Luján will follow. Please prepare your question. Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, Madam, dear board members, shareholders. I'm Francisco Buendía, and I have 9,500 shares of Banco Santander. I would like to say that those of us who have been shareholders for many years have seen that the bank has managed to overcome many crises, and you are doing a better job than others. We are very optimistic about your ambitious goals, and it seems that from what you tell us, the bank can only do better and better, and it has really gained momentum in the last few years. My question is: What are the biggest challenges that you're facing which might affect the share price? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. Mr. Antonio Luján, and then it's Lucimara Malaquias. You have the floor. ...
[Foreign language]. Yes, from Bancários, from São Paulo, Brazil. I represent 136 shares, and I speak on behalf of 55,000 workers employed in Banco Santander in my country.... The profits obtained in Brazil represents 17% of the global amount. This is a financial success, and it definitely should be reflected in its workers. Santander is one of the five largest banks in our country, and it could hold an even better position if it treated Brazilian workers as it should, with all due respect. Unfortunately, we have witnessed anti-trade unionist activities, claims, cases taken to court in Brazil, which of course, tarnishes the institution. Fraudulent hiring, attacks on pension plans and healthcare plans, overburdening, harassment, this is part of our daily lives.
The result, of course, is a lack of conflict, resolution capacity by means of collective bargaining. This situation has workers going to court, and this, at the end of the day, is a threat to future stability. Brazilian workers of the bank demand respect for the institutions, and, we would like for the Brazilian justice system to pay attention to our demands. The bank should be more formal in its reaction, and it should acknowledge that collective bargaining is the means to ensure a fair and balanced work environment. We demand that the global framework agreement be signed that encourages and mandates respect for workers everywhere where Santander may have a presence. This will be very good for all of the parties involved. This is the right time for Banco Santander to focus on its priority and really address the importance of values.
Companies are judged on the basis of how they treat workers, and companies contribute to social welfare. Together, of course, we can build a better future for all of us. And finally, let me invite all of you, but especially Chair Ana Botín, please, when you come to Brazil next time, talk to us, the trade union reps.
Thank you. And now Ignacio de Jacobo , and then José Manuel Pasín. You have the floor, sir.
I'm Antonio Luján. Good morning, Madam Chair, members of the board of directors, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. I own 18,000 shares of the bank. I would like to say the following: After the spectacular results obtained by the bank, which you disclosed at the Investor Day and at the GSM, one of the most ambitious ones is the increase in shareholder value by two digits. Shareholders obtain half of the profits generated by the bank. Well, my question is, what are the reasons why you increased the percentage of shareholder value from 40% to 50%? Thank you.
Thank you, sir. I'm being told that Mr. José Manuel Pasín is not with us today, so please, Rafael López, please, you have the floor, sir. And Martín Carrasco. Mr. Martín Carrasco, you will be addressing us next. You have the floor, sir.
Good morning. I'm Ignacio de Jacobo . I represent 900,000 shares, and as an entrepreneur, I would like to know what the bank's plans are to make available funds to entrepreneurs and to startups.
Thank you very much. So, Mr. Shareholder, Rafael López, and then Martín Carrasco, you have the floor, sir. Thank you.
Good morning. I'm Martín Carrasco Cuevas. I have 30.6 thousand shares. My question is related to something that has been said before about the share capital of the bank. I understand that the share capital, one of the main goals of the share capital, is to revalue the share price. I would like to know what is, according to the board, the most desirable level of share capital? Thank you.
Is that your question, sir?
Yes, it is.
Yes? Thank you. Thank you very much, then. Mr. Martín Carrasco Cuevas, you have the floor now, sir. Mr. Ernesto Sánchez will take the floor next. Ernesto Sánchez, you have the floor, sir.
[Foreign language]. Good morning, everybody. Madam Chair, and everybody else, and workers of the company. I'm Ernesto Sánchez Sánchez. I have 110.4 thousand shares. I have been a customer of Santander for 49 years. I am very proud of being a shareholder of such an important bank with such huge growth potential. I'm very thankful to its—to the bank for its growth policy, and I'm very happy for having been a shareholder and a customer of the bank for so many years. And I'm very thankful to you and to your father for having been so kind to us. That is all. My greetings to all my fellow shareholders. Thank you.
Thank you so much, sir. I don't know whether Mr. Rafael López has addressed us. Is he here? I believe he is not here. All right, then. Thank you very much. I would like to remind all of the persons who are not with us that they cannot send more questions, and I am happy now to give the floor to the secretary. You have the floor, sir.
I inform you in relation to the share capital reduction approved under item five-B of the ordinary general shareholders meeting, held in March 2023, that on the 13th of January 2024, and within the framework of the shareholder remuneration policy, the board approved the implementation of the aforementioned capital reduction in an amount of EUR 170 billion, by means of the cancellation of 358 million own shares acquired within the framework of the buyback program implemented between September 2023 and January 2024. I also inform you of the amendments to the rules and regulations of the board. These amendments, which the board approved at its meeting on the 25th of July 2023, were intended to update the aforementioned regulatory text and introduce certain technical improvements. The following improvements have been made.
Article 3 has been amended to include certain clarifications regarding the non-delegable powers of the board relating to the resolution powers and to the internal information system, and the new whistleblower protection legislation, in addition to updating certain terminology. Minor amendments have been made to the articles dedicated to the various board committees to include technical clarifications, mainly in relation to the adoption of resolutions and the minutes, as well as to update powers in the case of the audit committee. Article 25 has been amended to introduce technical improvements in relation to the procedure for approval of board minutes. And finally, minor terminology updates have been introduced in articles 8, 23, 26, 33, 35, 36, and 38.
Finally, I wish to inform you that pursuant to the current authorization granted under item 5-D of the agenda by the ordinary general meeting held on 31st of March, 2023, and following the approval of the corresponding issue resolution by the Executive Committee of the Bank on the 14th November, 2023, contingency convertible preferred securities in the amount of $2.5 billion were subscribed and paid up on 16th of November, 2023. As it is customary for this type of instrument, the issue excluded pre-emptive rights. The report prepared by the executive committee of the bank on the occasion of this issue was published on the corporate website on the 16th of November, 2023.
We now continue with the meeting, but in view of the large number of presentations received, I ask you to wait until we properly prepare any required comments regarding the main issues raised by the shareholders. In the meantime, we will show a video, which I am sure will be of interest to you.
Never been that kid who. We put the lightning to a strike. Feel the love in this room. Don't wanna waste a second, 'cause I'm feeling the magic tonight. Yeah, the sound, it moves me the way no one could. This is my first language, this is my first love. Melodies fall like waves, and the beat drops like rain. Like there's a different universe under my skin. Let your body be the voice that speaks for you. If you feel like you've been lost for words, 'cause we're rolling with the bass like blowing through the room. Can we just do this forever? Let your body be the voice that speaks for you. If you feel like you've been lost for words, 'cause we're rolling with the bass like blowing through the room. Can we just do this forever?
Hang on with the moon, 'cause, baby, we're in bloom, in bloom. Baby, we're in bloom. My body hums something all around us, and no one can take this away. Yeah, the sound, it moves me the way no one could. This is my first language, this is my first love. Melodies fall like waves, and the beat drops like rain. Like there's a different universe under my skin. Let your body be the voice that speaks for you. If you feel like you've been lost for words, 'cause we're rolling with the bass like blowing through the room. Can we just do this forever? Hang on with the moon, 'cause, baby, we're in bloom, in bloom. Baby, we're in bloom, in bloom, in bloom. Baby, we're in bloom, in bloom.
Todos los días deberían ser el Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente. Y es que, día a día, con muchos pequeños gestos de grandes personas, nos acercamos a un mundo libre de plásticos. Porque miles de voluntarios Santander reservan fechas en sus calendarios para recoger plástico y residuos de nuestras playas, ríos y bosques. Porque al sustituir en nuestras oficinas y edificios corporativos los plásticos de un solo uso por botellas de cristal o cubiertos biodegradables, conseguimos ahorrar miles de toneladas de plásticos. Más de 21 millones de nuestras tarjetas están hechas con materiales reciclados, lo que nos ha permitido reducir el uso de toneladas de plástico. Seguimos trabajando para que en 2025 todas nuestras tarjetas estén fabricadas con materiales sostenibles.
Además, creemos en la economía circular y, por eso, en España, Polonia, Portugal, Reino Unido y pronto en otros países del grupo, estamos dando una segunda vida al plástico de las tarjetas, reutilizándolas para otros usos e incluso convirtiéndolas en mobiliario urbano. Porque cada día financiamos a empresas cuyo propósito es construir un mundo más sostenible. Porque cada gesto cuenta para preservar nuestro planeta, trabajamos cada día por alcanzar nuestro objetivo de cero emisiones netas en 2050.
[Foreign language]. It is hereby stated for the record, that a total of four presentations have been received from remote attendees. Pursuant to the provisions of Section 182 of the Spanish Capital Corporations Law, if any of the requests for information or clarification made by remote attendees could not be answered here, it will be answered in writing within seven days by email sent to the address indicated by the remote attendee, unless any of the ccumstances for the nonce is present.
[Foreign language]. I will now provide an answer to those shareholders who took the floor at these premises during the presentation period and also through the remote attendance application.
[Foreign language]. Firstly, Jesús Jiménez Martín, who wanted to ask about shareholders remuneration. I am also answering shareholders Jesús Jiménez Martín, Ignacio Bailén, Belén García, María del Coro Soler y Severino David Porras Higueras, Fernando Jiménez Calvo, Gregorio García Cuesta, Felipe González Pérez, Francisco González Nieto, Alejandro Schwarzky, also, Antonio Luján y Ernesto Sánchez Sánchez. Apart from remunerating shareholders...
... We know that this is part of the policy, buybacks, dividend, European banks, payout policy, reinvestments, buybacks, and future policies. Well, first, regarding dividend payout policy, as you might remember, last year during our Investors Day, we stated that for 2023, 2024, 2025, and always subject to possible reassessments by the board, the policy continues to be in place as to hiking from 40%-50% of those profits, which are distributed approximately 50% cash and 50% share buyback. And as has been said before, the total amount, the total amount is of over EUR 5 billion. That is approximately 55% of the net attributed profit, equally cash share buyback.
We understand that dividends are very important for all of us shareholders, and we believe that this policy strikes a good balance between what shareholders want and the need to continue to invest forward-looking. The remuneration policy is not set forth in absolute terms. It is as a percentage of yearly results, and this is what we're going to continue to do. And now, this is very important because we are one of very few banks, at least in Europe, that does have thoughts of growth. As we see our earnings, the dividend per share will continue to be on the upswing. We've said that throughout the cycle, first quarter, we will be at 13% net value plus dividend, TNAV plus dividend. This is very good news. Another issue which has been brought is dividend 2023.
I would remind you again that between 2013 and 2023, despite negative rates, COVID, the war, the profits grew by an average 10% per annum, from EUR 4.3 billion to EUR 11+ billion last year. Again, the strength of our business model, I think, is mirrored in these earnings. But it's important to remember that in 2013, as I said, times 7, times 7, the total remuneration to shareholders, so it's going to be those over EUR 5 billion euros that are going to be distributed among shareholders. We also heard questions about cash dividend. The amount is telling, and this is an increase, as we said, of 50%, 50%, 50% if we compare with last year's numbers, and the equivalent amount this year, dividend plus buyback, is 10%, and this taking into account average capitalization in 2023.
As I said, as of 2013, we have paid out a notable amount of euros. If we compare with our European peers, well, it's more or less the same. I've responded to this before. This is in line with the average of our main competitors in global terms, not only European banks, but global. Cash is more than the increase that most European banks have seen. And the 50% payout policy and the buyback policy, again, is in line with what our global peers are doing, and this includes United States and Latin America, not only Europe. As to buybacks and in view of current share prices, good news, continuing to grow, although of course, we would like for it to be more expensive to buy back.
But we believe that this continues to generate value for shareholders while we are in a position to continue to invest forward-looking. I think it's very important because it speaks for the confidence that the board and the team has with regards the bank and its capacity to generate returns, and we do believe in the value of our share, and we are convinced that the bank is going to continue to do better and better. In 2023, the share price grew by 30-something%, and returns were of a notable amount as well. And I would reiterate that buying back our shares at these prices, at less than book value, is an investment opportunity that can only be described as attractive. It's going to depend on the price, but it's about 20%, and we will have bought back about 8% of the shares.
There was a question about reinvestment. Well, that part is reinvested in the business proper. Santander has a number of countries and businesses where very attractive profits are feasible. In 2023, we addressed this element. New business for the bank in 2023, we've seen an investment, and the returns have been to the tune of about 20%. This is unique. This is special to Santander, and we believe that this is the right policy for our shareholders. As to our future dividend payout policy, the board wishes to do, as in 2023, a total remuneration payout similar of about 50%, studying this effect without a cash effect, that would be divided equally, as we have done this year, and always maintaining our capital ratio, fully loaded, CET1 above and beyond 12%.
We said before that the beginning of 2024 has been very good. The first quarter has been very good, and we reiterate that we are confident we will be making good on the objectives set forth for 2024. And if we are successful, as we hope we will be, our shareholders will receive at least EUR 6 billion, which is an increase of about 9% if we compare with numbers for 2023. Of course, this policy is subject to internal decisions and, subject, of course, also to regulatory decisions. I believe I have answered these questions, and the second person, Francisco de Borja Martín Garrido, asked about remunerations policy, the board, top management. And here again, I am going to answer Noemí Trabado regarding board, and Yulia Kouchova, who had a similar question about board remuneration policies.
Let me begin by saying that the board is fully committed to ensuring that remuneration of executive directors be fully aligned with the best interest of our shareholders and the market as well. A number of important points: Santander is an international bank with a presence in 10 markets, over 200,000 employees. As a company that is listed, remunerations, board, and top management is in line with that of its peers and less than its peers in the USA. Second, and very important also, is that these remunerations are aligned with amounts paid to professionals who hold similar positions in similar entities. The bank, on a yearly basis, reassesses the total remuneration of executive directors and other executives. 2023 and 2024, this group is BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Crédit Agricole, HSBC, and ING, Itaú, Scotiabank, and UniCredit.
According to market cap criterion, diversification, geographies, business model, and brand, the total amount, total amount for board members, members of meetings, and per diem is 11% less than the maximum amount, which was 6, as agreed upon by the GSM. As to remuneration of the chair, I would hark back to the explanations given by the chair of the Remuneration Committee, who I think provided sufficient information. As to the CEO in 2023, his remuneration was 29% less than that of his predecessors. I would add that the yearly bonus is subject to financial and non-financial metrics, of which 45% correspond to customer metrics and 55% correspond to profitability metrics. Variable remuneration is linked to long-term objectives, which are directly linked to shareholders' best interests.
The most important one is TSR, total shareholder return, vis-à-vis our peers, in order to ensure that we are aligned with shareholders. The ROTE, if we want to focus on profitability, and ESG metrics to bolster our commitment vis-à-vis sustainability, climate, et cetera. And 50% of variable remuneration, including the part that is not subject to long-term, is subject to Santander and PagoNxt, and its real value is subject, of course, to the evolution of the share price in the mid to long term. And I would further remind you that this policy is subject to very demanding governance, which is discussed by the Remuneration Committee and by the board, and which is approved on a yearly basis at the GSM. We have benefited from the support of the shareholders, because what this board wants to do is ensure that it is aligned with the shareholders' best interests.
As time has passed, discretionary adjustments have been approved in order to align with returns received by shareholders, so that when this TSR is worse, reductions have been applied to the bonus, 14.5% less in 2021 and in 2019, apart from a voluntary adjustment of 74% in the chair's case and 79% in the case of the CEO in times of COVID. I would add, and I believe that this piece of information was also shared, that the percentage of net TNAV by executives is 0.48% in 2013, and now is 0.20%, more or less, I believe, in 2023, so that's 66.0% less. I would add that as of 2014, the cost of top management has shrunk by 38%.
There has been a reduction in the number of positions, 27 in 2014, 14 persons at the end of 2023. And finally, let me add that every year we reassess our policies because we want to make sure, as I've said, that they are aligned with market standards for activities that are similar to ours. And we run a comparison regarding size, type of business, and international footprint. Mr. Francisco Frías wanted to know about talent, technological talent, recruitment, and retention.... Well, if you want to attract talent, I think what is most important is to have a successful project, and that we've got. A project which ensures, and this is increasingly important, that there be a corporate culture in which professionals can carry out their activities and have a successful professional career, an international career, training and skilling, and of course, competitive remuneration.
And I always like to say that in that order. Every year, we ask our employees rather about their satisfaction. We know that we're on the right track. Our NPS, if we compare with our global peers, 22 points above and beyond the average in the financial sector. Another question from Santiago González, and Eloy Gutiérrez also asked about Gaza, Israel, nuclear weapons. Let me say, you made a comment in the bank, and I think that we've proven this, that matters definitely, numbers matter a lot, but the way we make the numbers also matters, and I need to clarify this point because I think it is tremendously important. As to Gaza, above and beyond the economic consequences, this is a drama. This is a human tragedy, and I have to say that speaking from the heart, we are solidary with the victims.
This is a terrible tragedy. Lives lost, destruction, and we definitely hope that a solution be found quickly. Secondly, about weapons. Europe is at war, and states have the mandate to defend their citizens. Countries have to defend the values, values that we have fought for in Europe in the past many times. And therefore, it is of paramount importance, and many countries are seeking to see how to bolster their defense, how to be prepared to respond to this threat. Just a couple of days ago, the European Commission addressed this issue. If memory serves, in Europe, there are few companies that are defense-built. I mean, we depend on, on American companies, and the European Commission is right in... When it says that this is a matter that we need to look into. But at Banco Santander, our defense policy is studied.
Every year, we publish this on our website, and the criteria are set that regulate our banking activity. We verify that our customers and operations comply with our defense policy, and as a result, we turn down, we reject profitable alternatives because of these reasons. And in any case, we reiterate that because of this policy, Santander will never fund the manufacturing, distribution of products, of NBCs, anti-personnel, munitions, uranium, impoverished uranium. Our activities comply with the most demanding international conventions and with non-proliferation treaties. And I would further add that we do not talk about our customers. We do not talk about the relationship we have with our clients for reasons of confidentiality, but we would like to assure you that we have no operation up and running with Israel at this point. Next, shareholder Ignacio Bailén had questions about shareholder.
I think that we have addressed shareholder remuneration. Then Carlos Catalán, share price, and here a number of other shareholders have been interested. Jesús Luis Sevillano, Francisco Buendía, and Martín Carrasco. The difference in the price of shares of different banks, possible risks, evolution of share price. Again, Europe and the US. Here, let me say that this is perhaps not an easy answer. No. Doubtless, the US grows, and that's a factor to take into account. But risk, return, regulatory context, it's more favorable in the States than it is in Europe, and this is why American--North American banks are performing as they are. In any case, Europe, Europe is a wonderful continent. I like to say that we are doing what we should be doing in terms of our public policies. Definitely, it is the best model that we, that we know of.
As we've seen, well, our share price has appreciated, and it should continue to be the case because of the improvement. And I would like to repeat this, Brazil. Brazil is a very important country for the group. Brazil is a country in which we hope to see record-breaking earnings in local currency. Very good then. There are issues that we have no control over. The multiples now are not what they were 10 years ago. This is not subject to our control in the short term, but yes, in the medium term, we're working on that, improving our business model in a digital world, of course. And I would add also that data regarding evolution are better all the time. In 2023, earnings per share grew by over 20%, and shareholder payout by more or less 50%. The board?...
The CEO and myself are fully confident that we're going to continue to run our transformation plans, which are very important for us in the near and in the midterm. And throughout the cycle, we will see this double-digit growth in value creation, which is something that will allow us to overtake our peers. As to risks, well, geopolitical, of course, of course. But here again, this is something that sets Santander apart, not only because of the diversification of the businesses and of the countries, but also because of where we are. We talked about Brazil, but in general, Latin America and the US, we believe that in the upcoming years, this is definitely going to be something that is going to be good for Santander if we compare with our peers. Then we heard from Noemí Trabado.
Here, I'm going to also answer Yulia Kouchova, Silvia Armengol. As to, as to trade union claims, I would like to say that we've always said that we have an ongoing, very healthy dialogue with all of your good selves. This is a collective bargaining agreement that is being addressed at a sectoral level, and what we want is to reach an agreement. Let me say that Santander pays competitive wages at all professional levels. In 2023, wages grew by 4.3%. No compensation, no absorption, and we have a package of benefits that are better than what the basic collective bargaining agreement sets forth.
I would say that here in the bank, adjusted to market standards, that's, that's our wage structure, because we need to attract the best and brightest, and we compete, as we know, with other tech companies that offer excellent wage packages. We know that we're subject to stricter regulations within the banking sector than other sectors are subject to. As to commercial pressure that you've made a reference to, I would like to take advantage of this occasion to again say congratulations to the entire Santander team for your hard work and commitment, because your hard work has been crucial to our, achievements. We have been leaders in terms of cultural adaptation. We are working to streamline our internal processes, and we know that we have our work cut out for us. We do know that.
It's not going to be only good for the customer, it has to be good for everyone, including the team. We have a model whereby we heed our professionals. We are there, eager to know what is not running smoothly. Our initiatives are well on track, and we uphold values and principles that are very clear, that do not accept for behavior or styles that are not adaptive. All of the workers have the Canal Abierto, the whistleblowing channel, which is very important, apart, of course, from managers. Then remuneration for the members of the board. I think that we've already addressed that issue. Then María del Coro Soler, I believe we have answered, yes, about buybacks. We have provided an answer to the question about buybacks. Yulia Kouchova, again, we have responded to, and Andrés Boticario, also, we have answered his question.
As to Mr. Navarro, Mr. Navarro asked about sustainable funding. Let me just repeat that we believe that behaving responsibly is the way to go about things. It's good for us, it's good for the bank, it's the best way of encouraging trust and sustainable results. Our governance is solid. The commitments are very clearly set forth, and it is important because these challenges, of course, are a business opportunity. The green transition comes to mind, and a transition towards a more sustainable world. This is, I think, the most important challenge that our society has to overcome, and the work that we've been carrying out for years, I think 15 years, we are global leaders in funding renewables, renewable energy. We shared that information before, but we're also now doing more in retail banking, funding sustainable housing.
Last year, EUR 22.6 billion, and in 2023, we have financed 10% of all of the electric vehicles that have been financed in Europe. I would underscore here the importance of something else, which is that it's very important to support growth while guaranteeing that it is sustainable growth, and this means that the transition needs to be financed. This transition towards a greener energy will be very hungry in terms of billions of dollars in euros. Mr. José María López?... The first question posed has to do with capital. I would just like to repeat that we're very comfortable in our capital position. As we said during our Investor Day, we want to pass 12% even after the impact of Basel III in 2025.
We're going to see that most of our peers are going to be aligned with this number, and I would also add that this nominal number does not take into account the buffer in the face of regulatory minimums, which in the case of Santander, are less than practically all major peers. Because when there is a stress situation, we seem to outperform other banks. So it's not only the nominal ratio, it's also the buffer. And as to the elderly, we know, we know that this is something we need to continue to do. We've got our senior ambassadors. The senior ambassadors are there to help our customers, help them know how to better use digital channels.
As to products in other countries, well, here, this is an issue that we should broach with the European Commission, because insofar as there is no single market, this is not going to be possible. There are tax differences, there are all kinds of differences, there are requirements, and so on. So it's very difficult in Europe to have common policies, standard policies, and retail products. But we are on track, and well, it's going to take us years, we know, but it's because of what I've just described. But we've got Openbank, which has the possibility—which offers the possibility of dealing with customers in four separate countries. But as I say, this is one for the European nation.
As I said about the Popular, I've said this on other occasions with regards losses borne by shareholders, bondholders, et cetera, of the Popular, and I am regretful. Remind you that Santander is not responsible or accountable. The decision, the decision to amortize and deal with subordinate debt was the European authority, the SRB. There was an auction, and the board of Banco Popular had already declared that the entity had to be wound up. Santander abided by the process set forth by the authorities, and it was the Board of Popular that specified that this had to be the case. And we understood that this was the issue, because on the day proper of the acquisition, we had to immediately inject billions EUR, and then we had to think about a capital increase in excess of EUR 6 billion.
European justice has resolved that former trade unions cannot file a claim for losses. As to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the parties involved, advisors, legal, external, the auditor, are analyzing the circumstances, and the conclusion is that this board may well designate this company for auditing of accounts in 2024. As to greenwashing, let me assure you that we at Santander are working on a set of sustainable solutions to support and help our customers as they transition. The taxonomy, by the way, the market, and so on. We have drafted operational directives with the aim of protecting our customers and the group from... protecting them from the risk of greenwashing in order that we are aligned.
We have fora for SDG certification to verify that transactions and products that are labeled as sustainable or green, be in accordance with the system set forth, and we have validated evidence control measures in place. We are providing training to ensure that all employees are kept up to date, employees in different markets, in order to make access to customers easier. I believe that I've provided responses. Taxes, yes, we paid taxes. There's a report by PwC that says that 53.4% of what banks earn in Spain, 53.4% of what banks earn in Spain goes to taxes, and extraordinary tax is over 60%. Our next comment came from David Porras. The dividend, I believe that we have answered that question. The next question, José Luis Bashota, who asked about the evolution of the global economy.
No, I'm sorry. David Porras asked also about shareholder return. And then Mercedes Ruiz, Mrs. Ruiz, who—María del Mar Abenades, both of you ladies, I have to say, I regret the events. I am sorry to hear, but we have analyzed your cases in depth. As I told you last year, during last year's GSM, we have studied, we are seeing how we can go about helping you. I'm going to ask Alberto Delgado, territorial manager, to please reach out to you in order to see whether there is anything else that we can do. But I would want to add that this is a very specific question, and... This actually, the selling of the share was done according to law, keeping the customer in mind, and always in assurance that the bank has done its duty by current legislation. And then we heard from Mr.
José Luis Machota, who asked about the future for the global economy. Well, in principle, we believe that there will be a lesser growth in 2024 than we saw in 2023. Apparently, inflation seems to be under control. We expect rate decreases, probably more rapid in Europe than in the U.S. And what is important is that this cooling off happens with very high employment levels, which is actually a very good thing. At the end of the day, there are things that are beyond our control. We've talked about geopolitics. This, of course, of course, is important for all of the economies.
We face the risk of unexpected events, but especially what this actually means for Santander, as I said before, is that we have to remember that we have a business model, which is important, and we have diversification in terms of businesses and countries, which makes it easier for us to be very dynamic in our management. I believe that this is something that gives us an edge in this, in this scenario, lesser growth and higher volatility. And then Silvia Armengol, I believe that I've answered her question as well. Annabel Gregory? I'm going to respond also to... shareholder Miguel Ángel Soto. Let me begin by saying, for reasons of confidentiality, we cannot share specific customer data, but let me assure you that we want to protect the biomass, the rainforest, sustainable development.
We know that it's absolutely essential if we are to tackle climate change and defend biodiversity. All of these decisions are subject to the guidance of the policies in place at a board level, including environmental risk, social risk, climate risk, and this is reassessed on an ongoing basis. Today, you asked about a specific policy, our progressive withdrawal from thermal coal, and a specific prohibition to funding new customers for oil and gas activities. We study these policies. You can read up on that in our website in order to ensure that our business practices are as they should be. I would want to add that Europe is different from Latin America, different from Africa. These are countries that continue to need gas, and if they don't have funding for gas, well, they're going to burn coal, which is something we don't want.
So let me underscore the fact that what our policies want is to adapt to that reality, and ensure that the countries that we have a presence in are there with us. We have published our commitment, zero emissions by 2030. We published our desire to limit those investments in the energy field, and this includes 1, 2, and 3 of production, gas, and oil upstream activities. As to the rainforest, specifically, we implement the Equator Principles and further measures. This with regards the customers from Brazil. In 2020, Santander Brazil announced an alliance with other two leading banks, Plano Amazonia, with the aim of encouraging sustainable development of the rainforest. And in March 2023, the Brazilian Federation of Banks, we're members, implemented a protocol which establishes the rules in place to stop illegal deforestation in the meat chain.
The signatories will have to accept the guidelines, and this is very important because it's the first sectoral environmental protocol that addresses the industry of meat. This protocol demands that its customers, meat packers in the rainforest, demands, as I say, that they put an end to illegal deforestation before end of 2025, and this direct cattle growers and level ones, that's the supplier of the direct supplier. Furthermore, we are active in many different fields that aim to providing solutions to these very important challenges. Of course, we are aware of changes in legislation, and if you seek further information, please read the details contained in our report and available on our website. We heard from Fernando Garzo how to manage a workforce such as Santander's. I have to say that it's not only recruitment and internal rules and guidelines.
At the end of the day, what really matters is having a robust corporate culture, a strong one, and we really do focus on this, especially after the changes that we have begun to implement. We need to have an attractive project, of course. We need to have managers who can deal with this very diverse talent and guide it. Diversity is very important, and attractive remuneration, and align with, in alignment with the market. José Manuel Galeote then had a question about delegation. This is in strict compliance with legal rules, in line with what happens in other listed companies, national and international, and always fully respectful of shareholders. The data we have tells us that in Spanish branches, in my favor, instructions to vote over 3 million shares. As to share price, I think we've responded to that one.
Activities that have to do with the chairwoman, the actions and, interactions that I carry out are reported to the CNMV. There is no conflict of interest, au contraire, and acquisitions are in accordance with the legislation in place. As to Popular, I believe that we have also provided an answer. And then Fernando Jiménez-Calvo, I believe that we have provided an answer there. Miguel Ángel Soto, I believe also. Now, as to Patricia Satrústegui... And I am going to now take advantage of the opportunity to answer Amador. Thank you for your comments, and as I said, behaving responsibly is very important. We are accountable. We work with entities, institutions, foundations, NGOs, such as yours. Many of them, by the way, recommended by our employees, because we encourage our employees to make proposals, within the scope of this initiative.
It's called, as you know, Euros from Your Paycheck, Euros de tu Nómina. The bank is active there. We're very happy because we work with all of your good selves, Integra, Acción contra el Hambre, among others. We also want to help your entities, not only with money, with funding, we also want to help with commercial initiatives, and our teams, definitely, do, participate in the activities carried out by many of these, foundations and entities. Mr. Eduardo Martín, I would like to say that your comments are uncomfortable and inappropriate. Not only you, other persons. For years, you've been a, a fly in the soup. The courts have paid no attention to you whatsoever, and just recently, the Audiencia Provincial in Madrid, Appeal 105/2019, you have been accusing the bank.
It has been the court itself, which knew of the case, has authorized the authorization because of injuries and other similar actions upheld by the bank, and we have no further comment. The court and the judge will have final say. As to the board and delegation, we refuse to accept your statements, which are not adjusted to reality, and your comments regarding past events, Madoff, specifically, should not be studied or discussed now. We have no information regarding those court decisions that you refer to, and we know that there has been good faith by the bank. The bank, the administrators, the directors, and the board have been upheld. And I would remind you that for commercial reasons, solutions were offered to private parties, private customers, who were affected by the operations.
As to the plots of land, we have no knowledge of the deal that you are making a reference to. Mr. Gregorio García Cuesta, again, I believe that your question has been dealt with, which, had to do with, shareholder, payout. Mrs. de Puebla, who asked about inorganic, we at Santander, we grow organically. We do not need to grow inorganically. I said last year, the new activities that were launched last year is very profitable, more profitable than the average numbers for the group, and this, this has us thinking that in the, coming years, we will continue to see improvements. We are of a sufficient size in the markets, in global terms. The transformation that we've talked about, both the CEO and myself, we talked about One Transformation. This really will make it possible for us to do more with less.
We will have global platforms, we will have solutions to do things once, not ten times, so that customers and shareholders have the better of it. So all I can say is that we are confident that we are on the right track. The organic route is the more important route. And then Clemente de la Cruz, tax, the tax on banks and bank activities. We've talked about this tax. You know what our opinion is. As to the impact on our bottom line, as we say in our report, EUR 223 million in 2023, and in 2024, which will include everything in the first quarter, is EUR 335 million. The bank has already made known that it is opposed to this tax. We will be paying 70 cents per euro of profits in Spain.
We have appealed, as have all other Spanish banks, and I believe, I believe that the best way of collecting more and of having more taxes is by having economic growth and by having profitable companies, a profitable industry in general. Mr. Francisco González, again, shareholders. Yes, Leticia Avendaño, who asked about financial inclusion. Thank you very much for your comments. You asked about social impact, what our plans are for this year. Well, the same, I would say. Financial inclusion, for sure. This is something, if you take into account our geographical footprint, this is essential. I think that it is the best possible example of a business model, whereby by including, by involving, by engaging not only current accounts but also corporate funding, this is the best possible way of growing the bank and society. And in 2023, we will be repeating this this year.
1.8 million persons have been included, and this includes 1.2 million of micro entrepreneurs whom we have helped out. It's been EUR 1.2 billion, more or less, and that in the shape of loans. We are on track to make good on our objective of 5 in 2025. Financial education, this is important. Yes, we do this in a number of countries. Financial education, by the way, of our own employees in countries such as the United States. We have helped 11+ million people in 2023, thanks to these initiatives. Then there's Santander Universidades. I talked about that, but in 2023, we invested EUR 174 million, the group over, in the different communities, of which EUR 105 million in the world of higher education and entrepreneurship and employability. Then Pedro Guerrero?
Because Mr. Jordi Araud, I think, we responded to his comments. Pedro Guerrero, then thank you for your kind words on behalf of the entire team. I especially appreciate your trust in the bank as a shareholder and as a customer, and I believe that it was a complimentary comment, but no question, so thank you. Now, Mr. Jesús Sevillano, the question there was about the share, and we have responded to that. And then Mr. Jaime Gregori, who asks about the future. Well, I'd like to say thank you very much for your contributions to society via the Red Cross, and as to growth in Spain, above the European average, that's our expectation. We hope that Spain continues to grow more than the rest of Europe, especially our employment data.
There's a very important piece of information, which is that the Spanish private sector, we compare with 15 years back, is much less leveraged. This is good. Now, what we need to do is, get investments, to be a little bit more vibrant. The bank is very keen to achieve this. We've talked about European activity. So yes, it is true that less growth in this year, perhaps, but more than the European average. Now, Santiago Álvarez, who asked a number of questions, the positioning of investment funds who abandoned the alliance. Well, it's true, some international entities have announced recently that they are leaving climate action because they are internalizing their capacity, so they don't need to be active there, but they continue to hold true to their commitments, and this via other, entities. The sector is adapting also, of course, to the regulatory scenario.
We uphold our commitments, responsible banking principles, Net Zero Banking Alliance, and more, Net Zero Alliance, and we continue to strive to comply with our own strategy. As to persons who you know who do not receive the call, well, we are committed to ensuring that all shareholders receive information, any pertinent information, multichannel. We have sent to all shareholders, by mail or by email, a personal notice from me, providing specifics together with the delegation card. We prefer to use email, apart from postal mail, it's more sustainable. It's healthier. But in any case, receiving that information is in no way an obstacle of not participating, and we believe that our shareholders deserve to be treated equally. Everyone can participate, delegate their vote, et cetera, on an exactly equal footing.
I would recommend that the persons whom you refer to, reach out to their branch, should it be necessary to update their contact data. Mr. Pedro Martínez, who had a question about the five global businesses. Well, these five, the CEO and myself have described them, and they are fundamental if we are to achieve what we set forth as our objective as of day one. My vision, the team's vision, which is really to make sure that the bank takes advantage of its global clout: corporate banking, private banking, cards, and then 2023, we took a decisive step with commercial or retail and consumer. This is really important if we are to achieve the objectives set forth, but especially in order to compete with the big tech companies.
They have much more of a capacity to invest than many banks do, so it is definitely good for the group to align business models, always, of course, respectful of the different countries and their autonomies. This is something that we believe is essential. Then Mr. David Pérez had a question, and I've answered already. I just said that, yes, we are encouraging the use of new technologies. We're working to ensure that the different, more vulnerable groups have digital skilling made available to them. This is very important for us because the channel shouldn't matter. And I can assure you that your branch manager is going to get in touch with you, so as to ensure that you receive correspondence in the most appropriate way possible. And then Mr. Amador Gómez, we've answered his question. Then Elías Raúl...
Yes, I think Elías Raúl Piedra had been responded to. And then Mr. Francisco Buendía, I believe we've also answered. Again, the question was about shared evolution. Antonio Luján, also. Lucimara Malaquias? I understand, comes from Brazil. Our policy is to have an ongoing relationship with workers' representatives, and we are respectful of all rules and regulations. All processes that have to do with pension plans, healthcare plans, are being carried in accordance with legislation, guaranteeing the established conditions and level of services for all beneficiaries. In any case, I will request of your interlocutors, I will request, as I say, that they reach out to you, and this in the coming days. Now, as to Ignacio de Sacabo, who is an entrepreneur, congratulations, first and foremost. We need many more like you. We need more entrepreneurs; we need more investment in companies.
We are fully committed to providing support to entrepreneurs, which is not easy in the digital world, because often enough, the assets walk out the door every day. It's people. But we are doing our utmost to provide support to all entrepreneurs. And those three E's that I mentioned before, education, employability, and entrepreneurship. We have a program in place, which is Santander X, which I have to say is doing very nicely indeed. We make it possible for entrepreneurs to access the kinds of tools they need in order to either establish or grow their company. In the case of Santander X, we back companies from the initial stages, and we currently are helping out over 1,000 entrepreneurs and startups only in Spain.
As mentioned, Fortune Magazine highlighted that we are one of the companies that is most contributing to change in the world, and this is thanks to this initiative, specifically. We also have a more comprehensive offer, financial and non-financial, available to entrepreneurs every step of the way, and we're working and improving on the risk circuits, because as I said before, it's not easy to understand these new companies, and we also need to be able to change and adapt to this new digital world in its environmental facet. We have a number of initiatives in place. They've come a long way. We have the Tresmares Fund, which we launched in 2020, and we're going to be actually transplanting that to other countries... And Mr. Martín Carrasco, Martín Carrasco, sorry, who asked about shares. I think that we've provided an answer to that, yes? And Ernesto Sánchez, future dividends.
Again, that question has been dealt with before. We have come to the end then, of the answers provided to the persons who posed questions. We have seven days to answer you. There have been, I believe, four questions via remote. I believe some of them have been responded to, such as Juan Prieto's remuneration to the board, and another one, Christian Elga, and the others, we will be responding to you within a seven-day period, as mandated by the law. We now are going to see the different proposals during the presentation period and during the remote attendance applications, and now, as described throughout the session and including. We will next describe the resolutions to be proposed to the shareholders at this meeting, after which the process for voting thereon will begin at these premises.
As regards to proposals relating to items on the agenda, pursuant to the provisions of the rules and regulations for the shareholders' meeting, given that the full text of the proposal has been provided to the shareholders, I am going to give the floor to the secretary.
So as the chairman, as the chairlady said, we are going to address the different proposals. So first of all, we are going to talk about the eighth point in the agenda regarding the responsibility. Well, regarding points eight and I will respect-- We will talk about the different situations of the following administrators: Ana Botín-Sanz De Sautuola y O'Shea, number 10, Héctor Grisi, number 11, Mr. Glenn Hutchins, number 12, José Antonio Álvarez, number 13, Luis Isasi, 14, Javier Botín, 15, Bruce Carnegie-Brown, number 16, Sol Daurella, number 17, Enrique de Castro, number 18, Germán de la Fuente, 19, Gina Díez Barroso , 20, Belén Romana, 21, Ramiro Mato, 22, Belén García, and number 23 is Pamela Walkden.
With respect to the proposals not included in the minutes, you can vote for, against, or in blank, and if you do not take any action, it will be understood that you are voting against. Now, in terms-- If furthermore, shares with respect to which no voting rights can be exercised due to a conflict of interest will be taken into consideration. We would also like to mention expressly that in cases where the proxy holder has precise instructions pursuant to the proxy cards received, or in the absence thereof, the general secretary of the company is to cast a vote corresponding to said shares in his capacity as designated proxy representative for cases of conflict of interest in the absence of precise instructions, in which cases said shares shall be included.
Shares corresponding to those shareholders who participate in the meeting, due to having cast a prior distance vote, shall not be considered shares present in person or represented by proxy for purposes of voting on these proposals.
As to proposals on the items included in the agenda, in accordance with that which has been forecast, and having made the text available of the proposals to shareholders at the entrance here with the notary, at the notary's desk and on the corporate website. Since the call notice, there is no need for a prior complete reading of each of the proposals submitted by vote. In any case, the Secretary shall provide a brief summary of each one of them, at the end of which I remind all remote attendees that the voting process will be closed.
Items 1, A, B, and C. The individual and consolidated annual accounts and the directors' reports of the bank and its group financial year 2023 are submitted for approval. The consolidated non-financial information statement for the financial year 2023 is submitted to a vote under item 1 B. Corporate management during financial year 2023 is submitted to a vote under item 1 C. Item 2, the following proposed application of results obtained by the company in the financial year 2023 is submitted to the shareholders under item 2.
EUR 2.7 billion to dividends in the following way: EUR 1.2 billion to the payment of the dividend already paid prior to the date of this meeting, and EUR 1.4 billion to the payment in cash of a fixed final dividend of EUR 0.095 gross per eligible share, to be paid in cash as from the second of May, 2024. The total amount has been estimated, assuming that as a result of the partial implementation of the buyback program announced on the nineteenth of February, 2024, 15 billion of the bank's outstanding shares will be entitled to receive the dividend.
The remainder of the result, that is EUR 6 billion, shall be used to increase the voluntary reserve, this amount being automatically increased or decreased by the same amount by which the final dividend just mentioned is lower or higher than the amount mentioned before. This money, this amount of money, will be, as I said before, automatically used for increasing the voluntary reserve and the complementary dividend should be lower or higher than the amount I just mentioned. Item three, submitted to the shareholders under item three. Under item three A, the setting of the number of directors at 15, with a maximum and minimum provided for in the bylaws. Under item three B, the appointment of Carlos Barrabés. Under item three C, the appointment of Antonio Weiss.
Under items three D, E, F, G, and H, respectively, the re-election of directors of Mr. Javier Botín, Mr. Germán de la Fuente, Mr. Enrique de Castro, Mr. José Antonio Álvarez, and Ms. Belén Romana. The effectiveness of the appointments submitted under item three B and three C is conditional upon the favorable resolution of the suitability of Messrs. Barrabés and Weiss by the European Central Bank, with the provisions foreseen in the proposed resolutions in the event that in one or both cases, such favorable resolution does not take place. Item four: It is proposed to re-elect PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditors of the bank. Item five.
Under item 5A, it is proposed to authorize the board to increase the share capital on one or more occasions and at any time within a 3-year period, through cash contributions in a maximum nominal amount equal to one half of the share capital, including the possibility of excluding preemptive rights. Under items 5B and 5C, within the framework of the shareholders' remuneration, it is proposed to reduce share capital in the maximum amount of EUR 783 million by canceling a maximum of 1.5 billion own shares acquired through the buyback program, approved by the Board of Directors at its meeting on the nineteenth of February 2024.
To reduce the share capital in the maximum amount of EUR 791 million by canceling a maximum of 1.58 billion own shares of the company acquired through one or more share buyback programs, or by other means legally permitted, delegating to the board the power to approve the reduction and to set all other terms not specified in the resolution. And other things will also be approved. Item six. Under item six A, it is proposed to approve the director remuneration policies for financial years 2024, 2025, and 2026. Under item six B, it is proposed to approve the maximum amount of the annual fixed remuneration to be paid to all the directors in their capacity as such, setting it at a maximum of EUR 6 million.
Under item six C, in compliance with the requirement imposed by Law 10/2014, the approval of the shareholders at the general meeting is requested for the percentage that the variable components of the total remuneration of certain categories of employees represent of the fixed components to exceed 100%, with a limit of 200%. The resolution affects the executive directors and those categories of employees whose professional activities significantly impact the risk profile of the entity or its group, up to a maximum of 855 people. Under item six D, it is proposed to approve the potential delivery of shares or rights thereto, or remuneration linked to the value of the shares to the executive directors in application of the ninth cycle of the deferred multi-year objectives variable remuneration plan.
Under item six E, it is proposed to authorize the potential delivery of shares or rights thereto, or remuneration linked to the value of the shares to potential new executive directors under the implementation of the group's buy out policy. Under item six F, the annual director remuneration report, approved by the board of directors, following a proposal remuneration committee, is submitted to a vote on a consultative basis. Item seven. Under item seven, it is proposed to authorize the board to interpret, remedy, supplement, implement, and develop the resolutions approved by the shareholders at the meeting, and authorize certain persons to convert the corporate resolutions into public instruments.
Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. We will now proceed to vote at these premises on each of the proposals included on the agenda. At the end of voting, the results will be announced. It is hereby stated, for the record, that pursuant to the rules of operation of the meeting, the remote attendees have been able to cast their votes since the declaration of a valid quorum for the meeting, and that the process for the casting of votes thereby is now closed. I would also like you to note that pursuant to the provisions of the rules and regulations for the GSM, if a shareholder physically present at this meeting wishes to vote against, in blank, or abstain in relation to any of the proposed resolutions included on the agenda, they must so state to the notary, who shall record such circumstance in the minutes of the meeting.
The votes of those shareholders who do not state to the notary the direction of their vote, or that they abstain, shall be considered votes in favor of the proposals included on the agenda. Shareholders who are in the adjoining room, connected to this room by audiovisual means, and who wish to make communications to a notary about the direction of their vote, or if they are going to abstain, may request to do so through the support staff in that room.
Furthermore, I remind you that pursuant to the provisions of Section 526 of the Spanish Capital Corporations Law, directors that have made or are in a similar situation to a public solicitation for proxies that have a conflict of interest and that have not received precise voting instructions, shall not cast a vote corresponding to the shares represented thereby in relation, when applicable, to the proposals made by the Board of Directors under items 1C, 3B through 3H, 6A through 6D, and 6F.
And that, as stated in the proxy cards received, the General Secretary of the Company shall cast the vote corresponding to said shares in his capacity as designated proxy representative for cases of conflict of interest in relation to those items in which a conflict exists, unless he himself is in a situation of potential conflict of interest, which will be in the case in items 6C and 6D, and has not received precise voting instructions to that effect, in which case he shall abstain. Likewise, it is hereby declared that when voting on the proposal of the Board of Directors on item 6C of the agenda, and in accordance with the provisions of Law 10/2014, the voting rights of those shares whose direct or indirect holders benefit from this proposal may not be exercised in any case.
The secretary has the floor.
As stated by the chair, we will now proceed to the vote on each of the resolutions proposed at this general meeting. The voting results will be announced at the end. Firstly, each of the proposals of the board regarding items 1A, 1B, and 1C are submitted. So the proposal of the board regarding item 2 is submitted to the board. Each of the proposals of the board regarding items 3A through 3H is submitted. The proposal for point 4 is submitted. The proposal for point 5A to 5C is submitted.
Are they approved?
Each of the proposals of the board regarding item 6A through 6E on the agenda are separately submitted to a vote. The proposal of the board regarding item 6F on the agenda is submitted to a consultative vote.
Are they approved?
The proposal of the board regarding item 7 on the agenda is submitted to a vote.
Is it approved? As to the votes cast under the items on the agenda, I hereby inform you that pursuant to the information received by the presiding committee, all proposals have been approved. We now, as the minutes of the meeting have been prepared by a notary, we are going to now see what Mr. Martín-Duarte and which have been read out by the secretary. As the minutes of the meeting have been prepared by notary, does any shareholder wish to vote in favor or not? Please let the notary know. The notary shall take good note. Those shareholders who are in the room beside this one, and who wish to inform the notary regarding their casting of the vote, may so inform.
Votes of those shareholders who do not manifest their vote or the desire to abstain, actions pertaining to those shareholders who participate because they have voted previously via remote, and as represented in accordance with these proposals, because they have not been able to cast votes. In relation to the proposed resolutions on items not included on the agenda, because there's a conflict of interest, as forecast in Article 526, and we specifically underscore that this will be the case of proxy holders. The representative will have specific instructions and will be able to cast the vote as proxy represents for cases of conflict of interest in the absence of precise instructions, in which cases such shares shall be included in the calculation as shares represented. The secretary has the floor.
So the agreements proposed by Mr. Martín-Duarte are subjected to a vote for regarding the cessation and removal of all directors who are now holding office. So this is put to a vote.
With regard to those items not included in the agenda, and taking into account information received regarding votes in favor, blank, or abstentions, and votes that are contrary, I declare that Mr. Martín-Duarte's requests are not accepted because he has not gathered sufficient number of votes. This is a notary upheld document. Mr. Notary will then carry out the steps mandated by the law. So, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, we have come to the end of our session. Thank you once again for having joined us, and I look forward to seeing you all again next year. Thank you, and good day.