Santander reveals its fintech payments arm PagoNxt doubled in size last year

Spanish banking giant Santander this morning published its Q1 results for 2021, giving the clearest picture yet of its fintech payments arm PagoNxt.

PagoNxt is a collection of B2B payment services, including merchant acquiring, international trade and consumer, supported in part by its majority stake in Ebury and formerly included PagoFX.

According to its latest results, PagoNxt has grown by over 140 per cent in the last 12 months, with its total income during the quarter ending 31 March sitting at €162m.

The losses attributed by Santander to this division have also been slashed by a quarter, from €72m in Q1 2021 to €54m in Q1 2022.

Meanwhile, Santander’s digital consumer bank division, which includes its challenger banking brand Openbank and buy now, pay later proposition Zinia, also showed solid growth.

The division grew its year-on-year revenue by 5 per cent to €1.3bn, and more impressively saw its profits rise 11 per cent to €282m.

“Our investments are delivering today and will support future growth throughout the business,” said Santander’s executive chair Ana Botín.

“We are already seeing the benefits of our investment and strategic focus on our Digital Consumer Bank and payments business, PagoNxt, where revenues have increased by 122 per cent.”

Overall the bank reported a 19 per cent rise in its underlying profit of €2.54bn, exceeding expectations, while its income rose 8 per cent to €12.3bn.