In 2004, Spain's Banco Santander bought Britain's Abbey nationwide financial institution in a deal worth fifteen billion dollars--an acquisition that made Santander one of many ten biggest monetary associations on this planet. the following, Mauro Guillén and Adrian Tschoegl take on the query of the way this once-sleepy, family-run provincial financial institution in a constructing financial system remodeled itself right into a financial-services team with greater than sixty-six million shoppers on 3 continents.

based a hundred and fifty years in the past within the Spanish port urban of an identical identify, Santander is the single huge financial institution on the planet the place 3 successive generations of 1 relatives have led best administration and the board of administrators. yet Santander is totally glossy. Drawing on wealthy facts and in-depth interviews with relations and bosses, Guillén and Tschoegl demonstrate how strategic judgements through the kin and complicated political, social, technological, and monetary forces drove Santander's remarkable upward push to worldwide prominence. The authors position the financial institution during this aggressive milieu, evaluating it with its competitors in Europe and the US, and displaying how Santander, confronted with becoming pageant in Spain and Europe, sought development possibilities in Latin the US and in other places. in addition they tackle the complexities of managerial succession and family members management, and weigh the results of Santander's stellar upward thrust for the consolidation of eu banking.

Building a world Bank tells the interesting tale at the back of this robust corporation's extraordinary transformation--and of the kin in the back of it.