Federal Reserve approved the acquisition of Sovereign Bank by Banco Santander

Today the Federal Reserve Board has announced its approval of the proposal by Banco Santander, S.A., Madrid, Spain, to acquire all the voting shares of Sovereign Bancorp, Inc., Philadelphia, and thereby indirectly acquire its subsidiary federal savings bank, Sovereign Bank, Wyomissing, both of Pennsylvania.

Earlier the Board has approved Santander’s proposal to acquire up to 24.99 percent of Sovereign’s voting shares and to control Sovereign. Santander currently owns approximately 24.35 percent of Sovereign’s voting shares.

The Board has carefully considered the financial resources of Santander and Sovereign. The capital levels of Santander would continue to exceed the minimum levels required under the Basel Capital Accord and are considered to be equivalent to the capital levels that would be required of a U.S. banking organization.

For more details please see the file attached.