Santander simplifies its offering by removing the fee for international transfers between individuals via its app and website

Banco Santander is taking another step forward in its commitment to offering simpler, more global, and barrier-free banking. Starting already, the bank’s retail customers will be able to make international transfers through the app and website without paying any transfer issuance or SWIFT fees, regardless of the destination country or amount. No other bank or money transfer company in Spain currently offers this service without fees.

Under this initiative, Santander aims to make life easier for a growing number of customers who send money abroad, whether within Europe or to other countries outside the SEPA zone. Until now, international transfers outside SEPA — to countries such as Mexico, Colombia, China, or the United States — were subject to commission and SWIFT fees that in many cases amounted to around 50 euros, even for transactions carried out through digital channels.

Santander thus reinforces its leadership in digital payment services and moves forward with its strategy to offer customers a borderless banking experience, with a simple process that helps bring customers closer to their family and friends anywhere in the world.

In addition, starting next week, the bank will simplify and reduce fees for international transfers made from branches to outside SEPA, setting them at 20 euros for transfers up to 10,000 euros and 50 euros for higher amounts.

Banco Santander customers were also the first in Spain to enjoy instant cross-border payments between individuals made account-to-account using just a mobile phone number — without the need for bank cards or conventional transfers. Thanks to the interconnection of payment solutions in Spain (Bizum), Italy (Bancomat), and Portugal (MBWay), Santander customers who use Bizum can send and receive money instantly simply by selecting a contact from their phonebook, with the same level of security and trust as Bizum transactions between Spanish bank accounts. Furthermore, technical tests are already underway to add two new partners to the alliance: Blik (Poland and Slovakia) and Vipps MobilePay (Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark), thereby expanding the peer-to-peer payment service to nine European countries and reaching more than 80 million users.