Santander Applies For Peru License

Grupo Santander is to join HSBC and Scotiabank in seeking to enter Peru’s banking market by applying for a banking license, according to a report by Reuters, quoting the country’s banking and insurance superintendency. If approved, it will mean a return to Peru by the Spanish bank, which it left in 2002 when it sold its retail and mutual funds business to local Banco de Crédito for $50 million. Santander is seeking a license to offer financial and investment banking services to corporates and other institutions in Peru. HSBC of the UK won approval to start operations in Peru last October. Earlier in the year, Canada’s Scotiabank bought control of Banco Sudamericano and merged it with Banco Wiese, which it had purchased in 2005, to create a new entity in which Scotiabank holds 80%.