Santander Holdings USA, Inc. announced today that it is commencing a private offering of senior unsecured notes in a transaction exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, subject to market and other conditions. If the offering is consummated, the Company expects to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes. There can be no assurance that the issuance and sale of the Notes will be consummated.

Santander Holdings USA, Inc. (SHUSA) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE: SAN) (Santander), one of the most respected banking groups in the world with more than 125 million customers in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. As the intermediate holding company for Santander's U.S. businesses, SHUSA includes five financial companies with more than 17,500 employees, 5.2 million customers and assets of over $135.1 billion. These include Santander Bank, N.A., one of the country's largest retail and commercial banks by deposits; Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SC), an auto finance and consumer lending company; Banco Santander International of Miami; Banco Santander Puerto Rico and Santander Securities LLC of Puerto Rico; and Santander Investment Securities Inc. of New York.