The new regional head of North America has an "outstanding background" in leadership roles in the Americas and Europe.

Banco Santander has appointed Christiana Riley as regional head of North America. She will join the bank on October 1, subject to regulatory approval.

Riley will be responsible for all the bank’s businesses in the US and Mexico, with the respective country heads, Tim Wennes and Felipe García Ascencio, reporting to her. She will be a member of the group management team and report to the group’s CEO, Héctor Grisi, who was the regional head for North America until he was appointed to his role in January this year.

Riley, who will be joining Santander from Deutsche Bank, where she was a member of the management board, has served in several leadership roles over the past 17 years in both Europe and the Americas. She was most recently regional CEO for Deutsche’s business across the Americas, based in New York. Before that she was chief financial officer and co-CEO of Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB). Prior to joining Deutsche, Riley worked at McKinsey & Company in Frankfurt and Greenhill & Co in New York and Frankfurt. She is a graduate of Princeton University and the London Business School.

Santander executive chair, Ana Botín, said, “I am delighted that Christiana will be joining Santander to lead our team in North America. She has an outstanding background and a strong track record and I’m confident she will play an important role as we continue to support our customers and leverage the collective strength of the group across the region, building on the outstanding progress Tim and Felipe have already made.”

Santander serves 25 million customers across the US and Mexico, with circa 45,000 employees and 1,900 branches. In 2022 the North America region generated 25 per cent of group underlying profit with an adjusted return on tangible equity of 20.5 per cent. In recent years the group has significantly increased operational and commercial collaboration across the US and Mexico.