Santander registers a record Annual Loss of 8,770 million euros and the fourth Quarter profit falls by 90%

Santander said on Wednesday its fourth-quarter net profit fell 90% to 277 million euros ($ 333.45 million) compared to the same quarter in 2019 due to restructuring costs, Mainly in Spain, and higher provisions to weather the impact of COVID-19.

Analysts polled by Reuters predicted that Santander would obtain an average net profit of 411 million euros, although estimates ranged between 102 and 616 million euros.

For the year as a whole, Santander recorded a net loss of 8,771 million euros, its first annual loss in history, after having carried out extraordinary write-offs worth 12,600 million euros in the second quarter, as the pandemic forced it to update the goodwill of your historical investments and deferred tax assets (DTA).

Regarding the payment of dividends charged to 2020, the board of directors plans to pay a cash dividend of 0.0275 euros per share, the maximum allowed in accordance with the limits established by the European Central Bank (ECB) in its recommendation last December.