Banco Santander is a multinational banking group headquartered in Santander, Spain, operating across Europe, the Americas, and Asia with over €1.7 trillion in assets.
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Santander operates strong renewable energy and operational emissions reductions but masks systematic financed emissions weakness. The bank weakened fossil fuel policies after raising billions for LNG, funds deforestation-linked agribusiness in Brazil, and ranks among Europe's top fossil fuel financiers. Green rhetoric collides with documented evasion.
Banco Santander scores 39/100 (Below expectations) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Fees pay for the review, never the result. Last verified May 2026.
That places Banco Santander joint 385th of 847 companies scored, and joint 18th of 51 in Financial Services / Banking.
Where Banco Santander sits among financial services / banking peers.
Among the 51 major financial services / banking brands we've scored, Banco Santander is tied =18th of 51, with 2 others.
Its three lowest-scoring questions, and what the evidence didn't show.
The full reasoning is in the ten questions below.
No validated SBTi targets found.
CEO stated bank not comfortable as 'climate police'.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Evidence that isn't public can count through an evidence review.
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Get in touch →Strongest on Carbon Footprint — Operations and Energy Source (7/10, 7/10). Weakest on Nature & Biodiversity Impact and Targets & Commitments (3/10, 3/10).
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Banco Santander.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, reports operational emissions comprehensively but excludes financed emissions—its material impact lever—from reduction targets.
See the breakdown →NatWest has cut operational emissions 66% since 2019 and achieved 100% renewable electricity, but undermined these gains by voluntarily withdrawing SBTi validation in 2025 and weakening oil & gas lending policy in February 2026.
See the breakdown →Wise discloses a single 2022 emissions figure (33,952 tCO2e) without Scope 3 breakdown, third-party verification, or updated data despite rapid growth doubling headcount and tripling revenue.
See the breakdown →The formula and all 15 sources.
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × Scale15 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
9 of 15 sources are independent of the company.
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
Banco Santander is a multinational banking group headquartered in Santander, Spain, operating across Europe, the Americas, and Asia with over €1.7 trillion in assets. Founded in 1857, it ranks among Europe's largest financial institutions by market capitalisation, providing retail, commercial, and investment banking services.
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