Santander has captured a substantial number of British customers, making the UK its most lucrative market and downgrading the Brazilian market to second place.
The recent housing boom in Britain has enabled Santander to cut its losses from bad loans in half.
Santander UK’s pre-tax profits rose from £1.1bn to £1.4bn last year. The bank increased new mortgage lending from £18.4bn to £26.3bn and cut losses from bad loans by 46% to £258m.
Some 276,000 new current account customers were registered with a quarter of them having switched from other banks.
Its CEO says the bank plans to increase its lending in 2015.
After taxes, profit attributable to the Spanish parent was €1.58bn (£1.2bn), more than its divisions in Brazil, Spain and elsewhere in Europe.
The Spanish parent is the largest bank in the eurozone. It said its profits went up last year to €9.7bn, a 32% increase.
In the UK, Santander is the country’s fifth biggest retail bank. It set up in 2004 when it bought Abbey National.
