A $12.2 billion acquisition doesn’t usually stay quiet, but the scale of what Santander just completed in the U.S. is easy to undersell if you only catch the headline. This isn’t a product-line purchase or a niche business carve-out. Santander bought the entire Webster Financial Corporation, the holding company behind Webster Bank, and in doing so instantly became a top-ten retail and commercial bank in America by assets.
The deal closed on August 20, roughly six months after it was first announced on February 3. Santander paid a mix of 65% cash and 35% newly issued shares, a package representing a 14% premium over Webster’s recent trading price, and roughly 10 times Webster’s projected 2028 earnings before accounting for expected cost synergies. The combination pushes Santander into the top five deposit-taking institutions across the key Northeast markets Webster has long served from its Stamford, Connecticut headquarters.
John Ciulla, Webster’s former CEO, is now CEO of Santander Bank. He framed the completion of the deal as the start of a new chapter rather than an ending. “Today marks the beginning of an exciting next chapter for our customers and communities,” he said. “This combination allows us to further deepen our local relationships with the support of Santander’s global scale, financial strength and investment capabilities. Together, we are enhancing our ability to deliver broader products and services, and remain committed to the trusted partnerships that have always been at the center of how we serve our customers.” Luis Massiani, Webster’s former president and chief operating officer, is now chief operating officer of both Santander US and Santander Bank, with direct responsibility for leading the integration itself.
Christiana Riley, who remains Santander’s U.S. country head and CEO of Santander US, called the deal a defining moment rather than just a scale play. “This is a pivotal moment in Santander’s long journey in the United States that underscores our confidence in the strength and opportunity in the U.S. market,” she said. “By bringing together Santander and Webster, we are combining two organizations with shared values and strong customer relationships. Our five growing businesses will now serve nearly eight million customers across the U.S., with expanded reach and resources to better support their needs and the communities we serve.”
What Santander actually gains goes well beyond scale. Webster brings a relationship-driven deposit base, deeper commercial banking capabilities, and a Healthcare Financial Services platform Santander itself has called distinctive, together improving Santander’s funding profile, business mix, and overall competitive position in the U.S. The combined organization now carries a pro forma balance sheet of roughly $327 billion in assets, $185 billion in loans, and $172 billion in deposits, based on year-end 2025 figures, and rounds out Santander’s existing U.S. business lines, including its auto, wealth, and corporate and investment banking franchises, with genuine retail and commercial banking scale. Santander expects the combination to help the bank hit roughly 18% return on tangible equity in the U.S. by 2028.
Customers of both banks are being told, for now, that little changes day to day: the vast majority of everyday banking experiences will remain unchanged in the coming months, and existing accounts and products continue to work exactly as they did before the deal closed, with customers of both institutions now getting expanded, fee-free ATM access as an immediate combined benefit. Structurally, Webster’s former Stamford, Connecticut headquarters is now a corporate hub for Santander in the U.S., joining Santander’s existing U.S. headquarters in Boston and corporate hubs in New York, Miami, and Dallas. Tim Ryan continues to chair the board of Santander US. The deeper integration work, merging systems, consolidating leadership beneath Ciulla and Massiani, and folding Webster’s branch network fully into Santander’s U.S. operations, is just getting underway, with Santander describing the approach as a disciplined transition focused on service continuity, employee engagement, and delivering synergies on schedule.