​Santander Group City, headquarters of Santander Bank in Boadilla del Monte (Madrid), hosted the international meeting of students of the Master's in Banking and Financial Markets, attended by young students from the three countries where it is offered: Spain, Mexico and Morocco.

The Master's, promoted by the University of Cantabria (UC) and Santander Bank, by means of the UCEIF Foundation and Santander Universities, was first offered 20 years ago in Spain and it later became available in Mexico (1999), Morocco (2007) and Brazil (2016). It will also soon be offered in Chile. It is given by the Santander Financial Institute (SANFI), a leading international centre for the generation, dissemination and transfer of knowledge on the financial sector, in collaboration with different institutions in each country: the University of Cantabria and Santander, Spain; the North Anáhuac University and Santander, Mexico; INSPER and Santander, Brazil, and in Morocco, the Hassan II University of Casablanca and Attijariwafa Bank, by means of its foundation.

The meeting was officially opened by the Director of Training and Talent at Santander Bank, José Miguel Caras, accompanied by the Director of the UCEIF Foundation, Javier Martínez García, and by the Director of the Master's, Myriam García; the Academic Director of Anáhuac University of the North, Jorge Fregoso; the Academic Director of the Hassan II University, Abdelouahed Alaoui; the Human Resources Director of Attijariwafa Bank Group, Housna Fares; the Coordinator of the edition in Morocco, Antolín Oliva; the Director of the Attijariwafa Bank Foundation, Amina Benamar, and the Managing Director of the UCEIF Foundation and the Santander Bank Training Centre, El Solaruco (Cantabria), Carlos Velasco.

The students visited Santander Group City and attended the conference "Challenges in the banking sector: Santander", given by the General Director of Financial Planning and Corporate Development, José Luis de Mora Gil-Gallardo, about the forces that move today's economy, like globalisation, digitalisation, emerging markets, mature markets, central banks in mature markets and the China factor.

This was followed by workshops and small conferences and exchanges of experiences between former Master's students and current ones. The training activities were supported by different units of the bank, like Corporate Auditing, the Risks Decision-Making Unit and Global Treasury as well as Santander Treasury, Spain.

the UCEIF foundation and SANFI

The UC Foundation for the Study and Research of the Financial Sector (UCEIF), was created in 2006 as a collaboration between the University of Cantabria (UC) and Santander Bank, through Santander Universities, with the goal of becoming a national and international model for the generation and transfer of financial knowledge (www.fundacion-uceif.org).

Thanks to Santander Universities, the bank has more than 1,200 agreements of collaboration with universities and research centres all over the world. Moreover, it is the company with the greatest investment in supporting education in the world (Informe Varkey/UNESCO – Fortune 500). For more information see www.santander.com/universidades

The Santander Financial Institute (SANFI) is the leading international centre for the generation, dissemination and transfer of knowledge on the financial sector, promoted by the UC and Santander Bank by means of the UCEIF Foundation. It encompasses activities such as training, research, financial education and management of the Historical Archive of Santander Bank (www.fundacion-uceif.org/sanfi).