Banco Santander SA is moving toward sealing a deal with Amazon.com Inc that would see the Spanish bank provide financing options across Europe for buyers from the e-commerce giant.
The negotiations are at an advanced stage and an agreement could be reached soon, people familiar with the matter said. The plan is to roll out the consumer finance partnership in Germany first and subsequently expand it to other European countries, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Representatives from Santander and Amazon declined to comment.
Santander has vowed to grow its digital consumer finance business, which provided roughly 10% of group revenue last year. One pillar of that strategy is to sign “flagship deals with major global tech companies,” the lender said in its latest annual report.
Such partnerships typically mean that buyers get an offer for a consumer loan to finance their purchase when they are about to pay for it in an online shop, giving the bank a direct sales channel. The retail companies benefit too as the partnerships enable their customers to make purchases they may otherwise be unable to afford.
Santander’s Amazon deal would follow an agreement reached with Apple Inc last week to provide digital consumer finance for buyers of the tech company’s products in Germany. The Amazon partnership is expected to provide a bigger revenue boost than the Apple deal, the people said.
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