Banco Santander Totta president Nuno Amado talks to Essential about the challenges and opportunities facing the bank in the year that Santander Group celebrates its 150th anniversary.

Encompassing the World: Portugal and the World in the 16th and the 17th Centuries Representing the cosponsor of this major exhibition, Banco Santander Totta, Essential met up with its chairman, Nuno Amado.

Of calm appearance and described by those who know him as a friendly person who enjoys close relationships, Nuno Amado has been chairman of Banco Santander Totta for about a year, having ­previously held the post of vice chairman and prior to that, head of resources and trade. He tells us that his main challenge has been, and still is, filling the shoes of former chairman António Horta Osório, given his "professionalism, charisma and exceptional vision." With Santander since 1997, he recalls the defining moment of acquiring Totta and CPP, and the ensuing difficulties in terms of operation and the complexity of fusing a smaller bank (Santander Portugal) with two larger banks with their own cultures and strong market presence.

Its merger with Totta brought Santader other, less public gains: an art collection compiled primarily of Portalegre tapestries and oil paintings by Portuguese artists dating from the late 19th century. For its part, Santander Portugal preferred to collect contemporary works. "As a long established bank, it has collected many fine works of art over the years, which, despite being used as decoration for different interiors, remain for us a cohesive collection and a cultural asset that we insist on sharing with the general public," the chairman explains. This policy is also adopted by the Grupo Santander, which owns a vast collection of art and locations for use as exhibition venues with annual exhibition programmes.

But above art, teaching and knowledge represent the true crux of the bank´s policy of social responsibility. "Santader Totta and Grupo Santander are aware that university research is one of the main catalysts behind development in our society in which human capital is a key factor," Nuno Amado passionately reveals. "We have therefore invested in universities for some time now, building a foundation for the growth of a better, fairer, more efficient, and more sustainable society."

Continuing in this vein the bank has sponsored the Encompassing the World: Portugal and the World in the 16th and the 17th Centuries exhibition, organised by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. "The chance to be one of the exhibition´s main sponsors, alongside the Sultan of Oman, in this context, seemed particularly opportune, especially as it matched other works that we had already sponsored," the Santander Totta chairman tells us. These other works, he goes on to explain, involve two research projects headed by Professor Pedro Dias, on the influence of the Portuguese in the world: "From Goa to Pangin. Tangible memories of the Portuguese State Capital of India"; and "Portugal and Ceylon. Fortresses, ivory and ashlars".

Sponsoring the Smithsonian exhibition is also part of the Grupo Santander´s 150th anniversary celebrations, and not just an isolated initiative, rather part of a continued investment programme carried out by the bank in university research and in the promotion of subjects related to cultural, sociological and economic development. "Also, as you would realise in Washington, the prestige and power of the Smithsonian Institution catapult the artistic impact of the exhibition to incomparable echelons of the United States, in terms of expression and in the quality of visitors and target public."

Tertiary education is of prime importance in terms of the bank´s social responsibility policy. Proof of this can be seen in the agreements signed by Santander Totta with 38 Portuguese universities, reaching over 70% of students in higher education in Portugal, and the installation of 49 "Salas Universia" in ­universities, with some 1000 computers connected to the Internet, providing the academic community with access to new technologies as a means of transferring knowledge, innovation and production of scientific content. Nuno Amado explains that "a clear example of our investment in university education is the recent Santander Universities Portuguese-Brazilian Grants programme, which will allocate 324 grants every year for Portuguese students to study in Brazilian universities and for Brazilian students to study in Portuguese universities."

Another higher education initiative is the Prémio Primus Inter Pares, a prize awarded annually to the best students in management and economics, which has already reached prolific status in the university community. Each year three students are selected and given MBA placements in celebrated universities in Portugal and abroad, including Portugal´s Universidade Nova and Universidade Católica, as well as INSEAD and IESE.

2007 marks the banking group´s 150th anniversary and in recognition, Nuno Amado tells us, "various events will take place throughout the years, in conjunction with our employees, clients and society in general." ­Besides sponsoring Encompassing the World: Portugal and the World in the 16th and the 17th Centuries, organising a virtual version of the same in its Lisbon Head Office, and launching the Atlas of Portuguese Art in the World, the chairman refers to an internal campaign for bank employees under the slogan "You are Santander", which is designed to reinforce the advantages of working for group such as Santander, the "Valuable Ideas" employee suggestion collection programme, and the employee Interchange Programme throughout the group. Keeping his cards close to his chest, Nuno Amado reveals that in terms of celebrations in the true sense, "we are planning an extraordinary event for October, involving the bank´s most important shareholders." Internationally, the bank is involved in strengthening its reputation on a global scale, and to this end is focusing its efforts in Formula 1 sponsorship, for the McLaren team, and selected sporting events. "Where the bank concentrates its presence, over 700 million spectators will watch the races during the season," says Nuno Amado.

In a bank with global presence, the chance of an international career is a fact but not for Nuno Amado: "this is not part of my future, given my current commitments and given the path that we still have to take." For Amado, his main aim, besides attracting more clients, is maintaining the loyalty of current clients, for which "it is vital to develop a closer relationship with our clients and have more branches; a more complicated network. We want to be Portugal´s leading bank", he states with conviction. Appraising the Portuguese banking sector, he believes it to be one of the most competitive within the nation´s economy, playing a vital role in its economic recovery. To do just this, it should be ready to respond more precisely and quickly to the growing demand for increasingly sophisticated products and services from the general public and in particular from its clients, and this, he tells us, "will only happen with the continued updating of information, technology and development systems, which enable growth in innovation in terms of products and services at the best price."

Nuno Amado is also vice chairman of the Portuguese-Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry. From this perspective he highlights: "the importance of the Spanish market for Portugal. Figures published at the end of 2006 show that the Spanish market welcomes some 27% of Portugal´s exports. In terms of Portuguese imports, 30% come from Spain. That is to say, Spain is currently our main economic partner in terms of trade flow, with a trade balance in Spain´s favour, but which in recent years Portugal is slowly taking back." The Chamber plays a vital role, he says, "in supporting businesspeople, in encouraging commercial and economic exchange between Portugal and Spain, especially in assistance and support to companies operating in both countries, in facilitating information and contact with public organisations and companies, as well as other topics of interest for the business community, such as, for example, tenders and open competitive bidding, etc."

With the challenges he faces, Nuno Amado grasps the chance whenever he can to recharge his batteries in Northeast Brazil, a destination in which he particularly enjoys, "the informality, the positive nature of people, as well as the fine weather and great beaches." For relaxation pure, Amado heads for the mountains and usually sets aside "one week during the summer for a holiday in the Alps." Weekends are dedicated to the three women in his life: his wife and two daughters. Born and bred in Torres Vedras, he has always been a sports enthusiast and played basketball for many years. The sea and its waves represent another attraction, having caused some discomfort in the past, fracturing his shoulder on one occasion. Speaking of his youth, of his schooling in Torres and later at the ISCTE, where he studied Business Organisation and Management, he tells us: "what I like to recall the most, is the mixture I managed to achieve between school, sport, beach and even politics." This jack-of-all-trades talent of his youth is surely just as useful today, at the head of one of Portugal´s leading banks.