The US has become the new big booty for Santander . The North American market has become its main market for the first time, due to the contribution of profits, displacing the Brazilian , which until now was the engine of the group.

In addition, the expectations of the Spanish bank on the other side of the Atlantic are very positive, due to the recovery of the economy more than expected and the commitment it is making to grow on several fronts through increased business and through pursuit of acquisitions, such as the recently sealed deal to acquire the broker Amhrest Pierpoint , or the buyback of 20% of its consumer affiliate to hold all the capital.

Although the strategy involves organic growth, as the CEO, José Antonio Álvarez, assured a little more than a week ago, Santander does not rule out carrying out corporate operations on the other side of the Atlantic, unlike Spain in order to gain a larger scale. “It is not our motivation, but we want to grow there,” he made clear. In our country, the bank has reiterated by active and passive that it has no intention of undertaking acquisitions of entities.

The US, with the boost from the car leasing business and the economic improvement, has contributed 1,291 million euros to the group’s semi-annual accounts , at constant rates. A figure that exceeds the profits achieved by the entity in Brazil, which has reported 1,180 million.

The result obtained in the world’s leading power, also experienced a substantial increase, of more than almost 600%, due in part to a release of provisions against losses, of 156 million, and an increase in income.

The interest margin of the franchise, which operates with the traditional bank and with the consumer finance company, improved by 0.8%, although in terms of constant interest rates the advance was 8%. The franchise commissions, meanwhile, increased 1.7%, but at constant rates, 14%.

Álvarez highlighted the importance of car leasing and vehicle financing, an activity in which the bank operates and which is behaving much better than forecast . In fact, this factor has facilitated the release of a part of the special provisions made a year ago by the pandemic.

“The price of second-hand cars has risen 25%, we have cars on our balance sheet, and if the price rises there is more profit,” said the CEO of Santander in the presentation of the accounts at the end of June. The bank, including losses in the corporate area, recorded a half-year profit of 3,675 million , compared to historical losses in the same period of 2020.

In automobile financing, Santander already has a market share in the US of more than 4.5%, well above its dominance at a global level, and is also the seventh most relevant agent. In traditional bank loans, its weight is 3% and in deposits, 2.4%.

Contrast with BBVA
Santander’s commitment to the other side of the Atlantic contrasts with the departure of the retail activity of the other large Spanish bank, BBVA , at the beginning of June it executed the sale of its subsidiary for individuals . The blue bank has maintained its corporate and investment banking operations in fintech (through the Propel Ventures fund), which it intends to boost with a new plan .

BBVA has decided to get rid of this division for various reasons, despite the good expectations for growth and recovery in the North American country. One of them, and the most important, is the offer received, which has allowed the entity to achieve succulent capital gains and reinforce its capital levels with an excess of 8,000 million. Money that it will use to grow in other markets and to buy back up to 10% of the shares to remunerate its shareholders .

Another reason has been the lack of necessary quota both globally in the US and by the states where it was centered, mainly the southern ones. With a low scale, entities lose efficiency, since the capacity to generate income is lower to face high fixed costs.

Other markets
For Santander, Spain is the fourth country by contribution of benefits, but a very short distance from Mexico, which contributes almost the same profits, of almost 400 million. The United Kingdom, for its part, is the third by far, after the rise experienced in the last six months, also partly as a consequence of a greater recovery in the economy and a release of provisions.

The technology that makes smart glasses possible has existed for several years now. Those of you with long memories will recall Google trying and failing to get “Google Glass” off the ground, eventually giving up on the idea because the glasses were too bulky, and it couldn’t find a practical use for the hardware. Just because it’s possible to project digital images onto “smart” glasses and have content appear directly in front of people’s eyes doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea. Officially, Google hasn’t given up on the idea. In practice, it’s been a long time since they announced anything new about it. That apparently hasn’t put Facebook off giving it a try.

It’s been a week of revelations and announcements for Facebook, with news ranging from the expectation that financial results for the second half of the year will be weaker than they were in the first half to the bizarre declaration that Mark Zuckerberg wants the world of the future to exist inside a “Facebook metaverse.” Buried among all that news was a startling announcement about smart glasses. The company is ready to bring them to the market, and we’re not just talking about any old glasses. Facebook has partnered with Ray-Ban to turn the idea into a reality. 

It’s not a secret that Facebook has been working on smart glasses for several years, but few people outside the company suspected that they’re as close to being ready for release as they are. While Zuckerberg stopped short of announcing a release date, he didn’t rule out the possibility that they might be available to buy before the end of the year. He might be hoping to get them to the market ahead of Christmas 2021, for which they’d be likely to be a popular gift choice for tech enthusiasts. However, those tech enthusiasts would want to know more about the specifications and features of the product before placing orders. While Zuckerberg spoke with great pride about the invention, he was light on details.

Aside from knowing that they’re about ready to launch, all we know about what they’re capable of is that they’ll allow their owners to do “some neat things.” Those are Zuckerberg’s words, not ours. We know more about what they won’t do than what they will. When discussing the idea in the past, Facebook has said that the glasses will come without an integrated display and won’t be classed as “augmented reality” hardware. That sits at odds with the company’s bold vision of a future where we all go to work in an augmented reality universe, but it might be for the best for now. It’s been experiencing issues with its Oculus Quest 2 headsets recently and has had to recall a batch from stores because the materials used in their construction have given people skin rashes. The issue is thought to have affected only a handful of users but was considered serious enough to temporarily withdraw the whole range.

Without an integrated display, it’s hard to picture what it is about the smart glasses that will make them “smart.” One possibility is that they’ll have a microphone rather than a display and will allow you to perform voice-operated tasks by connecting to your mobile phone. Another is that they’ll interact with an app on your phone to let you perform tasks like tint the glasses, although that seems more of a gimmick than a desirable piece of next-generation technology. Zuckerberg sees the product as a “step toward” augmented reality glasses than the arrival of the AR era, but how big a step is something that we’ll apparently have to wait a little longer to find out.

Facebook has a mixed history when it steps outside its comfort zone. Its biggest successes (aside from the social media website) have come by acquiring apps and services that were already successful independently, like Instagram and WhatsApp. Other initiatives, like a Facebook-hosted online slots page designed to provide all the services and attractions of an online slots website within the confines of Facebook, fell flat. If Facebook hasn’t been able to tempt online slots players away from OnlineSlotsUK.com with its own brand of slots, it might struggle to tempt people into buying smart glasses that don’t have a clearly defined purpose. Far more information will have to be released ahead of schedule if the company doesn’t want the concept to become an expensive failure. If this was a bet placed on one of the company’s online slots, we wouldn’t fancy its chances of success.

Although we still tend to think of smart glasses as an idea for the future, Facebook won’t be the first big company to bring such a product to the market. Snapchat’s (extremely niche) Snapchat Spectacles already exist. So do Amazon’s Echo Frames. The reason you haven’t seen hundreds of people wearing them out on the street is that the idea hasn’t caught on yet. As was the case with Google Glass, the issue is one of practicality and purpose. People haven’t yet been given a compelling reason to wear a heavier-than-normal pair of glasses just because they come with an internet connection. Facebook better have something up its sleeve if it wants to change that trend.

Aside from lacking technical details and specifications, Facebook is yet to declare what the existence and release of the new glasses will mean for its previous augmented reality glasses. A prototype product called Project Aria AR was revealed to the world in September 2020 and came with an integrated display. It’s possible that they’re still in development and will eventually be released after the (presumably lighter) Ray-Ban glasses have hit the market. Zuckerberg might want to test the water with “slightly” smart glasses before pushing “fully” smart glasses on his audience. That remains to be seen.

The unanswered question in this story is whether the average person is happy with the idea of walking around wearing what is, in effect, a computer connected to Facebook attached to their face for a significant portion of each day. Our answer to that would be “no” based on how these things have gone in the past, but perhaps this time things will be different. We suspect that we’ll know by the beginning of 2022.