At Santander, we believe that a successful business is a socially responsible business. That's why we both have clearly defined CSR strategies, built around the following themes:

• Providing customers with the best products and services.
• Profitability and transparency for shareholders.
• Professional development and work/life balance for employees.
• Mutual respect and transparency with suppliers.
• Supporting social development and environmental protection.

In practice, these themes translate into a series of initiatives, both at home and around the world. One example of this is the 'Santander is You' week, involving employees and their friends and families across the global business.

Worldwide: Santander Universities
This global programme is the focal point of the group's CSR activity, in keeping with our belief in the crucial role that education plays in economic and social development.

An unprecedented alliance between the academic and corporate worlds, Santander Universities has been running for 10 years, financing and promoting initiatives and projects that participant institutions consider a priority.

Last year alone saw us invest £52 million worldwide, facilitating more than 2,000 projects in 549 universities, reaching out to five million students. In all, this programme has supported over 10,000 scholarships and has led to 214,415 first jobs or work experience.

Santander Universities is already well established across Spain, Portugal and Latin America, reaching more than 10 million students, and was launched in the UK in 2007. There are now around 40 UK universities that are part of the network.

In the UK
At home, we are meeting our corporate responsibility by addressing issues of importance to key stakeholders.

For instance, we are committed to improving and expanding access to financial services, providing funds to support charities working in this area.

For our employees, our focus is on ensuring that ours is a workplace that is inclusive and values individual differences.
Within our communities, we provide donations to local charities and this year we will be contributing over £3 million to good causes around the UK.

Finally, we are committed to reducing the impact of our day-to-day operations on the environment with wide-ranging programmes in place to reduce energy use, increase recycling and invest in greener technologies.
To read our latest CSR report, visit our About Santander website.