Acquisition

Banco Santander Central Hispano SA
24 September 2004


   NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN OR INTO OR FROM THE UNITED
                  STATES OF AMERICA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA OR JAPAN

                                        
            SANTANDER CONSUMER TO ACQUIRE DUTCH FINANCE COMPANY ABFIN

                                        
• Santander Consumer Finance Germany is acquiring the Wassenaar-based
  financing and leasing company Abfin BV from SNS REAAL Groep NV

• With this acquisition, Santander will extend its presence in consumer
  finance markets in Europe to 11 countries

Madrid, September 24, 2004 - Santander Consumer, a unit of Grupo Santander,
today signed an agreement with SNS REAAL to acquire the Dutch retail
bancassurance group's vehicle finance company Abfin BV for 21.9 million euros.

Abfin, founded in 1987, has total managed assets of 285 million euros, of which
53% is in dealer financing, 26% in leasing and 20% in consumer financing. It has
an estimated 10% market share in independent dealer financing in the
Netherlands. The transaction will generate good will of 3.6 million euros.

The acquisition is being carried out through Santander Consumer Finance
(Germany) GmbH, the parent company of CC-Bank, Germany's leading independent
vehicle finance company with a market share of approximately 16%, working with
more than 27,000 dealerships. The transaction is expected to close in early
October, pending the prior acknowledgement of the Bank of Spain.

Following this acquisition, Santander Consumer will extend its consumer finance
business to 11 countries throughout Europe, with more than 22 billion euros in
assets and eight million customers. It recorded pre-tax profit of 248.3 million
euros in the first half of 2004, a rise of 38.9% compared to the same period
last year.

In February of this year, Santander Consumer announced the acquisition of Polish
consumer finance company PTF and in March of Norwegian finance company Elcon. In
addition to these countries, Santander Consumer has operations in Spain,
Portugal, Germany, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Sweden.


External Communications

Santander Group City

Edificio Arrecife -3S, 2nd floor, 28660 Boadilla del Monte (Madrid)

Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange