SAN US$295M preferred shares

Banco Santander Central Hispano SA
11 March 2003


                Santander Central Hispano will redeem in advance
                 US$295 million of convertible preferred shares

Madrid, March 11, 2003 - Santander Central Hispano announced today it will
redeem in advance an issue of US$295.08 million Series R preferred shares held
exclusively by the Royal Bank of Scotland. The redemption will take place on
March 31st at par and in cash. With this operation, the bank avoids the dilution
of earnings per share that a new share issue would have entailed.

After the redemption of this issue and the sale of 24.9% of Serfin, the BIS
ratio of Santander Central Hispano will be on the order of 13.5%, Tier 1 at 8.7%
and Core Capital at 6.0%. These ratios place the bank amongst the top European
financial institutions for own funds as well as for the quantity and quality of
its capital base.


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