SANTANDER, Spain (Reuters) - Spain's Banco Santander (MC:SAN) aims to address risk controls and better comply with regulations in the U.S. in 2017 in order to improve its profitability there, its chief executive said on Friday.
Santander, the euro zone's largest bank by market valuation, failed its U.S. stress test last year for the third time in a row despite its efforts to improve risk controls in the market, where it makes about 5 percent of its profits.
"We have two priorities in 2017, improve risk control and management systems in order to advance our regulatory agenda," Chief Executive Jose Antonio Alvarez said during the bank's annual shareholders meeting in the city of Santander.
Alvarez said on Friday that the bank had made significant progress last year in complying with regulatory requirements.
This year, Santander and other foreign lenders with total assets of between $50 billion and $250 billion are no longer subject to a public objection on qualitative grounds by Federal Reserve.