Santander BanCorp Declares Common Shares Dividend for the Fourth Quarter

Santander BanCorp Declares Common Shares Dividend for the Fourth
Quarter 


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Nov. 24  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Board of
Directors of Santander BanCorp (NYSE: SBP; LATIBEX: XSBP), declared a cash
dividend amounting to $0.16 per common share. The dividend shall be payable on
January 3, 2005 to shareholders of record as of December 10, 2004.

Jose R. Gonzalez, President and CEO of Santander BanCorp stated "We are
extremely pleased that we have been able to increase our dividend by $0.05 per
common share from $0.11 to $0.16 per share. This increase is due to the
company's improving profitability since 2003."

Cash dividends on common shares are eligible for direct reinvestment under the
Company's Dividend Reinvestment and Cash Purchase Plan. For additional
information on how to participate in Santander BanCorp's Dividend Reinvestment
and Cash Purchase Plan, shareholders should contact our transfer agent and
registrar, Mellon Investor Services LLC, at [phone].

Santander BanCorp is a publicly held financial holding company that is traded
on the New York Stock Exchange and on Latibex (Madrid Stock Exchange). It has
three wholly owned subsidiaries, Banco Santander Puerto Rico, Santander
Securities Corporation and Santander Insurance Agency. Banco Santander Puerto
Rico has been operating in Puerto Rico for 27 years. It offers a full array of
services through 65 branches in the areas of commercial, mortgage and consumer
banking, supported by a team of over 1,600 employees.  Santander Securities
offers securities brokerage services and provides portfolio management services
through its wholly owned subsidiary Santander Asset Management Corporation. 
Santander Insurance Agency offers life, health and disability coverage as a
corporate agent and also operates as a general agent. For more information,
visit the Company's website at http://www.santandernet.com/.

Grupo Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N) ranks amongst the first ten principal banks in
the world and is the largest bank in the Euro Zone by market capitalization.
Founded in 1857, Grupo Santander currently has 59 million clients, 10,000
offices and presence in over 40 countries. It is the first Financial Group in
Spain and Latin America and maintains an important business activity in Europe,
where Grupo Santander had reached a prominent presence in the United Kingdom
with the acquisition of Abbey National. Grupo Santander owns the third largest
banking group in Portugal and additionally owns Santander Consumer Finance, a
leading consumer finance franchise in Germany, Italy and seven other European
countries.

In Latin America, Grupo Santander maintains a leading position where it manages
over $114,000 million in volume of business (loans, deposits and off- balance
sheet assets under management) and has 4,052 offices in ten countries, serving
more than 12 million individual clients and approximately half a million small
and medium sized companies.  As of the third trimester of 2004, Grupo Santander
obtained a net attributable income of $1,225 million in Latin America, an
increase of over 8.8% for the same period of last year. 

DATASOURCE: Santander BanCorp



CONTACT: Maria Calero, [phone], or Evelyn Vega, [phone],

both for Santander BanCorp



Web site:  http://www.santandernet.com/ 

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