New Santander chief boosts lending

Ramp up personal lending. Roll out a digital bank. Cater to internationally minded business clients. Tim Wennes has been the CEO of the U.S. arm of the Madrid-based Banco Santander for less than a month, but his to-do list is already a long one.

For starters, Santander will launch an unsecured consumer loan early next year both online and in its branch network. Wennes framed that explicitly as a play to keep up with fintech lenders, American Banker reports.