Cantera succeeds Adolfo Lagos, who had led the division for the last 10 years.
Cantera joined the bank in September, 2003, as senior executive vice president of wholesale banking and was named chief executive in 2006.
Javier San Felix will replace Garcia Cantera as a senior executive vice president of the bank and Banco Espanol de Credito’s (Banesto) executive committee has appointed him chief executive.
San Felix joined Santander eight years ago, and prior to this he was a partner in the Madrid office of McKinsey.
Banco Santander is a Spain-based financial institution primarily engaged in the retail banking.
The company operates principally in Spain, the UK, Portugal, the Latin American countries and the US.
