Andrea Orcel will not be Santander's next CEO

Commenting on the board's decision, Santander chairwoman, Ana Botin, explained that it had weighed the interests of all of the lender's stakeholders versus the elevated cost of hiring a professional of Orcel's calibre and having to compensate him for the seven years-worth of awards which he would surrender by stepping down as head of investment banking at UBS to come over to the Madrid-based lender.

Although Orcel's appointment to the post had already been announced in September 2018, the cost of compensating Orcel for the loss of his salary awards and other benefits which had accrued to him had not been fully clear at the time - but now it was.

And it was a "significantly greater" sum than the Board had expected when Orcel was named to the post.

Instead, the board will retain the services of Jose Antonio Alvarez as group chief executive officer and vice-chairman of the board.

Alvarez had been slated to step down as CEO and become chairman of the group's Spanish arm.