Carlos M. Garcia Appointed Chief Operating Officer And Senior Executive Vice President SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Jose R. Gonzalez, President and Chief Executive Officer of Santander BanCorp (SBP) and Banco Santander Puerto Rico (BPSR) announced today, that effective January 1, 2004, Carlos M. Garcia will become Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Senior Executive Vice President of SBP and BSPR. As COO of SBP and BSPR, Mr. Garcia will be responsible for the supervision and coordination of all the business areas of Santander BanCorp. The principal business areas of Santander BanCorp are: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, Santander Mortgage Corporation, Santander Insurance Agency, Inc., and upon its acquisition, Santander Securities Corporation and Santander Asset Management Corporation. In addition to his new responsibilities, Mr. Garcia will continue as President and Chief Executive Officer of Santander Securities Corporation. The acquisition of Santander Securities Corporation by Santander BanCorp is expected to close on or before December 31, 2003 as all required regulatory approvals have been received for the closing of this transaction. Also, effective January 1, 2004 the Leasing and Agricultural business units will be incorporated to our Retail Banking business under the direction of Mr. Rafael F. Saldana, Executive Vice President in charge of Retail Banking; and concurrently Mr. Roberto Cordova, Executive Vice President, will be in charge of Wholesale Banking. 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 two wholly owned subsidiaries, Banco Santander Puerto Rico and Santander Insurance Agency. Banco Santander Puerto Rico has been operating in Puerto Rico for 26 years. It offers a full array of services in the areas of commercial, mortgage and consumer banking supported by a team of over 1,500 employees, with 66 branches. 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/. Banco Santander Central Hispano, S.A. (SAN.MC, STD.N) is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America by profits, and the second largest bank in the Euro Zone by market capitalization. Founded in 1857, it has forged important business initiatives in Europe, including a 15-year old alliance with The Royal Bank of Scotland, ownership of the third largest banking group in Portugal and the leading independent consumer finance franchise in Germany. This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry in which the Company operates, its beliefs and its management's assumptions. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "targets," "goals," "projects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates" and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in such forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: (1) general economic conditions are less favorable than expected; (2) competitive pressures among financial services companies in Puerto Rico increase significantly; (3) substantial changes in levels of market interest rates and prices may adversely impact funding sources and the value of financial products and assets; (4) legislation or regulatory changes adversely affect the businesses in which the Company is engaged; and (5) litigation liabilities, including costs, expenses, settlements and judgments, may adversely affect the Company or its businesses. Except as otherwise required under federal securities laws and the rules and regulations of the SEC, the Company does not have any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise. The pro forma information provided herein is not indicative of future results of operations. Santander Securities is the second largest full service securities broker-dealer in Puerto Rico with approximately $5.7 billion in assets under management, composed of over $3.6 billion in customer assets at the retail broker-dealer and $2.1 billion in managed mutual fund gross assets and institutional accounts at its wholly-owned subsidiary, Santander Asset Management Corporation. Santander Securities is a registered broker-dealer and a member of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. and Securities Investors Protection Corporation. DATASOURCE: Banco Santander Puerto Rico CONTACT: Juan Diaz Soultaire, +1-787-777-4240, Evelyn Vega, +1-787-777-4546 Web site: http://www.santandernet.com/

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