Santander Banespa boosts pension contributions 56% in 2004

Brazil's fourth largest private bank Santander Banespa boosted its private pension plan contributions 56% last year to 1bn reais (US$367mn) from 640mn reais in 2003, the Brazilian private pension association, the Anapp, reported. The bank today counts 160,000 private pension plan clients and 2.2bn reais in pension reserves. During the three last years Santander Banespa has jumped 30 slots on the Brazilian ranking of private pension plan providers. Today's it holds the sixth spot on the rankings for the PGBL and VGBL pension plans, which are the best-selling plans today in Brazil. Santander Banespa is a subsidiary of Spanish banking group Grupo Santander (NYSE: STD), which is the largest bank in both Latin America and Spain.