Chile watch: Financial hub ambitions, Santander WorkCafé plans

Chile is looking to become a regional financial hub and is studying ways in which it can achieve this.

The comment was made by finance minister Felipe Larraín during a trade and investment promotion event in New York.

"We're looking into how to remove a series of barriers that hinder plans to become a regional financial center," Larraín said. "Many of these obstacles are administrative; we're currently in the analysis phase... and if it's necessary to draw up a bill, then that's what we'll do."

Strengthening the financial services sector "spurs the economy and that this contributes to the wellbeing of people," he said.

If Chile becomes a financial hub one result would be an increase in activity in the area of third party fund administration, he said, adding that thousands of quality jobs would also be created.

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Santander, one of Chile's top two lenders, confirmed plans to open 20 more WorkCafé branches this year.

At the end of last year, 20 were already in operation.

WorkCafés - branches where clients and non-clients can access free Wi-Fi, do work, purchase refreshments, network and seek financial advice from bank staff - are unique to Chile, and Santander chiefs in Spain are considering rolling them out.

"We're proud of this new way of doing banking, since it's a model created in Chile and is being studied by the group on a global scale," Santander Chile country head Claudio Melandri (pictured) said. "CEOs from different places where Santander operates have visited our branches to learn how to replicate them in their respective countries."

Santander Chile's bottom line expanded 19.6% last year to 565bn pesos (US$935mn). Last year the bank also hit the 1mn mark in digital clients and the number of transactions conducted online doubled.

The lender's loan portfolio grew 1.9% and its Basel capital ratio grew to 13.9%.

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