Spain's Banco Santander earns 6.6 bln euros in 2017

MADRID, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Spain's leading lender Banco Santander earned 6.6 billion euros (8.2 billion U.S. dollars) in profits in 2017, the bank said on Wednesday.

The figure meant a 7 percent increase compared to 2016, the bank reported, after 897 million euros of net capital gains and provisions.

The lender explained the growth was due to "improvements in the quality and recurrence of revenues combined with good cost control and an overall strengthening in credit quality".

Revenues increased in eight of its ten core markets, especially in Latin America, and total income rose by 10 percent to 48.4 billion euros.

The bank added that it earned "the loyalty of a further 2 million customers", increasing lending by 2 percent and funds by 8 percent during the year. Digital customers increased by 21 percent in 2017 to 25 million.

The bank's executive chairman Ana Botin said 2017 was a "very strong year", stating that the results demonstrated the strength of the bank's scale and diversification. Enditem