Banco Santander Chile aims to open 100 local branches in the next five years, Diario Financiero reported, citing bank executives.
This development comes despite the fact that the bank has reduced the number of its branches in the country by 11.3% between 2016 and 2017.
Most of the new openings will focus on transforming traditional offices into "work/café" hubs, Santander Chile executives said at an investors' conference. For 2018 alone, the bank aims to open 20 of these new spaces.
The bank expects "work/café" spaces to generate profit margins 13% higher than traditional ones and incur 15% less in operational costs.
Santander Chile posted quarterly net income attributable to shareholders of about 134.68 billion Chilean pesos, up 24.0% from a year earlier as the bank booked lower loan-loss provisions and higher interest income.
As of Jan. 31, US$1 was equivalent to 601.44 Chilean pesos.
