Foreign banks are increasing their investments in the Greater Bay Area, with Santander using the city commercial banks as a stepping stone to establish a presence in Shenzhen.

Recently, Santander Bank has officially been approved to establish a branch in Shenzhen, marking its third entry into mainland China. Prior to this, the largest bank in Spain had already set up branches in Shanghai and Beijing, but had not yet registered as a legal entity bank in mainland China, facing certain limitations in its business expansion. In the past, Santander Bank chose to cooperate with city commercial banks such as Shanghai Bank and Beijing Bank to explore the Chinese market. The Shenzhen branch of Santander Bank will continue the aforementioned localization strategy, utilizing the global network advantage of its parent company to serve domestic companies going global, and the cooperation with a top city commercial bank's Shenzhen branch will become a key aspect. "Both sides have highly overlapping business regions, but their business focuses are still different, with a natural complementarity," related individuals explained to the press.