Francisco Luzón, Santander number three and head of the bank's Latin American business, has resigned following an agreement that he made with Emilio Botín at some point during the past few days. The board of directors will approve Luzón's resignation officially on Monday. He served as a board member and led the bank's efforts in Latin America. Luzón's departure will cost the bank around 70 million euros, an amount that they have already come up with.
The earnings correspond mostly to his 56-million euro pension, which has been growing since he joined the bank in 1996. The remaining 10 million are comprised of securities, 2.8 million of which could be issued in shares or cashed within a year of retirement and 1.1 million as a complement to his pension. Luzón was until now one of Botín's closest advisors and was responsible for building Santander?s Latin America business, particularly in Brazil.
In a communication the bank recognized his professional work, especially the work he did building the Santander franchise on the other side of the Atlantic. For his work, he was the second highest-paid director for the year. His salary was only surpassed by that of Chief Executive Officer Alfredo Sáenz.
In 2010 Luzón received net compensation of 5.6 million euros. His departure was put on the calendar several months ago, while in November he received a medal for Merit in Work (Mérito en el Trabajo in Spanish) from Spain's executive branch. This award is granted to those who have given up their professional role or intend to do so. Luzón's will be succeeded by his right-hand man, Jesús Zabalza, who until now has been in charge of Santander's America Division.
Even though he will not be named Executive Counsel of Santander, the position will remain vacant. Zabalza joined Santander in 2002. Since then he has worked elbow-to-elbow with Luzón. Previously, he was adjunct general director at La Caixa, where he pioneered the bank's expansion outside of Catalonia.
