Banco Santander, S.A. provided consolidated earnings guidance for the year ended December 31, 2014. The company expects an attributable net profit of approximately EUR 5,800 million, representing an increase of slightly above 30% over the attributable net profit for 2013. Excluding the impact of exchange rate variations, this represents an increase of slightly above 40% over the same period, the details being as follows: It is estimated that income increased approximately 6% compared to 2013, led by the income coming from net interest income and commissions received, which are estimated to have increased 8% and 6%, respectively.

It is estimated that expenses grew approximately 3%, which is below the average inflation rate of the Group's main markets, reflecting the synergies derived from the executed integrations and from the implementation of productivity and efficiency plans, which synergies have been greater than initially forecasted. It is estimated that loan-loss provisions decreased approximately 10%, highlighting the cases of Brazil, Spain, United Kingdom and Portugal. As a consequence, the cost of credit for 2014 would be below 1.5%, compared to the 1.7% cost of credit for 2013.