Has the electric-car revolution impacted your auto-lending business? We are doing lending on EVs. The question, more so than EVs, is whether ride-sharing, car-sharing or a subscription type of ownership will evolve. We do a lot of business with Uber and Lyft drivers in the ride-share environment. We also do lending for commercial and fleet. So we are being vigilant and prepared as the industry evolves. The dealer experience is really important and continues to evolve, too. Through the digitalization of that experience, we can improve outcomes for dealers and customers. We've partnered with a firm called AutoFi to set up a portal where a customer can apply for a loan, we can get them credit approval and the dealer can tell them which cars they're qualified for and what their monthly payments would be. What are the main challenges with commercial real estate? I think it's important to break down commercial real estate into segments and not think about it all as one bucket. There’s multi-family, industrial, retail, office and so on. Segments like multi-family and industrial are really strong. The main challenges are around office, given the rapid rise in interest rates and post-pandemic work environment. Many companies are going to need less space over time. Why did Santander Bank recently exit the mortgage business? We want to focus on businesses where we have scale and are globally connected with Santander Group, our parent company. Mortgage didn't fit that, and heading into a cycle of rate increases, we knew the business would get more competitive. When we started thinking about investments, we couldn’t see earnings above the cost of capital and decided it was better to exit. We can still provide mortgages to our customers, but we do it through a partner instead of owning the process ourselves. Banking is about trust and confidence. At the same time, our job is to facilitate commerce, help companies grow and provide capital to the markets. To listen to the full conversation, visit https://bankingwithinterest.libsyn.com/ santander-us-ceo-wennes-on-regional-bankscapital-regs-and-reaching-gen-z. 24 NEBRASKA INDEPENDENT BANKER
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTg3NDExNQ==