Who Is Santander Consumer Finance?

Through various mergers and acquisitions (as listed in Exhibit 2 from the Harvard Case Study), Santander Consumer Finance (SCF) expanded and conducted business in different countries around the world (Latin America, the U.S., Europe, etc.). However, entering new foreign markets was not an easy task and it came with risks. The major risks that SCF had to face were country and political risks.
With so many branches and units in different countries, it was hard for SCF to coordinate/structure their business approach; Everything was decentralized and disorganized. Thus, they began by integrating their brand, centralizing their data centers, and centralizing their decision making. The European countries, in particular, had different profiles that had to be considered in order to come up with a strong business strategy. These countries varied in market sizes, market maturities, and consumer product mixes, which were all due to cultural, economic, and law/regulation enforcement aspects.
One of the country/political risks that SCF faced was dealing with Europe Credit Bureaus that had different regulations/standards for data collection/analysis. They also did not provide proper credit scores, which made it difficult to assess the risk of each customer. Overall, some countries provided more information than others, but it
However, it did not actually do much to improve the situation because it did not address over-indebtedness, which continued to be a problem. While, they could potentially benefit from the directive, the transparency that came with the directive was highly criticized. SCF believed that a customer with access to more information would result in more confusion. Therefore, to face this obstacle, SCF decided to conduct business as if the European credit markets were still fragmented, regardless of the