Emilio Botin

Born: October 1, 1934; Died: September 9, 2014

EMILIO Botin, who has died of a heart attack aged 79, turned Banco Santander from a local northern Spanish bank, its name little-known outside his hometown, into Grupo Santander, the biggest in the eurozone and a global player.

One of Spain's most powerful men, oft-described as "the unofficial King of Spain" and by his staff as "el Presidente", he played a key role in Royal Bank of Scotland's 2000 acquisition of the faltering NatWest. Mr Botin and Santander had formed a consortium with RBS to beat Bank of Scotland's hostile takeover bid for NatWest. By doing so, they helped retain the NatWest brand and branches, although some of the latter were merged with RBS.

Soon after the takeover, however, an electrician's son from Paisley, Frederick Anderson Goodwin, an accountant with little banking experience, became CEO of RBS. The rest is history, including the knighthood Mr Goodwin enjoyed for eight years and the losses he helped to incur on RBS shareholders, customers and staff.

While Mr Goodwin was at the helm of RBS in Edinburgh, Santander was again part of an RBS-led consortium, this time to buy the big Dutch bank ABN Amro for close to £50 billion, Europe's largest-ever bank takeover. It proved a step too far for RBS and Mr Goodwin ruined its banking sheet and forced the UK government to pump in around £45bn of taxpayers' money to keep it afloat.

Mr Botin himself was no saint. After his secret numbered accounts in Switzerland were rumbled by the Spanish government (with the new co-operation of the Swiss banking system), he reportedly paid out some €200 million in Spanish back taxes to avoid going to jail. The fact he had quietly tried to get round the system, but 'fessed up and paid up, only served to bring him more respect among the Spanish people, to whom getting round the system is even more a way of life than in the UK.

Almost born in the family bank, Mr Botin was brought up, unlike Mr Goodwin, understanding the balance between the bank, the customer and the shareholders, his idea being that all three should profit. From an extremely wealthy but also highly respected banking family, he did not need self-aggrandisement or money, unlike some of the "fly-by-night" bankers he ran into in Spain and beyond, even in Edinburgh.

One of these was Spanish banker Mario Conde, who rose from humble beginnings to run the big Banesto bank and, with his well-oiled, slicked-back hair, became a member of Spain's La Jet (the Jet Set) and won the nickname "the Shark". Fraud and embezzlement caught up with Mr Conde although he served only four years in jail rather than the 35 years he faced. He is now a politician.

As for Mr Botin, he took over Banesto in 1994, a major step in Santander's rise to the global stage. And while Mr Conde was often billed in the Spanish media as a "chorizo" (a sausage, but with a distinctly unsavoury connotation), Mr Botin remained reasonably respected after Spain's entry into the eurozone, despite the fact that the euro crippled many working-class Spaniards and led to their still-common phrase: "We were better off with the peseta."

Mr Botin succeeded in turning around Santander and made his bank, with its now-famous red and white stylised S or twisted barber shop logo into one of Spain's greatest global brands. Becoming father-in-law to one of Spain's most famous and most-loved sons, the late golfer Seve Ballesteros, did his image no harm. Nor did sponsoring Formula One motor racing, where the Santander logo is now as familiar as any.

Mr Botin first sponsored his fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso as a young driver at McLaren but continued to support Alonso and F1 in general after Alonso moved to Ferrari. The F1 community, from owners, team leaders and drivers down to the Italian tifosi (Ferrari fans) expressed grief at his passing, three weeks short of his 80th birthday. On news of his death, share prices in Grupo Santander slumped more than two per cent to €7.59 before slightly recovering. Forbes had last estimated his wealth at $1.1bn.

Just hours after announcing Mr Botin's death, the bank appointed his eldest daughter Ana Botin, 53, who heads the bank's British business, as his succcessor. However, independent financial analysts expected some infighting over the wisdom of maintaining a family dynasty in changing times.

The elder of two brothers, Emilio Botin Sanz de Sautuola y Garcia de los Rios was born to a wealthy banking family in Santander, Cantabria, on the northern coast of Spain and the Bay of Biscay.

The bank was originally founded by his grandfather to serve their hometown and surrounding farms. After attending a Jesuit school in Gijon, he studied law in Valladolid and economics in Bilbao.

After sitting on the bank's board from the age of 26, rising to managing director and chief executive, he took over from his father as chairman in 1986 at the age of 52. Spain was still in flux, a fledgling democracy a decade after the death of the dictator Franco, and had entered the European Community. He used both as opportunities for expansion, first into Latin America and later into the UK by taking over Abbey National, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.

Mr Botin is survived by his wife Paloma O'Shea Artinano, of part-Irish descent, who held the Spanish title Marchioness of O'Shea, and six children, including daughter Carmen who was married for 18 years to Ballesteros.