Santander launches Navigator Global for U.S. businesses

• Key insight: Santander’s Navigator Global digitizes market-entry expertise for U.S. businesses.
• Expert quote: Santander U.S. CEO Christiana Riley: Navigator is a “plug-and-play solution” for international expansion.
• Forward look: Santander plans a rollout to all markets by the end of 2026; expect localized bank partnerships.
  Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

Santander Bank is bringing its global commerce expertise to American businesses seeking international growth through the launch of a new digital platform.

The Spanish bank officially launched its new digital product, called Navigator Global, in the United States on Thursday.

“Navigator Global is a powerful example of us innovating and adding value beyond just traditional banking,” said Christiana Riley, CEO of Santander U.S., during a launch event in New York on Thursday. “This is a new digital platform that is specifically designed to help U.S. businesses explore and expand into international markets by providing step-by-step market entry guides, real time insights and a network of trusted in-market partners from more than 35 countries and 28 different industry sectors. It’s really a plug-and-play solution for your international expansion.”

Riley told a room of Santander employees, clients and prospective clients that the bank seeks to assist smaller commercial businesses in traversing the rapidly changing sector of global trade, a field in which she said Santander has both global scale and local expertise.

“I think it’s an understatement today to say that the world is looking very different than it did just a few years ago,” Riley said. “Supply chains have shifted, trade and regulatory policies are evolving very rapidly, and the pace of change in global trade is faster than ever. For small and medium-size businesses, these shifts bring not just challenges but also opportunities, and we’re very proud of the role that we play at Santander in helping you to tackle these.”

Navigator Global CEO John Carroll told American Banker that businesses wanting to enter an international market often need to know who to contact in order to break in. Santander is offering that proprietary knowledge across an assortment of hyper-specific sectors, from gluten-free food products to hotel bar whiskey, on the Navigator Global platform.

“In Mumbai and Delhi, for example, which is a big part of the alcohol market in India, three distributors control the majority of the market,” Carroll said in an interview. “If you want to sell there you need to deal with those three distributors, who are partners of ours on the platform. It’s all about how international trade works. If you want to get your doorknob into the Toyota supply chain, you’re not going to call up Toyota. We understand what the nature of international trade is after many, many years, and we can connect you to local experts who can actually get you into that business.”

The digital business development platform will also be accessible to businesses that aren’t already clients of Santander, according to Carroll.

“We partner with one bank per market, so in the Santander Group markets it’s Santander, but we will be also partnering in other markets where we’re not present with a local bank,” he said. “It’s open to both clients and non-clients. That’s really important. We’re looking to both deepen the relationship with our client, but also capture someone who is not a [Santander] client. Hopefully, Navigator is a route to help Santander win more clients here in the U.S.”

The new digital platform launched in the U.K. earlier in the week as part of a multistage rollout. The bank aims to expand it to all of its international markets by the end of 2026.

Navigator Global was preceded by a pilot product Santander launched exclusively in the U.K. in 2021 called Santander Global. Carroll said that upon the launch of Navigator Global this week, “Santander Global is no more” and all businesses using the original platform have been transitioned to the new product.

Access to Navigator Global is currently offered in two subscription tiers, standard and premium, which cost £360 and £2,160 per year respectively. Access to 250 providers of services in market entry, expansion and growth, cross-border e-commerce, marketing, product compliance, customs and ESG, for example, is limited to the premium tier.

A company representative told American Banker that the bank “wanted to make sure that businesses of any size who want to go global could have access to some of the intelligence and benefits of the platform.” The bank also offers a free trial for businesses on the standard tier.

A Santander client in attendance at the U.S. launch event told American Banker that they believe Navigator Global has significant potential due to its use of Santander’s existing network to verify and screen companies for legitimacy, and for its real-time updates of current market conditions.

“The platform could give updated information of what is going on economically and with import regulations in different countries,” the client said. “The interesting thing to find out later on will be how efficient the platform is going to be with cost savings.”