Good morning, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders. The ordinary general shareholders meeting of Banco Santander called pursuant to law and the bylaws is going to begin. The official announcement of call to meeting was published on February 25 on the website of the National Securities Market Commission and on the bank's corporate website, where it has been published until today. On February 26 in the El País, La Razón, Alerta, and El Diario Montañés newspapers. The full text of the announcement of the call to meeting is also available to you at the shareholder's office and at the notary's desk. Remote attendees can view it in the application to which they are connected. I'd also like to communicate to the shareholders that the minutes of this meeting will be taken down by the notary that is with us. Mr. Notary, could you please be kind enough to stand up? Thank you. I give the floor to the secretary to report on the number of shareholders and the share capital with the right to vote and to be present in this event. The share capital with the right to vote is EUR 8,000,655,651, represented by 17,304,641,302 shares, EUR 0.50 each face value. The quorum necessary for the constitution of this meeting in a second call is 25%, which is EUR 2,700,855,000, represented by 4,300,163,236 shares. You can see the quorum data projected on the screen, with the number of attendees. We have 68.67% quorum. Shareholders that represent 3.38% of the share capital are present, and the rest are represented. Those who are attending remotely are considered to be present in order to constitute this meeting. According to the data that we just heard, we validly call this meeting as constituted. The remote attendees can issue their vote either in favor or against or abstain on the proposals related to items one through nine of the agenda that the board submits for approval at this general meeting, including the proposal that is put to a consultative vote under item eight F on the agenda. We remind you that if you don't vote for these items, we will take it as a vote in favor. In case that proposals were to be suggested in items that are not included in the agenda, remote attendees can vote when the secretary reads these proposals. In any case, the voting period for remote attendees on all the proposed resolutions, whether or not included on the agenda, shall come to an end when the voting on such proposals begins at these premises once the secretary has read the summaries of the proposed resolutions. The notary shall take note of the number and direction of the votes of the remote attendees and shall report it to the presiding committee to be taken into account in the proclamation of the voting results. I will now give the floor to the notary for the appropriate legal purposes thereafter. In order not to disturb the normal conduct of the meeting and without prejudice to the right to make presentations during the shareholder presentation period during which the attendees can make the statements they deem relevant for consideration at this meeting, anyone who has reservations or objections with respect to the statements made regarding the number of shareholders in attendance or the capital present may approach the notary's desk, or in the case of those who are in the adjoining room connected to this room, by audiovisual means, approach the support staff in that room. On the other hand, remote attendees may use the remote attendance application to communicate with the notary. The notary will take note of their comments and put them in the minutes. I give the floor to the notary. Pursuant to Article 110 of the Regulations of the Commercial Registry, as notary for the meeting, I hereby advise the shareholders of the meeting that if any shareholder wishes to express reservations or objections with respect to the statements made regarding the number of shareholders in attendance or the capital present, they may do so at this time at the desk of the notary for the meeting now speaking to you, or in case of remote attendees by giving notice thereof through the communications to the notary section of the application, such that they can be collected in the minutes. Thank you. In order to properly organize the conduct of the meeting, the shareholders or the proxy holders present at these premises who wish to take the floor and, if applicable, request information or clarifications upon the terms established by law, are kindly asked to identify themselves as from this time at the notary's desk or, if applicable, before the support staff present in the adjoining group, stating their first and last names, the number of shares held by them, and the number of shares they represent. The secretary has the floor. I remind you that the right to make presentations is limited to shareholders or proxy holders attending this meeting. If any of those persons wishing to make a presentation have prepared in writing the text of such presentation and of any information or clarifications they wish to request, they are kindly asked to bring the text to the presiding committee at this time through the staff near the notary's table, so that the required data can be prepared to the extent possible. Furthermore, if any of you wish for your presentation to be recorded verbatim in the minutes of the meeting, you should deliver it in writing to the notary at the time of requesting your turn so that the notary can verify the text through comparison when you take the floor. Shareholders who are in the adjoining group connected to this room by audiovisual means and who wish to communicate with the notary, sign up to speak, or view the communications received may request to do so through the support staff in that room. I also inform you that until the end of this presentation period, remote attendees may use the remote attendance software application to send their representations, requests for information or clarifications, or proposals. Documents sent by the remote attendees and the legitimate exercise of their rights shall be made available to those in attendance at these premises at the notary's desk as they are received, and remote attendees will also have access to them through the remote attendance application. If any of the persons attending remotely wishes their presentation to be recorded in the minutes of the meeting, they must expressly state so in the text thereof. I state for the record, for the record, that one request to exercise the right to receive information has been received prior to the holding of the meeting. The request, together with the response sent by the bank, is available to you at the notary's desk, as well as on the corporate website. I also hereby state for the record that upon entering these premises for the general meeting, the attendees have been provided, by means of a QR code, a document containing the text of the proposed resolutions to be submitted to the shareholders at the general meeting, the directors' reports, recent proposals, and detailed recommendations to be issued in accordance with the applicable regulations. In any case, you can get any of these documents going to the notary's desk or also with our staff, where you will find all this information, like, the 2021 annual report, as well as other documents. You also have available in the shareholder's office all these documents. Also you can access the bank's corporate website, where you will find the 2021 annual report, which also includes the consolidated financial statements and the consolidated directors' report, including with the independent verification report, as well as the reports of the board committees for 2021, including the report on the directors' remuneration policy and the report of the audit committee on related party transactions. The same means can be used on the bank's corporate website to view the Financial Statements, Directors' Report, including the corresponding statements on Non-Financial Information and Auditors' Report of Banco Santander, S.A. and its group for financial year 2021. The full text of the reports of the Executive Committee of the bank and of the independent expert appointed by the commercial registrar as regards the issue of newly issued preferred shares contingently convertible into ordinary shares of the bank in the maximum nominal amount of EUR 2 billion, or the equivalent thereof in any other currency, with the exclusion of preemptive rights, as approved by the Executive Committee on May 6, 2021, and the full text of the reports of the Executive Committee of the bank as regards the issue of newly issued preferred shares contingently convertible into ordinary shares for the bank in the maximum nominal amount of EUR 1.5 billion, or the equivalent thereof in any other currency, with the exclusion of preemptive rights, as approved by the Executive Committee on September 13, 2021. The two issues were approved under the delegation conferred by virtue of Resolution 72 of those adopted by the shareholders of the ordinary shareholder meeting held on April 12, 2029. Lastly, all the aforementioned documents have been and continue to be available to the shareholders at the registered office and on the corporate website of the bank at least since February 24, the date of publication of the call to the general meeting on said website. Thank you very much. Next, we're going to present reports that I'm sure will be of interest to you. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon to you all, and thank you so much for attending this general meeting. We are meeting at our headquarters in Boadilla del Monte to minimize the health risks associated with the movement of our teams and our shareholders to Cantabria. We hope we can all return to Santander soon. I would like to begin by saying that we stand with the Ukrainian people in this horrific humanitarian tragedy, and by remembering all those who have suffered the loss of friends and family, and all those who have had to leave their homes. Now is the time to help. Once again, as we have done during the last two years of the health crisis, Santander and our teams, whom I want to thank for their continued commitment and hard work, are supporting people and businesses in the most difficult of times. I am especially proud of the Poland-Spain refugee corridor we have organized in collaboration with the Spanish government that has allowed 180 people to safely reach Spain, and the provision of the Solaruco building in our Boadilla del Monte headquarters to temporarily accommodate Ukrainian children suffering from cancer-related diseases and their families. We are seeing Europe at its best, as we did during the pandemic. Once again, we see that when Europe acts together, it works better. With a common purpose, policies are approved quickly and have a decisive impact. We have gone from words to deeds in Europe, and citizens can see it. The response to the Ukrainian crisis is a strong example of this unity and agility. Let me set out the impact of this invasion on Santander and the wider impact it may have on the markets in which we operate. Let me preface this by saying our analysis assumes there is no further escalation and that the invasion is contained within Ukraine. Santander has a negligible direct credit exposure, and there are no other direct risks to Russia and Ukraine of EUR 80 million. We have taken the necessary steps to comply with all the financial restrictions and sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and we will continue to observe these requisites as the situation develops. However, we have already seen some of the indirect impact that the invasion can have, higher inflation, lower economic growth, especially in Europe, and impacts that go beyond the rise in energy prices. To reduce EU's dependence on Russian oil and gas, among other initiatives, financial institutions must be able to finance the energy transition. To this end, the authorities must define as soon as possible what lending is deemed consistent with our net zero goals. Russia is also a major producer of aluminum, nickel, and palladium. Supply disruptions could have a considerable negative impact on the auto and the energy crisis in the medium term. Also, Russia and Ukraine are major agricultural and fertilizer exporters, so the war will be felt across food markets and result in higher agricultural commodity prices as we are already seeing. A significant rise in inflation will affect all economies. Central banks are having to factor in higher inflation when setting their monetary policies while responding to the risk of lower economic growth. This is definitely not an easy task, and it is one in which fiscal policies will be even more important if we are to control the imbalances created by the crisis. First, the pandemic and most recently the invasion of Ukraine have made us realize the importance of reducing EU and Spain's dependence on strategic sectors. The medium-term scenario will depend on the length of the invasion, its depth, and the policies adopted to mitigate the impact. However, our central scenario is one of growth, although at a lower rate than was expected at the beginning of the year. The economic consensus would imply lower growth than previously expected in Europe of some 1-1.5 percentage points less than GDP growth, a smaller impact on U.S. growth with GDP growth from 0.25-0.5 percentage points less, and a neutral to positive impact on Latin American countries. The different impact of the crisis on our markets is important to stress. In Europe, the most affected region, public policy should focus not only on mitigating the negative effects on families and companies, but also relentlessly on sustainable growth and competitiveness. We must make the most of the European funds as soon as possible and promote investment and finance companies' growth through a stronger and deeper European capital market and a genuinely integrated European banking system. In Spain, it is essential to protect companies and families, especially SMEs and the most vulnerable, from the impact of this invasion and generate confidence. More than ever, European funds must serve to boost private investment, a key driver of growth and job creation. The U.S. economy will be less affected by the war and is expected to grow above trend in the next few years, despite a less accommodating monetary policy. The U.S. will continue to be the largest financial services market in the world with very attractive risk-adjusted returns compared to other developed economies. Our key Latin American markets are well-positioned for upward cycles in the price of raw materials, energy, and food. These markets have demonstrated to be resilient enough to weather international policy changes. Latin America external accounts and reserves are better positioned than in the past. In Brazil, for example, less than 2% of the trade flow comes from Russia and Ukraine, and exports of energy and food will result in a significant trade surplus. This highlights once again that our business model based on customer focus, scale, and especially diversification, makes us more resilient in times of crisis compared to our peers. Diversification has proved to be a key competitive advantage during the 2008 financial crisis, the 2011 sovereign debt crisis, and the impact of the COVID pandemic, and explains why Santander has always performed among the best banks in Europe in the ECB stress tests. Diversification increases the resilience of our earnings relative to our peers. Furthermore, our earnings per share has had the lowest volatility compared to our peers in the last 20 years. We are well-positioned to face these challenges ahead, especially in view of our work over the last 7 years, during which we have strengthened the bank's foundations, enabling us to achieve great results in 2021. Since 2014, we have increased our number of customers by 31% to 153 million at the end of 2021, with 5 million new customers added last year. That growth was well-balanced across regions and businesses, and reflects the strong demand we have generated for our products and services. Since 2014, revenues have increased 35% in constant euros. Our return on tangible equity, ROTE, has improved from 10.95% to 12.7%. In December 2021, our fully loaded CET1 capital ratio was 12.12%. That is an increase of more than 380 basis points since 2014. In absolute terms, we have increased our total capital by EUR 34.7 billion over that period. Our consistent growth and profitability improvements resulted in 2021 earnings per share, EPS, year-over-year growth of 79.1%, and tangible net asset value, TNAV, per share and cash dividend per share growth of 11%. Going forward, these financial metrics will continue to be our priority, as well as remuneration to our shareholders. In the first quarter of 2022, the commercial activity has remained strong, with revenues in line with the last quarter, and the new lending returning to pre-pandemic levels, increasing by an estimated 8% year-on-year. Furthermore, efficiency and cost of credit remained in line with the plan. With our underlying ROTE above 13% and fully loaded CET1 at 12% in the last quarter, in line with our annual targets, as we indicated in the annual earnings announcement. Going forward, our focus will be on where and how we can deliver growth, profitability, and financial strength. Our strong capital discipline will remain key to continue growing revenues, improving profitability, and creating shareholder value. Our business model and unique diversification provides a resilient foundation for growth. That's a very sound basis to grow in the future. As a result, based on current economic consensus that I described, we are confident in the financial targets we announced in February, maintaining high profitability in the Americas, while seeing improved profitability in Europe. The goals were, I remind you, grow total revenue by mid-single digit, improve our cost-to-income ratio by 1 percentage point to 45%, deliver a ROTE above 13%. Having achieved a 12% CET1 fully loaded capital ratio, we intend to maintain 12% throughout 2022. We expect to generate EPS, TNAV, and dividend per share growth, leading to shareholder distributions of 40% of underlying profit, with the share buybacks continuing to be part of our shareholder remuneration. In the medium term, we aim to deliver a ROTE of approximately 50% and an efficiency ratio of around 40%, while maintaining a CET1 fully loaded capital ratio of 12%. As we look ahead, our strategy is clear. We aim to be the best open financial services platform by acting responsibly and earning the lasting loyalty of our people, customers, shareholders, and communities. Our purpose is to help people and businesses prosper, and we strive to make everything we do as simple, personal, and fair. At the heart of our strategy lies the customer. That customer focus, combined with our scale and geographic and business diversification, are the foundations for generating value for our shareholders. As I mentioned before, one of the group's advantages is its diversification, thanks to which our EPS has had the lowest volatility compared to our peers in the last 20 years. We aim to create value for our shareholders by focusing on efficient and profitable growth through a dynamic capital allocation discipline, maintaining a rock-solid balance sheet underpinned by a CET1 fully loaded ratio of 12%, and prudent risk management across all our businesses. Given the strategy, as we look to the Santander of the future, one can see significant potential for further growth. We are one of the largest banks in the world in terms of the numbers of customers we serve, and this creates opportunities that only a few banks can replicate. The questions now are, how do we leverage our scale and scope to continue with this profitable growth? Can we work together in our markets to better serve customers and more efficiently? Can we use the group's technology to build common platforms, especially for individuals and SMEs in high growth market areas such as payments that not only serve our own businesses, but also third parties? The answer to these questions is yes. The reason is the three strategic initiatives we launched in 2020, what we call One Santander, PagoNxt, and Digital Consumer Bank. Together, they drive results today and will generate future profitability and growth. One Santander will increase connectivity within our group by building common platforms and shared services, such as our Latin America consumer finance business, our European operating hubs for our more than 46 million customers, and our global businesses. This will result in an improved customer experience as we simplify products and services, as well as greater efficiency by productivity, and therefore, a greater profitability. In North America, we are refocusing our U.S. retail business on our market-leading consumer finance franchise, both in consumers and auto finance, leveraging group OEMs relationship and group technology assets and other businesses that can also benefit from the group's connectivity or have a distinct competitive advantage, primarily our commercial, corporate, and investment banking, and private banking activities. In South America, we have become the most profitable bank in Brazil and continue to gain profitable market share. We have maintained our leadership positions in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Stronger local currencies will translate into even higher value creation in euros. PagoNxt, our global payments businesses, is a critical component of our strategy, as payments are at the heart of our customers' banking relationships, especially in the digital world. PagoNxt is a common tech backbone that will unite the payments for all Santander customers and Openbank. It combines, among others, the payments hub, where we want to process more than 30% of the total payments of the group and provide services to customers outside of the group. This 30% will happen between 2022 and 2023. Also, the acquiring and commercial international business. In 2022, we hope to increase revenue 50% in PagoNxt and generate very attractive returns, and we hope that this year, in the year 2022, PagoNxt will be profitable. In Digital Consumer Bank, we combine our auto and consumer businesses and leverage Openbank's technology in order to accelerate the technological transformation of these businesses in order to improve our customer service and continue to grow profitably as best as possible. Our auto business has global scale, and this makes us one of the largest in the world. This allows us to establish relationships and agreements via a financing model, which is joint with technology integration points in over 30 countries, and the benefits, of course, of global customer data information for risk management and competitive lending. In summary, the transformation we are undertaking through One Santander, PagoNxt, and DCB is deep, profound. It has come very nicely along, and it is essential to our strategy. In 2021, we invested EUR 2 billion to transform the business, of which EUR 1.4 billion went to the tech transformation of One Santander and EUR 600 million went to PagoNxt and Digital Consumer Bank, DCB systems. We're often asked by our shareholders, how about the returns? Well, the return on these investments, the best way of understanding it is in seeing the cost to income, 46%, one of the best in the industry. How we have surpassed digital transactions from 55%-76% in just two years. All of the transactions, all. Now, these investments have, and this is very important, delivered significant benefits in other areas. Time to market, for instance, in new products. As a responsible bank, our approach to ESG issue is essential to our strategy, and Ramiro Mato will provide more details shortly. Let me share with you some highlights. The invasion of Ukraine has underlined the need to change energy policies and clarify appropriate timelines for the transition of businesses and sectors the world over. Of course, we need to accelerate investments in renewables in order to help people and companies to go green, to go green. Let's not forget that this transition, as we said, will be more challenging for emerging economies, SMEs, and vulnerable groups. Thus, we will need to have incentives in order to ensure a fair and orderly transition. Let me underscore that in 2021, we committed to net zero carbon by 2050. We have originated EUR 66 billion in green finance in 2019, and we are the preeminent global bank in renewable energy. Since 2020, we are already carbon neutral in our own operations. Now, as to S, our support for society. We have made progress on our goal to financially empower 10 million individuals by 2025. We have already reached out to more than 7 million people since 2019. We have furthermore allocated over EUR 550 million to microfinance last year. In 2021, we were recognized by Euromoney as the best bank in the world for financial inclusion. Finally, it is essential that we rely on robust governance. This is key to ensuring we do things the right way. The continued improvements to our corporate governance this year have focused on consolidating the strategy, accelerating digital transformation, and improving operational execution via increased connectivity. With this in mind, the roles of our key executives, including my own and the CEO's, have been better documented and clarified. We have furthermore reviewed the checks and balances and all the while preserving the full independence of control functions. Now, in order to contribute to these objectives and to improve the functioning of our governing bodies while adapting them to recent legislative developments, certain amendments to the bylaws and to the shareholders meeting regulation are proposed to this AGM. They have also been introduced into the rules and regulations of the board of directors, as the General Secretary will explain. The ongoing process improvement of governance also encompasses the board composition. We have an outstanding board, both in terms of independence and in terms of diversity. We have 40% of our board members as women, and this is very important. The fact that directors come from multiple geographies and have different professional experience. This composition allows the group to address the transformation necessary to meet the challenges we face and will furthermore be reinforced by the addition of Germán de la Fuente, who will replace Álvaro de Souza. Thank you. Thank you to Álvaro de Souza. Thank you very much for his great contribution to Santander as Group Director and as Chairman of Santander Brazil. At the heart of our success as a company is our team, our people. This is why I am extremely proud that Santander is the only bank among the world's top 25 best workplaces, according to Great Place to Work. We also are number one among global banks and number two among global companies in Bloomberg's Gender-Equality Index. This is a great testament to our commitment to diversity and inclusion. I am also proud that our efforts on the ESG agenda have been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, ranked the company again as one of the world's most sustainable banks in 2021, and our ranking has improved in other indices, notably the MSCI and Carbon Disclosure Project. Now going forward, while focusing, of course, on our three strategic initiatives as key drivers for growth and profitability improvement, we will, as I said before, take an even more demanding approach to capital management. Our capital allocation will prioritize organic, profitable growth and shareholder remuneration. This is essential for us. We will be prioritizing growth and remuneration. In 2022, as we said in February, we wish to reduce the proportion of portfolios by one-third, portfolios that do not meet the cost of capital. This intense focus on capital management discipline will ensure that we continue to improve our profitability. As previously, 2021, shareholder remuneration will remain at the forefront of our objectives, with an aim to grow our TNAV per share and dividend per share above our cost of capital. 2021 was an important year. This was the first time we actually undertook a share buyback, a way of remunerating shareholders, whereby the company buys its own shares, which are then canceled, thus reducing the total number of shares outstanding. As the number of outstanding shares decreases, the economic rights of each share increases, thereby increasing the value of each share as it represents a bigger portion of Santander, of its profits, dividends, and assets. Now, when we buy our shares at prices below tangible book value, as was the case, we are investing our capital well above our cost of equity. We are convinced that investing in Santander shares at current prices is indeed one of the very best investment opportunities that we have. Among our 4 million shareholders, we have a large and diverse group of investors. Investors who have different preferences in terms of shareholder remuneration. To respond to all of them, we have decided to combine cash dividends together with share buybacks. In line with the 2021 remuneration policy, today we submit for your approval a cash dividend of EUR 0.0515 per share, payable from May 2, 2022 as part of a final distribution from 2021 earnings. This is complemented with a second share buyback, which already has been initiated, worth EUR 865 million. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Santander paid an initial cash dividend against 2021 results of EUR 0.0485 per share and completed a buyback of approximately EUR 841 million. Accordingly, the total capital distributed to shareholders against 2021 results will be of approximately EUR 3.4 billion, which represents an equivalent yield of 7%. In 2022, we expect to remunerate our shareholders the payout, again including buybacks, and this will represent approximately half the amount. Beyond 2022, we aim to increase total shareholder remuneration above 40%. Around a half will be through share buybacks and a cash dividend, which will be a growing one, while maintaining our CET1 fully loaded at 12%. Now, for over 150 years now, customers around the world have chosen Santander as their bank. They have made Santander their bank. Santander, through many periods of disruption and uncertainty, has been there for its customers, all of its customers. Today, a new generation looks for a different way to manage their finances, and once again, Santander will be there for them. Santander is investing heavily for the future, building the right culture that we need in order to continue to attract a talented, committed, and even more diverse team and retain them, while using all of our experience of so many years to ensure that we remain at the cutting edge of new financial services. As our results show, we are successfully launching new products and services. We are increasingly important in our communities. We are growing our customer base. Our shareholders will directly benefit from our success. That success is, in the end, possible thanks to a great team. I need to verbalize my appreciation and thanks to our board of directors. Thank you for their continuing support, advice, and guidance. Thank you to each one of the members of the Santander team worldwide for all they have done and for continuing to do now, going the extra mile to help people and businesses prosper each and every day, especially in these difficult times. Our success strengthens my conviction and my confidence about what we can do together in the future. As I look ahead, I sincerely hope that peace in Ukraine can be restored and that democracy and freedom can continue to flourish in Europe. From this tragedy, a stronger, more united, and more prosperous Europe will emerge. As I do every year then, again, thank you. Thank you very much for your ongoing trust in Banco Santander. Thank you. I give the floor now to Mr. José Antonio Álvarez, the CEO. Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon, good morning. Many thanks for attending this annual general meeting. I'm going to focus on three points. First, I will briefly discuss the group's performance in 2021 and the execution of our management priorities. I will then review with you the evolution, the progress of our three strategic initiatives that the chair has referred to, One Santander, Digital Consumer Bank, and PagoNxt, apart of course from our global businesses. Lastly, I will take a few minutes to comment on Santander's management priorities for 2022 and the impact that the current geopolitical environment situation may have on our business. I will explain the support measures that we are implementing within the group to help Ukrainian citizens. In this regard, I would like to begin by saying that I am shocked at the events that are taking place in Ukraine. Furthermore, I express my solidarity with all of those who are being affected by the war. Now before I begin, I need to express my appreciation to your good selves, our shareholders, for placing your confidence in Banco Santander. Our goal, as always, is to continue to work to generate value, consolidating a long-term relationship with each and every one of the shareholders yourselves. Thank you also to the nearly 200,000 professionals who work for the group. All of them play a key role in delivering on our goals. It is thanks to their commitment and dedication that we continue to improve every day. 2021 was characterized by a strong economic rebound, albeit uneven across countries and sectors, and with some risks, some uncertainties arising from the pandemic and which have grown more acute in recent weeks as a result of the conflict in Ukraine. In this environment, the banking sector has played a major role in the economic and business recovery. This not only because of the financial support and liquidity that banks have provided to businesses and households, but also because of their ability to efficiently channel financial aid granted across many of the countries where we operate, reaching most sectors and segments of society, and quickly. In 2021, our priorities focused on supporting our customers' needs, helping them recover growth, recover profitability to pre-pandemic levels while managing risk and maintaining the strength of the balance sheet. To this end, we have been implementing a major transformation process throughout the group, aimed at improving the productivity of our banks in Europe, North America, and South America by leveraging our unique asset composition by region and by business. We maintain high market shares across our footprint and continue to provide an outstanding customer service experience. We have also increased the weight of our global private banking, asset management, insurance, and wholesale banking businesses, integrating payments into a single shared platform with the capability to serve different countries and which operates in multiple currencies. In addition, we have a globally recognized auto finance franchise. The execution of our strategy has enabled us to grow revenue in 2021. It has been above the industry average. We remain one of the most efficient banks in the world and generate a profitability ratio above the average of major European banks. Shareholders, ladies and gentlemen, our priorities in 2021 were, first, to increase our customer base and digital activity. In 2021, our efforts to improve customer experience and satisfaction resulted in an increase in customers and in the number of countries where we rank in the top three in service quality in terms of net promoter score, NPS. We focus on offering our customers the utmost flexibility via a combination of online banking, traditional branches, and online and telephone services, which allow us to serve our customers' needs 24/7 and offer specialized services. Our second priority was to recover activity levels. The increase in customers resulted in significant growth in new lending, notably to individuals. We also saw widespread growth in customer funds, mainly deposits and mutual funds, and we did so while improving our cost of funding. Additionally, digital transactions increased by 44% and already account for 76% of the group's total transactions. Third priority, grow our revenues. These strong commercial dynamics resulted in a combined 7% increase in net interest income in constant euros. Net interest income grew, underpinned by higher volumes, lower funding costs, wider credit spreads in some Latin American markets, and the positive impact from the ECB's liquidity injections. We expect margins to more clearly show the positive impact of recent interest rate hikes in some Latin American countries, the U.K., and Poland. As I say, we will see it more clearly in upcoming quarters. Increased commercial and financial activity was also reflected in higher net fee income, which rose at double-digit rates in corporate, wholesale banking, asset management, and insurance. Our fourth priority was to improve productivity and efficiency. We continued with a rigorous expense management initiative in an environment of accelerating inflation. In real terms, excluding inflation, costs fell 2%. This was primarily driven by our efforts in Europe. The group's efficiency ratio improved to 46%, and net operating income rose 9% in constant euros. The amount was EUR 25 billion. Fifth, risk control. Always controlling risks. Active risk management enabled us to improve our cost of credit to 77 basis points. In 2021, we released part of the provisions that had been taken in 2022, that additional COVID-19 related provisions, and the performance was better than expected. We focused on capital management in sixth position. The high rate of organic capital generation continued enabling us to achieve a fully loaded CET1 capital ratio of 12%, which is an appropriate ratio for our business model because it represents a buffer of 300 basis points above our regulatory requirements. Additionally, I am pleased to report that in the latest stress test quoted by the EBA, Santander, of all large banks, destroyed the least capital and generated the most profit. This has happened in all exercises in recent years. I think that this shows that the bank is indeed strong. Our seventh priority, to boost inclusive and sustainable growth. For many years now, Santander has been committed to the environment. We have supported sustainable, inclusive growth. For persons, for companies, and we have set clear goals supporting our clients in their transition to a low carbon economy. We are further embedding climate and environmental criteria in our risk management processes. At the same time, we develop increasingly simple and innovative digital platforms. We are proud to have been recognized by The Banker in 2021 as most innovative entity in digital banking for our financial inclusion initiatives. To conclude this first part of my speech, I would like to remind you that at the beginning of 2021, we set three major financial goals, to lower our efficiency ratio to under 47%, to bring the cost of credit below 1.28%, and to generate profitability measured in terms of underlying ROTE of 9%-10%. The execution of all of these priorities enabled us to significantly exceed our forecast. Our efficiency ratio was 46%. Cost of credit, 12.7, and underlying ROTE, 12.7. Cost of credit improved to 77 basis points. We see that the underlying profit amounted to EUR 8.654 billion, 77.0% higher than in 2020. Attributable profit was of EUR 8.124 billion, the highest in the last decade. Now, allow me to very briefly outline our performance by region, country and global business, this in 2021. Beginning with One Santander, Europe is pioneering the transformation project. This implies a number of structural changes necessary to develop a more digital and integrated operating model across different geographies and markets. This was reflected in a significant improvement in service quality and positive commercial dynamics. In constant euros, loans increased by EUR 16 billion, basically mortgages and large corporates, customer funds EUR 26 billion, and mutual funds EUR 15.5 billion, driving total revenue up by 11%. We also improved the efficiency ratio and the cost of credit, and this resulted in the region's profit doubling to roughly EUR 3 billion. Let's look at the detail by country. In Spain, revenue surged back by strong mortgage and consumer lending. Productivity improved, and we booked lower provisions than in 2020. Profit was up 85%. In the U.K., the strong demand for mortgages and careful management of liability costs helped drive a 22% increase in net interest income, well above our competitors. In addition, we further implemented our transformation program, has benefited from the release of loan loss provisions, 4 times if we compare with 2020. In Portugal, profit was 42% higher on the back of market share gains in mortgages and corporates, higher net fee income, which mitigated interest rate pressures and of course, the continuous improvement in productivity and lower provisions. In Poland, we increased our digital presence, achieved record mortgage loan sales, and continued to be market leader in wholesale banking. This led to 11% revenue growth in constant euros and 43% in net operating income after provisions. This positive result was not fully reflected in profits due to a charge related to the Swiss franc mortgage portfolio, an issue which was common to all banks in the country. North America, our priorities were to accelerate profitable growth and improve competitiveness in our core businesses. In addition, we are developing initiatives to improve connectivity and customer interaction through a more defined segmentation and to consolidate and integrate the IT function in the region. As for results, solid revenue performance together with significant reductions in loan loss provisions and the fact that used vehicles retained their price well, thanks to tight supply, resulted in a profit of over EUR 3 billion. In the United States, we focus on the consumer finance segment, and our branch network allows us to maintain a large deposit base that plays a critical role in the funding of this business. In 2021, new auto lending climbed 13.3% and demand deposits 12% higher, which enabled us to further reduce our funding costs. In our wholesale banking business, we developed new capabilities that leverage our global scale. As a result, profits increased in the States threefold. The financial environment in Mexico was a true challenge as a result of interest rate cuts in 2020 and weak performance in volumes. We were, however, able to leverage our digitalization investments to quickly adapt to the situation while launching disruptive products such as the card, digital credit card called LikeU. Our performance in the second half of the year was shaped by loan and deposit growth and higher revenue, and this resulted in profits increasing by 8%. In South America, we continued to expand our franchise, sharing best practices across units and successfully capturing new business opportunities to consolidate our profitable growth model. In terms of service quality, we are absolute leaders in Brazil and Chile. The total number of customers rose 10%, digital customers 17.7%, and we gained market share in volumes. Customer revenue grew at double digits. Efficiency improved, and the cost of credit fell in all countries. As a result, attributable profit exceeded EUR 3.3 billion, which is +24% in constant euros. Brazil had another excellent year, with record highs in customer acquisition and new lending growing at double digits in consumer agro and SMEs, which resulted in a 10% increase in revenue. In addition, the cost-to-income ratio was below 30%, becoming a global reference. The cost of credit improved substantially, driving profit growth 21% in constant euros and RoTE exceeded 20%. In Chile, we remained focused on customer attraction and loyalty and on improving customer satisfaction. We also progressed in our key commercial propositions, such as Santander Life, which doubled its customers and launched Getnet, a payment solution. Profit was 40% higher in constant euros. In Argentina, we improved our customer care model, introduced Superdigital, and made headway in our digital transformation through our new businesses such as Getnet, which ended the year with more than 60,000 active merchants. Profit was 73% higher in constant euros. In Uruguay, Peru, and Colombia, we recorded double-digit volume growth, maintaining profitability close to 20% in all countries. Turning to consumer finance, Digital Consumer Bank consolidated its leadership in Europe, particularly in auto lending. We leveraged our strong market position to increase new lending by 10%. We increased our new auto market share in an environment dampened by the microchip shortage, which boosted used vehicle sales, a segment that offers a high return on invested capital. We also saw good dynamics at Openbank, which achieved the highest NPS among Spanish banks, while continuing to expand internationally, growing loans and customer funds by more than 20% in the year. All of the above, together with an excellent cost of credit, increased Digital Consumer Bank's profit by 16% year-on-year in constant euros to EUR 1.332 billion. PagoNxt, our payments business, generated EUR 495 million in revenue, 47% higher year-on-year, meeting the milestones set out in our strategy of its merchant acquiring international trading consumer business. Finally, turning to our global businesses and starting with corporate and investment banking, we recorded another excellent year, earning a record profit and recording a 26% increase. The transformation that we started a few years ago to become our clients' strategic advisor of choice with tailored solutions and value-added services is paying off. We will continue to increase diversification, advising and supporting our customers in their green and digital transition. Looking ahead, we want to build a regional platform in Europe to become one of the top wholesale banks in the region, while strengthening our leadership in South America and accelerating growth in the U.S. In private banking, asset management, and insurance, we streamlined and rounded off our value proposition. We continue to innovate our product proposition and increase digital sales. Total assets under management increased, driven both by the positive performance in private banking and asset management. In private banking, we are very proud to rank as one of the top 3 global private banks according to Euromoney for the first time, and we would like to thank all our clients for this. In insurance, we increased the volume of premiums, notably in the protection business, which went up by 12% in the year. As a result, profit grew 12% in constant euros, including profit and ceded fee income. In addition, I would like to highlight our efforts to improve our global card services. We are working to globally manage the 90 million cards throughout the group, reaching nearly EUR 3 billion in revenue and turnover growth of more than 20%. Let me now shift to the focus of 2022 management priorities. 2022 began with some remaining uncertainties arising from the pandemic, aggravated by the war in Ukraine. In this environment, we are extremely mindful of the importance of credit risk and will focus on improving operational efficiency and cost control while ensuring that our balance sheet remains well-positioned to benefit from interest rate hikes. In 2022, we will work on the following priorities. First, continue to grow our customer base through increasingly personalized customer solutions. We expect, once again, to close the year ranking top three in service quality in most countries. Number 1 in Spain, to this end, we are investing in technological capabilities to increase our speed to market new functionalities for our customers. We are also focused on attracting and retaining talent, the best talent. We have invested in technology training programs in which over 60,000 employees have participated. 63 of our tech employees are now integrated in the business areas, and 80% of the technology teams work under agile methodology. Second, continue to increase revenue above the average of our main peers by leveraging our customer attraction capacity, a better business mix, and diligent margin management in an environment of rising interest rates. In addition, with One Santander, we will further improve our digital offering and high value-added products to diversify our revenue sources and continue to grow net interest income and net fee income. Third priority, keep cost growth below the rate of inflation, as we have done in recent years. Our intention is to continue to improve our efficiency ratio through the implementation of our transformation plans across regions. The fourth priority, to maintain the cost of credit at or below the average of the cycle, leveraging our market and customer knowledge. Here, Spain will be key as we expect to reduce the cost of credit there to around 50 basis points, offsetting some anticipated normalization in the U.S. and the U.K. and moderate growth in emerging markets. As a result, our aim is to increase profit and generate a return on underlying tangible equity in excess of 13%, well above our cost of capital. In addition, we plan to maintain a fully loaded CET1 solvency ratio at 12% and continue to improve our tangible book value per share. This will give us the flexibility to continue to grow strongly in the most profitable parts of our business while providing attractive returns to our shareholders. However, the implications of our business performance and results arising from the current geopolitical situation are highly uncertain, as we don't know the extent or duration of the conflict. What I can assure you is that our starting point is very solid. We have excellent liquidity and capital positions. Our direct exposure to Russia and Ukraine is negligible, and we are strengthening controls against potential operational threats, including cybersecurity and money laundering. We are strictly compliant with international sanctions, and we have also announced that we will not engage in any new businesses with Russian companies. Since the beginning of the conflict, we swiftly implemented measures to facilitate financial transactions for Ukrainians leaving the country and for residents in the countries where we operate. We have removed fees on all permitted transfers to Ukraine from Europe. We suspended account and card fees for Ukrainian customers in Poland, and providing free use of ATMs and access to cash in branches and via ATMs. In addition, we are collaborating with the Red Cross and UNHCR through donations and supporting assisting Ukrainian refugees. Based on what we know today, we expect limited impact on the group, although it will be uneven depending on the region, as the chair said. In theory, Europe is likely to be the most affected area due to lower than expected economic growth, which may impact activity and credit quality. However, the potential interest rate hikes, together with the ongoing transformation and operational improvement processes, could be reflected in greater profitability in the region. In North America, we expect further economic growth, which will boost new consumer lending in the U.S. and reactivate lending activity in Mexico. In South America, this new environment will have a neutral or positive impact. The increase in the export of raw materials at higher prices, along with the resulting currency appreciation, should be reflected in our results. I believe that our geographic and business diversification, to some extent, makes us more resilient under potential adverse circumstances and should enable us to maintain strong and recurring results and to continue to improve profitability. This was reflected in the positive performance in volumes and revenue in the first quarter, with the latter increasing by around 7% year-on-year in euros. This, together with our ongoing cost and risk management, boost our confidence that we will meet our targets for the year, as the chair said. I would like to end my speech by reminding you that the entire Santander team will continue to work tirelessly to earn your trust, offer attractive returns, and ensure that we serve the best interest of our customers, our shareholders, and society. We believe this is the right thing to do, even more so in exceptional situations such as those we have had to live through in recent times. Dear shareholders, I would like once again to express my gratitude for your support and for being part of Grupo Santander. Thank you. The Chairs of the Nomination, Remuneration, Responsible Banking, Sustainability and Culture, and Audit Committees will now briefly report on the activities of the committees they chair and other proposed resolutions relating to the areas of their respective powers. In the case of English language presentations, the Spanish language versions will be projected in these premises and will be available at the notary's desk. Remote attendees will be able to follow a simultaneous translation into Spanish. I give the floor to the Chair of the Remuneration Committee and of the Nominations Committee. [Foreign language] Señoras y Señores Accionistas, buenas tardes. Good afternoon. capacity as Lead Independent Director and Chair of the Board Nomination and Remuneration Committees. These committees have drawn up their respective 2021 activities reports, which have been included in the corporate governance chapter of the annual report, and have been made available to you from the date on which the notice of this general meeting was first published. Among the activities carried out by the Board Nomination Committee, I would like to highlight the committee's oversight of the holistic review of our governance arrangements executed in 2021, with the assistance of an external firm of advisors. The review concluded that notwithstanding the effectiveness and high standards of our governance model, certain actions for further improvement could be taken so that we can accelerate the implementation of our strategy and further align ourselves with best industry practices. The actions adopted by the bank, including the changes in the management structures announced on February the twenty-fourth, principally address ensuring clarity of the roles and responsibilities of the executive directors, ensuring that checks and balances are appropriate and effective, and ensuring the independence of control functions is fully preserved. In addition, the oversight of succession planning for our directors and senior executives, where diversity is a significant factor, has remained a priority for this committee. The Board Nomination Committee has drawn up its proposal for the re-election of directors as set out in item three of the agenda of this meeting. After reviewing the effective commitment of directors to their roles and analyzing the skills and diversity of the board as a whole. It is also this analysis, together with the assessment of his skills and competencies, which has led to the committee's recommendation to appoint Señor Germán de la Fuente as an independent director, which is also submitted to this meeting for the vote. His appointment will reinforce the boards and the audit committee's audit, accounting, and financial expertise. As regards the Board Remuneration Committee, I would like to highlight its work in reviewing the group's long-term variable compensation plan for the first time in five years, with the aim of simplifying it and aligning it with our simple, personal, and fair values. To this end, in coordination with the board Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee, metrics relating to environmental, social, and governance aspects have been included in the long-term variable remuneration for the first time in order to align remuneration policies with the group strategy. Stock options have also been included as a remuneration instrument to leverage executive pay in alignment with the interests of shareholders and investors. These new features are included in the remuneration policy and as applicable in resolutions under items 8 A to F, which are subject to your approval and have been endorsed by the committee along with the annual report on directors' remuneration, the latter being put to a consultative vote. The committee addressed the importance of equal pay between women and men and has continued to oversee the measures taken in 2021 to reduce the pay gap. Finally, as is customary at this meeting, I would like to highlight some of my activities as Lead Independent Director. In 2021, I met with non-executive directors in private session on 8 occasions to make sure their views and opinions were considered in the group's governance. In recent months, I have also engaged in regular contact with institutional investors in Europe and in North America, representing approximately 30% of our share capital in order to gather their insights and feedback. To conclude, I would like to stress the group's commitment to maintaining robust and effective governance and executive remuneration schemes, which are fully aligned to our shareholders' interests. This is essential to our long-term success. Muchas gracias. [Foreign language] The Chair of the Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee has the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, I am addressing you in my capacity as Chair of the Board Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee. Given the growing importance of environmental, social, and governance matters or ESG matters reflected in some of the proposals submitted today for approval, we have considered it preferable to make this report to the shareholders meeting for the first time. We firmly believe that as one of the world's largest banks, we have a responsibility to tackle global challenges. In 2021, Santander met or even exceeded all our ESG commitments for 2019-2021, and made progress on all its targets. Let me highlight a few achievements. We committed to net zero emissions by 2050, and became a founding member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. We are supporting the green transition, where we were the top financial advisor in the number of deals and renewables project finance globally. We developed a new global health and well-being policy that reflect the lessons learned from COVID. This is unique among financial institutions in the world. We celebrated the 25th anniversary of Santander Universities, and we launched challenges to find entrepreneurs who have innovative solutions to widen access to banking finance for all, or to promote a low carbon economy. As Ana said, our progress is reflected in the improvement of our rating in Dow Jones Sustainability Index such as DJSI, JSI, MSCI, CDP, ShareAction, Sustainalytics, FTSE4Good, and the BGEI. Euromoney awarded us the world's leading bank on financial inclusion. You can find detailed information on this progress in the consolidated statement of non-financial information, which is included in the responsible banking chapter of the annual report submitted today for approval under item one B on the agenda. The non-financial statement has been duly verified by an independent expert. The Board Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee, jointly with the Board Audit Committee, has been fully engaged in this proposal to ensure that the quality of information is of a high standard. We are making progress, but we know there is always more to do. For example, we ask this AGM to approve ESG criteria to be included in long-term incentives for executive directors. We have included in our public commitments for 2025 targets on decarbonization and sustainable investment. We are also working to measure and develop our sustainable finance value propositions using our new sustainable finance classification system. Looking ahead to 2025, we plan to do more to embed ESG in risk, business activity and employees, to widen diversity and inclusion, to support our customers in vulnerable situations and in their transition and transformation towards a green economy, to protect the Amazon while helping promote sustainable development and practices, to financially empower underbanked or unbanked small entrepreneurs while supporting education and enterprise. Underpinning this is a strong culture and robust governance, so we act responsibly and treat all our shareholders in a simple, personal and fair way. Ultimately, we will continue to ensure our teams behave in a way that builds loyalty and help the people, more people than businesses, prosper. Thank you. The chair of the audit committee now has the floor. Good afternoon. I apologize because my Spanish forces me to address you in English. Board Audit Committee, I am reporting at this general meeting on the matters within the remit of the committee, on the outcome of the audit for the year, and on how the committee's work has contributed to the integrity of the financial and non-financial information. The committee's report, which is incorporated in the corporate governance chapter of the annual report, details the activities we have carried out during 2021. Without reiterating their content, I would like to highlight the most relevant activities now. With respect to financial information, the Board Audit Committee has reviewed the financial statements that the bank has made available to the market during the year. In particular, we have favorably reported on the financial statements and directors' reports for 2021 that are submitted today for your approval under item 1 A of the agenda. These annual financial statements are presented in accordance with the standards of the European Single Electronic Format, and have been reviewed by our external auditor, who issued unqualified reports. The committee has supervised the process of their preparation and the effectiveness of the internal controls, which has also been verified by the external auditor. Together with the Board Responsible Banking, Sustainability, and Culture Committee, the committee has also reviewed the non-financial information submitted for separate approval under item 1 B of the agenda. In relation to the external auditor, the committee has maintained an ongoing interaction in order to be duly informed of the progress of the accounts audit process. PwC has attended all board audit committee meetings, and on two occasions has done so without the presence of the executives. This has allowed us to confirm the adequacy of the audit and to be aware of any concerns that may affect their work. None were raised. The committee verified the independence of the external auditor after having analyzed the non-audit services provided by them and the fees paid, together with all other aspects that could compromise their independence in accordance with applicable regulations and our own internal policy. The committee, after a positive assessment of performance of the external auditor in a year in which the lead partner has rotated, has proposed his re-election for 2022, submitted to this meeting for approval under item four of the agenda. As for the internal audit function, I would like to emphasize that it continues to respond extraordinarily well to both the external challenges we are facing and the strategic direction of the group. It is continually updating its skills and technology to adapt, delivering greater effectiveness and efficiency. The committee gave a favorable opinion on the internal audit plan for 2021 and submitted it to the board for approval. It has subsequently supervised its execution together with the implementation of the recommendations made during the year. In relation to the remaining duties of the committee, I would like to highlight the detailed information received on the group's presence in territories considered non-cooperative jurisdictions which are in gradual decline, and on the control carried out over such entities. The committee was also informed on application of the tax policies during the year and revised the annual tax transparency report, which, in compliance with the Code of Good Tax Practices to which we adhere, is submitted to the tax authorities. The committee has monitored the group's adaptation to the new regulation on related party transactions, which has resulted in the implementation of a new procedure for approval, reporting, and control. The details are disclosed in the report on this subject included in the annual report. I would like to finish by confirming to you my satisfaction and the positive opinion of the audit committee on the above-mentioned proposals that we are submitting for your approval today. The committee benefits from a very good mix of experienced professionals, and we have also worked closely both with our colleagues on the board risk committee and with the audit committees in the subsidiary companies. All of these contribute to the soundness of the decision-making process. During 2022, we will remain fully engaged in the development of the controls within the group, as well as the exciting projects being pursued in a complex environment. The Board Audit Committee will continue to adapt to fully exercise its responsibilities as effectively as possible. Thank you very much. The period for presentations by the shareholders will now commence. Shareholders among those who are physically present or represented in these premises have asked to make presentations. 25 have asked to participate. They will do so in the order that I call them. Please remember that your presentation should be limited to the matters properly before this meeting. In exercise of my powers pursuant to Article 29 of the bylaws, I will direct the deliberations and will end the presentations when I think the issue has been sufficiently presented. At the beginning of each of your presentation, please state the number of shares you hold or represent. As provided by Article 17 of the rules and regulations for the general shareholders meeting, the time initially allowed for each presentation is five minutes per shareholder. Please try to keep to your allotted time. I will let you know as your time runs out. I would like to remind remote attendees that they may submit their presentations until the end of the period for presentations on these premises. I give the floor to Mr. Julián García Caballo. Can you hear me, Chair? Yes, I can hear you perfectly. Thank you. But I cannot see you. Well, I can see you. Fine. My name is Julián García Caballo, and I'd like to greet the chair of the board and the shareholders. The chair knows well that there are many ways to invest, and there are many ways to invest. As I say, modern forms of investment, some more conservative, riskier forms of investment. I believe that dividend is a very conservative, classical way of investing, and very interesting, I may add. Every year that I have been a shareholder, it seemed that everything was going black lately with the prospect of a war in Europe. Our parents talk to us about the war, and we always know that it can happen again. Generally speaking, I think that we can say that we are satisfied with the dividend as a way of investment and as a way to remunerate our capital. You talked about buyback of shares as a way of allowing the shareholder to obtain more value. Of course, less shareholders, more value we have. That is very clear. Moreover, I agree with you that shares are undervalued right now, and this is a very good time to get a better return from these dividends. I agree that the share price is very low. It's undervalued, but it has many prospects to grow. Could you say a bit more about the dividend payout policy for this year? How does the payout policy compare this year from previous years? Thank you. Thank you, sir. The floor goes to Mrs. María del Pilar Pintor Solís. Hello. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Ladies and gentlemen of the board, participants, I'm Pilar, and I have a question. Here I go. I wanted to ask what the impact might be on the bank of the war in Ukraine. In the President's address, she made a reference to the fact that the impact has been minimum within logical limits. Now, all of this is going to perhaps lead to achieving the objectives that were set forth in the development, as I say, of ensuring those objectives that had been set out for 2022. Now, it's also part of the policy which the bank carries out because of diversification in different geographical areas. I'm a little bit nervous. I apologize. Now, for all these years in the past, having focused on the Latin American and North American markets, you know, I've also heard that, more or less, 66.0% of the results were achieved. This is good for the bank. I think that is very telling. I think it tells us that the bank can adapt to difficult times and scenarios. I think that shareholders therefore can feel confident and can place their trust in the bank. So my question is, could you give more details? Could you give more information about how the business is going to evolve in these markets in 2022 and forward-looking because of, you know, these difficult times? Thank you. Thank you, Madam Shareholder. The floor, José Javier Arrieta Cabello. You have the floor, sir. Hola. Hello. I'm José Antonio. Hello, Madam Chair, members of the board, shareholders. Last year, we talked about the pandemic. This year, we're talking about the war in Ukraine. It seems that current events are not going to allow us to have a peaceful year. The fact is, in 2021, the results were record-breaking. The bank has very solid foundations. The bank continues to invest with a clear strategy, which you have very clearly explained in your address. We all know that financial markets are difficult, and we know that there is very much volatility. But I am absolutely certain that the share is undervalued, and I think that this is definitely the place where our money should go. Could you talk about the evolution of the price per share this year? Thank you. Thank you, sir. The floor now goes to Madam Shareholder Begoña Pérez Bengoa. Good afternoon, I'm Begoña Pérez Bengoa. Madam Chair, I think it's obvious that Spain is proud of companies such as Santander. You create jobs. The persons who have ensured that Santander is known the world over. We hear criticism because of the wages, the salaries of the top executives. Not you, all of the IBEX companies. These wages, these salaries are not aligned with the market. At this point, competitiveness is huge. I would like for you to please explain what the criteria are that specify these remunerations for top executives and their teams. Thank you. The floor now to José Manuel Galeote. Madam Chair, thank you. What I'm seeing, especially, I was sitting there, and I say, "Oh, everything is wonderful. We're earning loads of money, fantastic. Somebody who invested EUR 6 in 2017, which was what the shares cost back then. Shall I turn this off? Oh, okay. The fact is that right now we see that in a best case scenario, it's 3, and it's not the war in Ukraine. The share before the war was even at a lesser price. Actually, the war apparently has resulted in a higher price. When you say 7%, 7% of what? 7% of now that we have nothing or 7% really of when we bought, you know, at 6? Now, Madam Chair, whether we like it or not, you know, you remember your father and back then share prices were between 8 and 14, and it was €0.50 that we were looking at. You have said very often, or at least you said this when I remember back in 2020 before the pandemic, you talked about double digits. This is not happening. This is not happening. What is great is that you are buying back shares, which sounds like a smart idea because they're very cheap now. When you say, "We're earning," and it's not reflected, something's happening because there is no possible interpretation of a shareholder receiving the returns they received before. That on the one hand. On the other hand, you say that, yes, you defend the Ukraine, this and that, but my question is, as the lady who spoke before, the lady who talked about the wages, and let me actually zoom in. You said, "I'm going to bring the temperature down by two degrees, and then we were going to save energy." That must ring a bell. Now, Google says that in 2021, you're going to be taking home EUR 11 million. I don't know whether this is so or not. The rest, in other words, you're second in command, 9 point something. Now, just your take-home would allow for 10,000 people to earn 1,000 EUR. You yourself, you and your board, if you gave your not all of it, 50%, if you gave it to a Ukrainian, that would be 500,000 people who would benefit. Please, once and for all, when you talk, please be focused. It's easy to say. At least, either don't say anything or don't take us for fools. When you say you're going to collaborate, do so. Participate. Reduce those percentages. You brought the dividend down by over 50%, well, bring your wages down. It doesn't matter whether it's the Ukraine, COVID, whatever. You continue to be there. Yes, I'm so sorry about the poor Ukrainians. Please, it sounds, you know, awfully like a joke. I wish I didn't have to come here, but as it turns out, online it's impossible. I'm here. I know that you cannot see me, but you can hear me. I could, you know, be at home. We have the best platform, but not for these purposes. If you're posing questions and for the notary public to take note of them, sure. We're all very democratic, and we fight for democracy. You know, tomorrow, you move to Cantabria, and we can talk, and we can hear, but afterwards, that would be impossible. Nobody else can travel to Cantabria, only the members of your board who earn EUR 8 million and more. Please have this platform be up and running. Please make sure that we can all actually avail ourselves of the platform to ask our questions. The technology exists. There's more. It doesn't seem logical that you, in order to achieve your results, you have a whole platform of branches. If you are here and delegate your vote, I'll give you a present, a little token, but I don't want to delegate it. No, this is the only option. Oh, if not, then. Well, I don't know. You imagine in political terms. In political terms, imagine there were a political party, and that party would be the only party that you can delegate your vote in, either that party or no other party. Who keeps all the votes? It's always the same person. If we're talking about democracy, please let's be democratic, and let's not just, you know, pay lip service to the idea of democracy. What I would like. Mr. Shareholder, kindly pose your question. Yes, my questions are, why not see the lists and have anybody participate in the list so anybody can delegate in whoever they want? Secondly, why don't you bring down your salaries and that 50% give it to the Ukraine? They need it much more than you do, for sure. Third, once and for all, have internet really be up and running. Really, please, the person, wherever they are, Cantabria, wherever, but please, let's be able to use the internet because the technology exists. Those are the three questions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. The floor goes to Mr. Santiago Barrio. Madam Chair, members of the board, shareholders, my question has to do with, after many years as shareholder, I've always been very interested in environmental issues, and I have to congratulate you. Thank you for your public commitment against climate change which assails us, and thank you for your support of renewable energies. We've heard an explanation of the project until 2050. We are right now in the middle of a very profound energy crisis. My question is: Is the bank contemplating changing objectives in view of this scenario? Thank you, sir. Mr. Shareholder, Miguel Ángel González has the floor. Hello, good afternoon, Madam President. Madam Chair, members of the board, shareholders. I have been a customer of the bank for four decades now, and I remember that I bought shares at 6 something. As this gentleman just said, I think it's great that the bank be profitable. I think that's perfect. I think that shares at 3 EUR, I'm losing 50%. Well, yes, I got dividends, but if the bank says that they're making so much money, well, I think that shareholders should maybe benefit from all this money being made. I don't know. I mean, if that money is being made, this is one of the issues. Then there's another one, the fees, the Banco Santander fees. As I said, I have been a shareholder. Well, first I was a, you know, shareholder of Banesto and then Santander. That's a bank, as you say, that is, you know, a leading bank, and I'm happy about that. Those fees, I don't know why. Why I am being charged these fees to have my money in the bank. I keep my money in the bank, and I have to pay fees. I don't understand why. Why am I being charged fees? I have to get a card, and I have to pay, you know, receipts. I'm just not grasping it. Could somebody explain this to me? Because first and foremost, I'm withdrawing money. I'm taking money from the bank, and they're charging me fees. Well, they're not charging anymore because I went to talk to the, you know, manager, and he said to me, "Okay, no more fees." Well, they actually. Let's see. I am no longer being charged fees, but I did have to pay fees before, not after I spoke to the bank manager. The soccer league, the Santander Soccer League. I would like to understand what is in it for us. What are the advantages for the bank, for us? I don't know. It must be a good thing. I don't know. Could you explain this to me? Because I think that there's... I don't know. I mean, what you say, you have to pay money. Ferrari topic of Formula One. Then Ferrari, Formula One. I think that there's a lot of money there, too, going to Ferrari. I would just like, you know, these explanations. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. The floor now to Francisco Javier Martín Sánchez. Good morning, Madam Chair. I'm Francisco Javier Martín. I've been a shareholder for years, not as many years as other shareholders who have spoken before me. But I do know that the bank has been concerned for shareholders, especially during the pandemic, when the authorities wanted to stop us from collecting our dividend. Now, things being what they are in Ukraine, I'm concerned if the central bank stops banks from paying shareholders, will the dividend be paid or not, Madam Chair? Thank you. Thank you, sir. The floor goes to Madam Shareholder, Sara Mancera. Good morning. Good Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, members of the board, Madam Chair. I'm Sara Mancera, and I am here on behalf of Banca Armada. Entities present. Centre Delàs d'Estudis per la Pau, SETEM i Federació, Justícia i Pau, l'Observatori del Deute en la Globalització, FETS, Alternativa Antimilitarista-MOC, Moviment d'Objecció de Consciència, Col·lectiu RETS, Fundació Novessendes, and Fundació Finances Ètiques. Together with my colleague, Germán Morós, we represent 23 shareholders who have delegated a total of 51,780 shares in order to once again come here, raise our voices, and report on the investments carried out in arms and weapons companies. As everyone knows, in January last year, we saw the prohibition of nuclear weapons after 51 countries ratified said agreement or treaty. The treaty specifically forbids the manufacturing, development, acquisition, storage, and location of nuclear weapons. It furthermore prohibits the use or threatening to use said weapons. Finally, it also forbids that assistance be provided in any way or manner so that these forbidden actions be actually undertaken. Nevertheless, in accordance with the report, the companies that build nuclear arsenals and their sponsors of a financial nature published in November 2021 by PAX, Profundo, ICAN, Banco Santander has financed in 2019-2021 eight companies that currently build nuclear weapons the world over. These are Boeing, Airbus, Honeywell International, Safran, Thales, Fluor, Leonardo, and Raytheon Technologies. In total, over EUR 5 billion, ladies and gentlemen, have gone to these companies. What is most despicable of all is that in accordance with our data, this represents an increase of 174% with regards to previous period of time, with regards investments in companies that build nuclear weapons. Boeing, who is manufacturing elements for intercontinental ballistic missiles, has benefited with practically EUR 2 billion in loans and bonds issues. Raytheon Technologies also builds key components for the intercontinental missile and has also received EUR 72 million in Santander loans. The third company that has to do with these nuclear missiles, and which you also finance is Honeywell International. They've received EUR 760-odd million from the Santander Bank. Honeywell International, together with Fluor, has received over EUR 128 million euros and are part of the Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. These are companies that process plutonium, among others, for the nuclear warheads used by the U.S. Furthermore, Airbus, together with Safran, has been financed with over EUR 700 million, and Thales, which has received over EUR 521 million, manufacture and perform maintenance for nuclear missiles, M-51 specifically, which are used in French submarines. Finally now, the multinational producer of missiles, MBDA, which the Italian Leonardo is a part of, is also building missiles which are fourth generation. We repeat, a total of over EUR 5.3 billion go to fostering the manufacturing of nuclear weapons which could wipe out life on Earth. Now, remember that Banco Santander is one of the 10 European banks that most finances companies that produce nuclear weapons. Madam Chair and members of the board, apart from the embarrassment of Spain not having signed this treaty, it is a moral imperative, we believe, especially in the current context where we see a tremendous increase of a potential nuclear war, to no longer provide financing to these companies and place our bets rather on nuclear disarmament. You know that it is complex and difficult to sacrifice easy money that comes from financing war. Don't you think the time has come to make good with your policies as stated? On paper, it says that Banco Santander will not provide funding to these types of activities. The data says differently. You have provided funding to eight companies, and there's no denying this, and you know it, even though you might not acknowledge it. Banca Armada and its shareholders, we please urge you to no longer provide funding to the industry of war. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. The floor goes to Ms. Gemma Amorós. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, members of the board, Madam Chair. I'm Gemma Amorós, and I am addressing all of you on behalf of Banca Armada. Nine entities in the state of Spain, together with Saram and Sera, we represent 23 shareholders who are critical, who have delegated a total of over 50,000 shares. Mrs. Botín, this year, we must congratulate you because Banco Santander has become the Spanish bank that most funding provides to the weapons industry. In 2019, 2020, and 2021, you have provided funding to companies that encourage the militarization of borders to the tune of over EUR 5.4 billion. In previous years, we reported on this, and we talked about companies that manufacture weapons which were then used in different war zones. You should be ashamed of yourselves because you are benefiting from Ukraine. You are whitewashing your image with your purported donations and altruism. How is it possible to be so cheeky? Ladies and gentlemen, it is obvious that for you and many others, there are first- and second-rate wars, and it's obvious that whoever suffers the consequence of armed conflict is the citizenry. Citizens, men, women, and children who must flee in order to save their lives, and upon crossing borders, they find complications, prejudices, militarization. Now, if you go down south in Spain, in the Canary Islands, you have persons fleeing from Syria, Ethiopia, Libya, the Sahel, or who flee other areas, or who simply are looking for a better place to live in peace. When those persons arrive on our borders, they are received inhumanely as a result of the militarization that we have in place in order to protect Fortress Europe. Now, what is the relationship of Banco Santander with those companies that are entrusted with militarizing the borders? Well, maybe Ulun, Atos, or Accenture rings a bell. All of them are a part of those companies that have- Been entrusted with the southern borders to provide maintenance and repair services, border control positions, and CETIs, the placement centers for immigrants, which are overflowing with persons and where human rights are violated. Julín has received EUR 65 million from Banco Santander, has 42 contracts in order to manage those types of facilities. Banco Santander also made it possible to underwrite bond issues for EUR 47 million to Atos. They also make money on the militarization of the southern border, specifically 26 contracts, among others, to maintain their radars in place. Above and beyond all of that, we have also known that Santander has availed EUR 11 million for Accenture. When building walls, and this was published by the Transnational Institute, a reference is made to the fact that Accenture was hired by Donald Trump's government to provide security agents who would be accountable for ensuring that migrants were not allowed from Mexico into the U.S. This same report makes a reference to the fact that Accenture, together with other companies, gained a framework agreement, EUR 157 million, to develop the biometric matching system, which is an essential system to identify persons used by the European Union to militarize its borders, thus reproducing the narrative that the humanitarian crisis of refugees is a threat. Madam Chair, members of the board, do you really believe that it is morally acceptable to whitewash your image in Ukraine while you have historically financed war and the militarization of borders? Another piece of information: according to Alerta 2021, published by PAU, there were 34 conflicts back in 2020. Eastern Ukraine, which stems back to 2014. Armed conflict are perpetuated by weapons and the banks that finance them. Banca Armada and its critical shareholders, speaking for consistency and sensibility, please do not benefit from the Fortress Europe in our territory and around the world. Thank you. Thank you, madam shareholder. To Janira Torres Pascual now the floor goes. Good afternoon. You mentioned in your speech that you made some changes in the organization to speed up even more the digital transformation in this very competitive environment. Could you give us any more details about these changes, and how do you expect these changes to impact the business? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Shareholder. Diego Castañeda Peña has the floor. Madam Chair, board, attendants, my name is Diego Castañeda Peña. I attend this meeting representing 7,897 shares. As Secretary General of the Trade Union section of the Independent Federation of Workers in the credit industry, we have 17.6% representation among credit institution employees. I, of course, am a responsible trade unionist, and we'd like to speak here on behalf of our millions of members who are shareholders and employees of Banco Santander. First of all, we'd like to convey our congratulations for the very good results obtained by Santander the past year. Undoubtedly, the diversification of business model has been the best model to face the difficulties with the economic crisis that have affected us in the past few years. Nevertheless, although I have recognized that this is the right business model, that was also thanks to the teams of Santander. That is what has made it possible for you to achieve these results. Your employees are your main assets, and this is why you must pay attention to your employees. We are aware that the growth and expansion of technology and changes in habits of consumers must lead to changes in procedures and applications in the way you relate to your customers. What we want to underline is the huge effort that has been made by all Santander professionals in order to very quickly adapt to these changes. We should not overlook that these changes entail necessarily a new way to relate to your workers. On the one hand, we have supporting the changes of culture. That has been implemented in Santander to do things in a simple, personal, and fair manner. We think this is necessary to motivate the workers, because that certainly will have a repercussion on the quality of service and the engagement of employees. We will continue to work in this internal cultural change in the company, and we see with satisfaction the different messages and things that are being done. Conciliation measures, new leadership styles, all these new things that we agree with. This comes from the top of the bank, but it doesn't reach all levels of the organization in the same way. We think it is necessary to continue to drive forward these change processes so that it is reflected in every single level of the organization. On the other hand, we'd like to call your attention on the absolute need to improve the situation of the presence of women in the workplace. Despite the efforts made in the past few years in terms of equality at the top levels, women's participation is very small still. This is why we need to adopt new measures in order to correct the situation, so that in the short term, we can have a well-balanced representation of women in our organizational structures. In that regard, in March, we set up the equality plan negotiation team made up by the representatives of trade unions and labor relations and human resources, also members of the management. The aim is to tackle measures to avoid discrimination of women, doing a diagnosis of the situation, and implementing measures in order to remove barriers that prevented, prevent, to have equality between men and women. Madam Chair, this is an excellent opportunity for our bank, in line with our trade union claims, that can implement innovative measures in order to give equal opportunities and have a well-balanced presence of women in every single level of management and in the organization. In that negotiating committee, I ask you to act sensibly so that an equality plan can be implemented in order to achieve these targets and become a benchmark, a model to follow in our industry. Lastly, Madam Chair, I'd like to ask you for an atypical investment. You invest in the increase in the respect for Santander employees, because in the media some of the employees of some companies were called heroes. We have been working weekends sometimes so that our economy would not collapse, and we've been working very hard to serve our customers during difficult periods. We have not been considered by in the outside world as heroes. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. I give the floor to Noemí Trabado. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, CEO, members of the board. I am an employee of this institution, and I am a member of the Comisiones Obreras trade union, the leading trade union in the financial industry and in this bank. We usually don't participate in the AGMs. In this case, I will need to participate to a report on the situation of the Santander staff. We are the most valuable asset. Do not overlook that. We are the ones who maintain the company alive. We are the ones that generate profit for you. Many of us are the ones that have to face customers. We are without strength anymore. We have come almost to the limit of our strength because we are absolutely exhausted because more than 1,000 branches have been closed the past year. That means that the staff has had to spend more time going to somewhere else to work in. We are also exhausted because we have too much work because there has been a reduction in staff, because we have to serve the same or a higher number of customers, but with less people. If that is not enough, we need to comply with impossible targets, with daily meetings and reports, which is unsustainable. We want to work, but we need to be able to work in the right conditions. Do you know how many teams an employee of a branch has? Six team meetings a day. The staff of Santander does connect to those team meetings. They write the reports they're asked to write. They comply with regulations. They care for the employees, and they get the margin they're asked to get. How? Well, losing their health sometimes. Psychosocial risks are increasingly more present, and the employees sometimes become ill. All these problems have been conveyed to the company. What has been the response? Only good words of intention, but we never see these reflected in our daily working conditions. What to say about digitization? As we already said in the last negotiation of the last ERE, the use of digital channels by part of customers, the expectations were not real. Customers don't use digital means because they want to, but because we, the employees of this institution, follow instructions of the management, and we tell customers to use digital channels. Our trade union, Comisiones Obreras, which has been very responsible during this process of temporary redundancy plans or EREs. We were very clear, it was a mistake to do away with so many employees and closing so many branches. All of this with a short-term view has meant that we have a lot of internal pressure, but we also have the pressure from the public opinion. Financial institutions have had to establish new measures so that the customers are served by people, because that's what customers want, because we know what people want. We employees in the banking industry know that we are essential to provide a quality service and in order for this company to run properly. We are essential to put an end to financial exclusion. From our trade union, Comisiones Obreras, we give you a solution to part of these problems. More people to care for customers, less digitization by obligation, less commercial pressure in order to serve customers better. Middle management must be a support for the staff and not a means of pressure. Apart from everything I just mentioned, I remind you that half of the staff are women, but only 26% occupy positions in management. Your goals, we think, are insufficient to break that, the glass ceiling. In the same way, we think it is vitally important to align our salary rise and work together to really reach a work-family balance, which is equal for men and women. What we think is abusive are the remunerations to the members of the board. Some members get a remuneration of more than 200 times the average salary of this company. You have an exceptional staff in your company. It has given it all it's got during the pandemic. We provided an essential service. We continue to do so. At the beginning, I said that your staff is the most valuable asset. Remember that and take care of it. The workers of Banco Santander deserve better treatment and better working conditions. From our trade union, we will continue to report the situation that we are suffering, and we will do everything we can to look for solutions. For Comisiones Obreras, the staff does matter to us. Madam Chair, show us that you do also care for the staff. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Madam Shareholder. I give the floor to Mr. Juan Antonio Ramos Garcia. Thank you so much for giving me the floor, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to make a remark on the capital that you generate, a significant amount of capital. You've mentioned on two occasions, if I remember correctly, in this AGM, that 12% is your capital target and that you don't want to lose that 12%. It is true that Santander has always been a bank that grows and invests, which is very good. My specific question on this matter is, couldn't you operate with lower levels of capital, less than 12%? As I said earlier, my wife and myself are, have been shareholders for a long time, and unfortunately, the value of the share has fallen. Although now, as you said, 7% remuneration in the dividend is quite good. If we take into account that we bought shares at a much higher price than it is now, well, that amount doesn't really reflect reality, especially for those of us who bought shares at a much higher price. You know, I'm not blaming you because sometimes this is out of the bank's management control. I would like to know what measures or what is your forecast on remuneration for shareholders, not only for 2022, but also for 2023. I think it's very good that you increase remuneration for shareholders. What is the future for the next five years in terms of shareholder remuneration? Now, Madam Chair, allow me to be politically incorrect. It's very good for men and women to have the same rights, but. That's really good. What we cannot consent to is because of absurd feminism that we need to comply with a quota. Are we going to reach a quota of women 60%, and then we men will have to complain for that discrimination against us? I think we need to choose people based on merit, regardless of the gender they have. What is true is that remuneration must be the same for the same work. I am absolutely against that because of the fact that we need to meet a quota, we need to hire women who perhaps are not as able as men who would like to opt for that same job. Thank you so much for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. I'm going to answer this question now, if you don't mind, about this question about equality of women. In Santander, in Santander we have a principle of meritocracy. We believe in equal opportunities for everyone, and an effort has to be made so that there is equal representation. I always say that if talent is split evenly between men and women, it is only logical and won't always be the case, but generally speaking, management positions should be divided 50/50, and that doesn't happen. We do defend equal opportunities, but we must help the underrepresented groups because of gender, race or what have you. They should be represented equally, and that is a policy that we follow at the bank. Thank you so much for reminding us of this. I give the floor to Mr. Julio José Sánchez Oliveros. Thank you so much. I am convinced that the economic growth must be inclusive so that there are no more inequalities, and I know that the bank has some programs to achieve that. One of the first requirements for the development of societies is that. You're in markets where there are a lot of vulnerable people, and the bank penetration rate is very low. What is the bank doing in Spain and in other countries in this regard? I'd also like to know what you're doing in Spain to improve the service to the elderly, because there's been a lot of criticism of that for the industry in general, not only for you. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. I give the floor to Mr. Eduardo Martín Duarte. Good afternoon, everyone. I come here to ask the whole board to present their notice. I want them to resign. You don't deserve the positions you are holding. Item 60, the intervention of shareholders, 3-5 minutes each, while on page 196 of the annual report, you brag about the protection of the rights and interests of every single shareholder. You say you facilitate the exercise of their rights. You say that this AGM is a corporate event, the most important one for our shareholders. That is how you prove these rights? This is how you defend our rights, by letting us participate only from 3-5 minutes each? I'm sure that none of the shareholders who are here knew that. None of them read the 80 pages, and none of them know that next year, instead of 5 minutes, you'll only give us 3 minutes to speak. Some are surprised that some minority shareholders, even though we have 200 rights, defend our rights. Your corporate governance is terrible. You don't understand that doing things well is more beneficial and cheaper than spending a year, EUR 700 million on advertising and other things, only to cover up everyone's mouths. To be truly a personal and fair bank, as you brag about, things must be done properly without hurting the rights of minority shareholders who represent 60% of the share capital. Because you could apply Article 992 of the criminal code, and that would make it very difficult for some members of your board. You have to have allies and not hurt people. You cannot have EUR 4,400 million in provisions for litigation. Because that is not being a fair bank, Madam Chair. I haven't seen in the annual report mention made to the lawsuit that I filed against the bank and against you, Ms. Botín, pending ruling, where I complain about the manipulation of the majority of voting. This is confirmed by documents that you yourself have provided, including this one from the Bank of New York Mellon, which says that the authenticity of signatures is not guaranteed, nor the legality of 563 shares that have been delegated to you. Regardless of the next lawsuit that I will file to the SEC, the consequences of the court case can be very bad for you, for your board, and for the notaries who participate in your AGMs, and for the whole IBEX companies. This has to do with what you want to approve in item number 5A. In the report, you talk about the Orcel case, but you don't mention the name. You cannot pronounce the name Orcel in this bank. After promising that you were going to pay him EUR 52 million, how many have you already paid him? Who was the brilliant idea of not hiring Mr. Orcel when it had been taken for granted and announced all over the place? There seemed to be some minutes of the board where the name of Orcel was mentioned as a new hire. This is going to cost the bank EUR 52 million that you should pay and not the shareholders. Is it your responsibility, Ms. Botín? Is it the responsibility of the board of directors, or is it the responsibility of your legal external advisors? In the Popular case, which we hear news about every day, which undermine the image of the bank, would it be better to divide the million of the... Those millions of shares between the shareholders of Popular instead of amortizing them? The potential customers in Spain would see a real change in governance in the bank if you were to do that. Your time is running out, Mr. Shareholder. Please stick to the questions that you'd like to ask. You hurt people wherever you go. Like Valores Santander holders. You and your husband and your brother have participated with the help of Mr. Echeverría through s-funds and sub-funds, and you don't have. Mr. Shareholder, you have one minute more to finish your intervention. Please ask your question. Do not interrupt me so that people can hear what I have to say. I'm giving you another minute to stick to your questions. In that pyramidal fraud, the remuneration policy is not transparent. It goes against Article 59 of the bylaws, where you officially make almost EUR 13 million a year. Then you, do we have to pay for your heating, perhaps? I remind you, Ms. Botín, that Mr. Horta-Osorio had to resign from Credit Suisse because he did not respect the COVID rules. Haven't you done the same, traveling to your home in Stade without respecting the lockdown rules? Perhaps you have given more reasons to Santander to resign than this gentleman from Credit Suisse. There you are with your directors who only think about collecting their money, and the state lawyers who are there to serve you coffee just to collect at the end of the month without caring for the rights of their shareholders. Explain, please, the reduction of your executive functions. Were you complying with the prescriptions of the European Central Bank? Also answer, is Mr. Simões here, is he going to give the bank to HSBC on the short term, and you will benefit from that? Thank you. I give the floor to Miguel Arce. Good afternoon. Thank you, Madam Chair, directors, shareholders, and other participants. I'm going to be very brief. Apart from a shareholder, I've been a customer for a long time, since the year 1986, in fact. The truth is that I was thinking about the history of the bank since, and it has been a story of success with extraordinary growth. My reading of this is that the bank has always known how to adapt the strategy to every moment in time. In that regard, I would like you to give us more details on the strategy that you talked about, the strategy lines in digital, and how can that help us to continue to grow. Above all, taking into account the size of the organization, how can we become a more agile organization in order to compete with the new market players, what they call the fintechs? Digital native banks. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. I give the floor now to Ms. Cristina Benito Tomás. Good afternoon. As the previous shareholder, I have always been, and my family has been a shareholder of the bank for many years, and my children will be shareholders of Santander too. Sorry. I am convinced that the market doesn't truly appreciate what the bank is and what it could become based on the good management and earnings that have been announced so far. Although, you had to chair this meeting in a very difficult time, first with the pandemic, now with the war in Ukraine, I want to express my support and trust in you. I'm going to skip some things that have already been mentioned by the previous, shareholders, and my question is as follows: Could you explain the remuneration for next year, and how does the buyback program work? Thank you, Ms. Shareholder. I give the floor now to Santiago Álvarez Barosto. Good day, shareholders and, directors. BlackRock announced a few weeks ago that it has serious doubts as to the European market. BlackRock, just as other funds and other large groups, were part of the Santander shareholding. What average duration do investments of great groups have in the shares of a bank? What is the average duration of small shareholders in the bank's share capital? It might be the small retail shareholders that give the bank more stability. Small shareholders speculate less and look less to the short term. Given this uncertain world we live in, it might be a good occasion to provide more value for the small shareholder. The AGM is a good opportunity that minority shareholders have to express their suggestions, complaints, or disagreements with the top management. Perhaps you might not like it. People do not like to be questioned if you are in the management. For example, closing down branches. Not taking into account the suggestions made by small shareholders. Small shareholders are also customers, and their contributions can create value for the bank. For that reason, we are against reducing by 40% the time that shareholders have to speak up in the AGM. The proposal of reducing the time from 5 to 3 minutes in AGMs limits the contributions of shareholders because all these things that we hear here are contributions. Of course, the bank can take them into account or not. Suggestions to reduce the time to intervene, then you could mention who is going to be the next speaker, the next shareholder to speak, so that while the previous one is speaking, he has time to reach the microphone and not waste any time of that allotted time. That's a very good suggestion. I'm going to start doing it right now, in fact. After Miguel Ángel Hernández Marco, the floor will be given to Mercedes Ruiz Palacios, so that she can get ready. Thank you for that suggestion to save time. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, all. We've heard very interesting ideas discussed this morning, and I would like for a little bit more clarification regarding your strategy in the United States of America. In the past few years, we've seen other European banks departing this market. Just last year, BBVA did exactly this. You have published that the United States is the market that has most contributed to the group's results. This is great news, of course. You have furthermore mentioned that this economy was a very bright one. Apart from this, you have also addressed the issue of diversification. Diversification has strengthened the bank. It's made the bank more resilient, and this is something that we all agree is a great achievement. The question would be, what are the plans? What strategies does the bank have in mind for further activities in the USA? Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. The floor now goes to Madam Shareholder, Mercedes Ruiz Palacios, to be followed by Ms. Laura Ruiz de Galarreta. Hello, I'm Mercedes Ruiz, and I wanted to say that I was lied to. I was confused. My husband was very sick. He had schizophrenia. All of the money that we had, we poured into Valores Santander. We lost everything. I'd like to say, please help me out, please. I lost over EUR 200,000. That's a lot of money. I need to recover. I mean, the share would have to be at 13. Look at the price now. I was lied to. I need help. I need help, please. I need help because I myself am undergoing treatment. I can't sleep at night. I All I can think of is I am ruined. I have lost all my money. Please, I need your help. Thank you, Madam Shareholder. The floor goes to Madam Shareholder, Laura Ruiz de Galarreta. After Madam Shareholder, Encriate Guccin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, good afternoon. I'm here as president of the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer in Madrid, and I represent the shares that this association has. As all of you know, cancer is one of the most important problems that we face, not only in Spain, but the world over. Last year in Spain, there were over 285,000 new victims of cancer, so every day, 781 Spaniards face this terrible diagnosis. As you know, we human beings tend to be optimistic, and this is of course essential. That's why we've evolved so far. With regards to cancer, despite the major advances, expectations are really not positive. One of every three women will have cancer in her life. One of every two men will have cancer at some point in his life, and one of every two children born today will have cancer in the future. As you know, if you have cancer, you have less income. You will lose your job. You will have to face more and additional expenses. This may very well result in a one-way street. The disease is the same for everyone, but we are not the same in the face of the disease. You know all of this because companies such as Santander are there at our side, and many shareholders also walk by our side. Today's collaboration will help us cover the needs of more vulnerable families, so that they do not need to decide whether to pay healthcare bills or children's lunch. Do I pay for treatment? Do I pay for the light? Do I pay for the wheelchair or a prosthesis? Do I pay for the bed? Do I pay for psychological help, or do I pay my mortgage or the insurance or my weekly fruit consumption? Unfortunately, recently, we hear talk increasingly about the more vulnerable. In times as turbulent as today's, cancer patients are the most vulnerable of all. We say vulnerable, and we think about COVID. Well, the pandemic has resulted in a reduction in diagnosis of cancer. 20% less, which means that those persons who have been later in being diagnosed will suffer all the more. Think about the terrible catastrophe in Ukraine, an exodus of refugees, among them, cancer patients, who must be helped, who must be looked after during these extremely difficult times. We have made available to them our resources, all of our resources, in order to reach out to Ukrainian cancer patients. One of the programs was described by the president, the 30 Ukrainian children and their families who recently arrived in Spain and are being provided treatment in different hospitals in Madrid. The Spanish Association is really the benchmark as of nearly 70 years ago. We do our utmost to cast a spotlight on the disease in Spain, to talk about improvement, to achieve a social overhaul that will allow for a better and more comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to cancer. The association groups together social demand and research against cancer, financing via public bids, different programs that seek for excellent results. Now, this is the social private entity that raises most funds and provides those funds to cancer research. EUR 92 million in 525 projects in which over 1,000 researchers are actively involved. We are present in over 2,000 Spanish venues. We have nearly 30,000 volunteers, over 500,000 members, and thousands of professionals. This is not enough. We need for persons such as yourselves, companies such as Santander, who are with us ever since 2008. We need that you continue to back us in order to ensure prevention. Over half cancer patients could be avoided if we all lived a little bit more healthily and if we had early detection. We need to stay close to families of the more vulnerable patients. We need to further carry out research in cancer because it will be research and investigation that will put an end to this disease. I beseech that you continue to back us. That you continue to be committed. I am here on behalf of the association, on behalf of all of the patients and their relatives whom we can provide support to via initiatives such as a donation. Thank you. Thank all of you very, very much. Thank you. Thank you. The floor goes to Mrs. Henriëtte Bushen, and after Madam Shareholder Ángeles Lobato. Madam Shareholder Henriëtte Bushen, please. Hello, Miss President, I would like to speak in English. I represent one share on behalf of the civil society organization BankTrack, and I would like to present two matters. Firstly, in its policies and the group's consolidated statement of non-financial information, Banco Santander states that it is committed to fighting deforestation, that additional measures are taken when providing finance to customers involved in farming and ranching in the Amazon, and that it expects beef processing clients in the Amazon to have a deforestation-free supply chain by 2025, including indirect suppliers of cattle. Banco Santander also claims that tackling climate change is a key objective of the bank, besides protecting the Amazon rainforest, which the bank recognizes as critical to addressing climate change. Santander also made a pledge to reach net zero financed emissions by 2050, and to align its portfolio with the goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Despite these commitments, Banco Santander provides financial support to JBS, the world's largest meat processing company. JBS is the largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the meat and dairy sector. Its total deforestation footprint in six Brazilian states since 2008 was estimated to be at least 200,000 hectares in its direct supply chain, and 1.5 million hectares in its indirect supply chain. The company is further linked to illegal deforestation, slave labor, and has been embroiled in several major corruption scandals. The company's net zero commitment also allows it to continue to source cattle linked to the illegal deforestation in the Amazon and other biomes until 2025, and JBS has not committed to eliminate deforestation altogether from its supply chain until 2035. Its commitment also focuses mostly on its scope one and two emissions, while the company acknowledges that they represent less than 10% of its total emissions. Santander has provided over $800 million in finance to JBS since 2017, and provided underwriting services for the issuance of a sustainability-linked bond as recently as October last year. The bond, again, only addresses JBS's scope one and two emissions, so not the biggest part of their emissions. Our questions are, how is providing financial support for a company with such a poor track record on climate and deforestation, and with no serious plans of improvement compatible with Banco Santander's commitments on net zero by 2050 and fighting deforestation? Shouldn't JBS be excluded from financing considering your requirement that beef processing clients in the Amazon need to have a deforestation free supply chain by 2025, which JBS clearly does not have? The second matter I would like to address also concerns Banco Santander's commitment to fighting climate change. The Banking on Climate Chaos 2022 report, which was published last Wednesday, shows that your bank provided $43 billion in fossil fuel lending and underwriting between 2016 and 2021. Your institution is the 7th financier of fossil fuels in the E.U., and 33rd fossil bank in the world. What is worse, between 2016 and 2021, Banco Santander provided $23 billion in lending and underwriting to 100 key companies expanding the fossil fuel industry, and $1.19 billion in 2021 alone. In addition, in May of last year, the bank co-financed a $6 billion loan to Equinor, and in September of last year, Banco Santander was involved in underwriting $2.4 billion in corporate bonds to BP. Both of these companies are in the top 15 of the worst expanders of the fossil fuel industry in the world. These transactions have all taken place not long after Banco Santander announced its net zero by 2050 commitment. International Energy Agency, the world's leading energy organization, reported that there is no room for new coal, oil and gas in a 1.5 degrees Celsius pathway. These figures and an assessment of your bank's policies indicate that your institution is far from ending support for expansion of fossil fuels and committing to zero out support of fossil fuels on a 1.5 degrees aligned timeline. Banco Santander's policy only excludes financial support for some unconventional oil and gas projects and companies. There are no exclusions for financing new conventional oil and gas projects, and no exclusion for companies expanding the fossil fuel industry. Concrete phase out commitments so far only include a reduction of emission intensity, not even absolute emissions, in the power generation portfolio only. The question we have for the bank is, what additional and immediate steps and policy changes does Banco Santander plan to set out in motion to immediately exclude financing for fossil fuel expansion and phase out financing for fossil fuels in a timeline that is compatible with a 1.5 degrees pathway? The finance that Banco Santander provides for green energy is very much welcome, but without these steps, without stopping new coal, oil and gas, it will not have the desired effect because it will not help save the world. Thank you. Thank you very much. Muchas gracias, señora accionista. [Spanish] Thank you very much, Madam Chair. The floor now goes to Ángeles Lobato Carrera, and then to Mr. Tomás Castillo Arenal. You have the floor, ma'am. Good afternoon to all. I'm going to just address you for seconds. Over the past few years, we have seen in the financial sector many movements, many mergers. After Popular, I've seen that high growth, technological activities have been looked at. You've just announced an acquisition of this nature in the United States. Does Santander believe that consolidation is complete in Spain? And are there conditions whereby in Europe, Santander would be the star? Thank you, madam shareholder. The floor now goes to Mr. Tomás Castillo Arenal, and from this point onwards, we will be giving the floor to shareholders via remote. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, shareholders. Allow me to address you on a very complicated day. We just received in Spain 85 children with disabilities who are fleeing from the bombs. The army, the Spanish Army, has brought them to Spain, and we are looking for accommodations for these children. I'd like to share with you a success story involving Banco Santander, the support vis-à-vis a social initiative. I also have a proposal. I'm Tomás Castillo Arenal. I'm Managing Director of AMICA, an association. I am a shareholder of Banco Santander for decades now, and I'm in charge of this association. It's a group of relatives of persons with disabilities and professionals, and we've been up and running for 38 years now in Cantabria. It was back in 1987 when we met with Don Emilio Botín, the grandfather of our current president, because we wanted to buy a house. We wanted to launch a project. We were setting up the first daycare center, a center for persons with serious disabilities. The amount then was huge for us. For us, for our economies, and that is why we requested 9 million pesetas. We wanted to mortgage our home. His answer was, "If you couldn't pay for this with this objective, I would definitely make it available out of my own pocket." Three years later, the European Union awarded us the Helios Prize for that initiative. Now there are hundreds of daycare centers, and AMICA is a benchmark in social innovation in Europe. Thanks to that support, AMICA, 30 years ago, began to participate in European projects and has accrued a long experience in terms of training and employment. We provide dual training, dual skilling, to create the kind of opportunities that over 2,000 persons have benefited from. We are pioneers in such a tiny community as is Cantabria. We do more in AMICA. We are in charge of the garments of the Cantabrian healthcare system, and what we do is we rent, we lease the garments. There is 100% traceability, and over 600,000 garments are digitized yearly. Thanks to Santander, AMICA has been able to launch one of the greatest washing centers, laundries, up in northern Spain. We have what it takes for digital tracking of garments, thereby guaranteeing the jobs of over 360 persons who devote their professional lives to this. Six years ago, AMICA decided to see how it could manage territories, how we could contribute to caring for nature and farming, innovating to ensure the profitability of people who live in the country, creating opportunities for disabled persons, fighting climate change. There is a huge land holding which was in the hands of Santander. Once again, we received the necessary support. We refinanced the mortgage, and now we have 412 hectares, where we now have launched a very special project, which is Campus Diversia. I would heartily encourage you to visit. This is down in Valencia. At the beginning of the pandemic, now two years ago, I reached out to the presidenta to explain to her our initiative, which was to manufacture masks in Amica and thereby respond to the tremendous need. We immediately received the backing of the bank in order to launch a specialized unit to bring a special machine and contribute, thus to mitigate the dearth of this product. Amica has been extremely brave in its entrepreneurship. We have an unsigned alliance with Santander, which has allowed us to innovate, create sustainable companies over time, and ensure that our net value is EUR 12 million. Our seed capital contributed by European funds, which brings us to 1.5. Now, this entity backs over 1,500 persons. We have over 600 employees. We have over 1,100 persons involved. Investments carried out by Amica with the backing of Santander have allowed us to achieve a reasonable profitability, but especially an impact. We've made an impact with a social value yearly in excess of EUR 35 million. In terms of the environment, we have cut back CO2 by over 1,000 tons per year. These investments have an impact, and they're profitable. They're good for the men and women involved, for society, and for the planet, our home. Our proposal. I would like to propose that we delve into this line. Let us seek that triple profitability, economic resources that are available to us, so economic profits and social profits, social benefits, and environmental benefits, and thus be leaders vis-à-vis our commitment to achieve the sustainable development objectives. Madam Chair, in a nutshell, this is all about being passionate about the numbers. Amica with Santander, we are passionate about the numbers, and I encourage all of you and all of the shareholders to get to know us. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Shareholder. I hereby close this period for presentations by the shareholders. I remind those attending remotely that no more presentations may be sent, and we now are going to cast a video. Together, holding our 153 million customers' hands, looking at the future with an objective in mind. Continue to help more people, more companies. Thank you for making our customer experience better. Top three in 8 markets. One Europe, one card. PagoNxt, always growing. Digital Consumer Bank, DCB, growing Superdigital in Latin America. Thank you for transforming into our business much more digital than before. 47 million digital customers. One Europe app in Spain, Portugal, Poland. Thank you for being a part of the green revolution. Net zero net emissions in all of the group by 2020. EUR 220 billion in green funding for 2030. Thank you for fostering inclusion and diversity. Euromoney Award for Financial Inclusion. Leading bank in the world in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index. Thank you for making Santander a better place to work. One more year among top employers leaders. Top 25 best global companies to work in. Building value for our shareholders. EUR 8.6 billion in underlying profits. Value creation for shareholders, +11%. Dreaming means reinventing yourself. 25 years of Santander Universidades. Learning from our past. Continue to contribute to the project. In 2022, we will be all that much stronger. In Santander, we maintain our commitment to create value for our more than 3.9 million shareholders worldwide, focusing on efficient and profitable growth and even more disciplined capital management, while maintaining a solid balance. At the heart of our strategy is the customer, who, together with our scale and geographical and business diversification, form the basis for generating value for our shareholders. To achieve our goals, we have three key strategic initiatives that will drive both today's results and future profitability and growth, while incorporating sustainable aspects as an essential part of our strategy. Shareholder remuneration, as in 2021, will continue to be one of our priorities, with a return target of 40% of our ordinary profit in 2022. In addition, our Investor Relations team maintains constant communication, listening, and attention to our shareholders, facilitating their participation in bank decision-making, offering them exclusive benefits and our best service to increase their satisfaction and stay by their side wherever they are, thus receiving recognition from prestigious companies. At Santander, we want to contribute to the progress of people and businesses, maintaining profitable and sustainable growth and creating value for our shareholders. Santander. Santander. For you, the first. Because you have a family. You have a business. You want to start. Because you worry. You overcome. You overcome. You get excited. Santander. For you, the first. [Foreign language] The floor goes to the secretary to provide an update regarding other issues. He will inform shareholders regarding other issues. For the pertinent purposes, the following is put on the record. In financial year 2021, the CNMV fined the bank EUR 300 thousand for committing a very serious violation provided for in Section 284.1 of the consolidated text of the Securities Market Law for a breach of the provisions of Section 214 of the same legal text regarding the information collected from retail customers, natural persons, for the evaluation of appropriateness. This fine has been appealed by the bank to the Spanish National High Court. In addition, the Supreme Court upheld a fine of EUR 485 thousand imposed to the bank by the Bank of Spain in 2017 for a serious infraction provided for in Section 15 of Royal Decree Law 6/2012 of 9 March, for breach of the obligations under Section 5.4 of the same legal text relating to the proper application of the Code of Good Practices. I will now report on the amendments made to the rules and regulations of the board of directors since the last general meeting. On 27 July 2021, a group of amendments was approved by the board of directors, mainly aimed at making an initial adjustment of the text of the rules and regulations to conform to the amendments made to the Spanish Capital Companies Act by Law 5/2021. Specifically, the following were amended: Article 3.2 to include certain updates on public information, identified staff, and related party transactions. Article 17 to update the powers of the audit committees in relation to related party transactions. Articles 33, 34, and 35 to update the references to the bylaws framework on remuneration and to confirm the regulations to the provisions of the new section 529 nona décima of the Spanish Capital Companies Act relating to the director remuneration policy. Articles 36 and 40 to conform them to the new rules on related party transactions. Article 41 to conform the terminology to the new market disclosure regime, which distinguishes between inside information and other relevant information. Moreover, at its meetings of 27th April 2021 and 24th February 2022, the board approved certain amendments to the rules and regulations whose effectiveness was conditional upon the entry into force of the bylaw amendments to be submitted to the shareholders at this general meeting, given that apart from some technical improvements, the main purpose of the changes is to align them with the proposed bylaw amendments. Specifically, the following have been amended. Articles 3 and 19 to make certain clarifications in the powers of the board in relation to remuneration of identified staff. Article 8, in order to clarify that the consideration of the Executive Chair as the highest-ranking officer of the company does not prevent the board from establishing direct lines of reporting to the board or to its committees by other executives. Article 13 and 15, in order to provide for the possibility of nominating more than one vice secretary of the board to assist the secretary in his duties and, if necessary, replace him in the event of absence, impossibility, or indisposition. Article 17, to strengthen the coordination mechanisms between the audit committee and the Responsible Banking and Sustainability Committee, and to include a technical clarification. Article 27, to make a technical clarification in relation to the term of office of directors appointed by co-optation. Article 33, in order to improve the systematic approach of the provision. It is hereby stated for the record that a total of three presentations have been received from remote attendees pursuant to the provisions of Section 182 of the Spanish Public Corporations Law, and 34 bis of the bylaws. If any of the requests for information or clarification made by remote attendees could not be answered here, it will be answered in writing within 7 days by email sent to the address indicated by the remote attendee in the registration process. Unless any of the circumstances for denial set forth in the law, the bylaws, or the rules and regulations for the general shareholders meeting is present. Thank you. I will now provide an answer to those shareholders who took the floor at these premises through the presentation period, and also through the remote attendance application. Mr. Shareholder Julián García Caballo asked about the dividend and compares it with previous issues. I'm also going to respond to other questions about the dividend. Javier Martín Sánchez addressing future, and Mrs. Cristina Benito Tomás, 2022, and buyback, José Manuel Galeote and Juan Antonio Ramos García. First, regarding the specifics of the dividend, let me begin by saying that it is important that we bear in mind that after 2013 until 2021, it was over EUR 4 billion to EUR 8 billion. Over EUR 8 billion. This is very important. These numbers are very important because they talk about the strength of the bank. They talk about good management within the best of our capacities. Three comments about the dividend. Specifically, over the past seven years, as of 2014 until 2021, it is practically EUR 22 billion that have been paid out. This is the scrip. Shareholders who bought 100 shares then will, until 2021, received 106 EUR in cash, which is a profitability of 15.5% vis-a-vis the initial investment, and 10 new shares would also have been made available to the shareholder. As to the proposal this year, the total amount that will go to shareholders for 2021 results is over EUR 3.4 billion. This amount includes EUR 0.10 per share in cash and approximately EUR 1.7 billion via two buyback programs, one of them currently underway. The payout of this dividend represents a profit of, at today's prices, nearly 7% on the average share price of 2021, of which approximately 3% is cash. It is important that we refer to the Spanish ten-year bond, which is at 1.43% every year, whereas we are at 3% cash, as I mentioned. Now, as to the possible suspension of the dividend, in March 2020, the European Central Bank, you remember, issued a recommendation to all supervised banks, where they requested no payout of dividends for 2020 and 2019. In this scenario, the bank in 2019 paid out €0.10 in cash, and in 2020, via the handover of new shares, and the amount was €0.10 per euro. The second remark on the dividend is the future dividend. I already mentioned what the ECB policy is. For the earnings of 2022, the remuneration policy for shareholders, as I said in my speech, is to apply total remuneration of about 40% of the ordinary profit, divided equally between the cash dividend and buyback of shares, thus continuing with the policy that we have applied for the 2021 earnings. Beyond 2022, we wish to increase remuneration of shareholder beyond that 40%. How? Through buybacks and dividend, growing dividend per share. It's also important to say that, some comparables, some peers have asked the shareholder remuneration policies that will pay almost 50%. Here I'd like to underscore that the difference between these peers and us is that Santander has a future projection where we have growth opportunities, profitable growth opportunities. That is very important. Part of that, the capital generation, we will allocate to new investments, to new business. That will allow us as well to have a sustainable business model looking forward beyond the short term. I already mentioned the possibility of suspending those plans. Well, recently, we were authorized by the ECB to roll out the buyback program and also the buyback of shares based on 2022 earnings. There were questions on the buyback program. 2022 is the first year where the bank has carried out a share buyback program. This board has considered to bear in mind the composition of the shareholder base and the preferences of the different types of remuneration. Many institutional investors Prefer less cash, more buybacks. In the case of minority shareholders, generally speaking, it's the other way around. Therefore, what we thought this year was 50/50. 50 buyback, 50 cash. I remind minority shareholders that when we buy back our own shares below the book value, as is the case now, that allows us to invest at very interesting returns above our cost of capital, and that the buyback of shares entails that the number of shares falls, and therefore, the economic rights of each one of these shares increases. All shareholders in equal conditions with one share will receive, if the dividend remains the same, more per share than what they got last year. Very important, it reflects our own confidence, the confidence of the board in the value of our shares. María del Pilar Pintor Solís, she asked about the impact in the business of the invasion of Ukraine and how we see 2022. The business in the different markets, or the impact of this invasion in our business. Once again, Santander will condemn this invasion, and we want to express our full solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Helping in the humanitarian crisis is one of our aims. We don't have a significant exposure to the invasion, but there will be second-round effects. In the case of Santander, the conclusion is that our business model, and mainly our geographical diversification, protects us and mitigates these impacts. Latin America, the impact there will be from neutral to positive, for example. Just to give you a few more details, our consumer business, car, auto business in the U.S. might profit from this situation. In other cases, the results will be less. In general, our forecast with regards to the impact is that in the Americas, returns will be at very high levels, in line with last year's. Nevertheless, and despite the fact that the macro environment is going to be slightly worse than what we expected at the beginning of the year, and Europe will probably grow, and the returns in Europe will improve. Once again, we keep the goals of the group for 2022, which is to say in our ROTE of more than 13%. We already have this in the first quarter, a cost-to-income ratio that will improve to 45. Always maintaining fully loaded CET1 at 12%, with a cost of credit that should be below 1%. The following shareholder to take the floor was Mr. José Javier Arrieta Cabello. Some other shareholders as well asked about the performance of the share. Mr. Miguel Ángel González, for example. Firstly, the market is something that we cannot control. I just mentioned that one of the reasons we thought, and one of the best ways to reward shareholders is buy back shares. Precisely because we don't think that the share price is where it should be. But what we can control, and the numbers speak for themselves. We've gone from an attributable profit of above EUR 4 billion in 2013 to almost EUR 8 billion in 2021 after taxes. Before taxes, this year, 2021, has been the highest in profit, historical profit in terms of ordinary profit. We doubled profit in North America and in Europe, and we are meeting the targets that we set in the strategy plan earlier than we expected. Secondly, solvency. We've strengthened the solvency since 2014, and we've done so by increasing the revenue and growing in the number of customers by more than 30%, growing revenue more than 30%. The total capital base, which includes not only CET1, but AT1 and AT2, has increased by EUR 34.7 billion. Moreover, we have given back to shareholders almost EUR 9 billion in dividends. Also, we did this correctly, which is take into account all stakeholders, but basically investing so that in the future we continue to have growing earnings. As I said, this can be seen in the number of customers. We've improved the franchise. We have 153 million customers, as I said. We are the bank with the largest customer base in America and in Europe. Shareholders recognize this with an approval, and this is very important. Santander shareholders recognize this very good work carried out by the team and the board. The approval of social management of the team was 99.57% of all the shareholders that voted in 2021. With the information we have, we think this year we're going to have a similar approval rate. Although we don't think this is enough, but Santander shares have gone up 5.42%, while the European banks fell by 4.46%. Once again, the board, as myself, we trust that as we implement the strategy, the share price will reflect the true value of our institution and our business. Then Ms. Begoña Pérez de Lua, the next shareholder to take the floor, referred to the remuneration of the board and top management. Once again, I think it's important to put things into context, put these numbers into context. Santander is an international bank with a presence in 10 main markets, 153 million customers, and more than €8 billion in profit in 2021, almost 200,000 employees, and about 4 million shareholders. As a listed company, the remuneration of the Chair and the CEO are in line with our peers in size and complexity in Europe and in the U.S. Sorry, in Spain and in Europe, and significantly below our peers in the U.S. The remuneration of executive directors is in line with what is paid to professionals that occupy these positions of responsibility in comparable institutions. Banco Santander pays competitive salaries to all professional levels. Secondly, our remuneration policy is based on very demanding governance. It is discussed by the board, and it is approved by the board committee every year at the AGM, where it has always had wide support. Lastly, Banco Santander offers competitive remuneration to all its employees, and this has been recognized in the global recognitions that we have been awarded this year. These issues, obviously, are taken into account. One of the 10 best companies to work in 6 of the geographies where we operate, according to external experts. We have made a lot of progress in salary gaps. We have social benefit and complementary benefit packages that are much better than what is included in the collective bargaining agreement for the industry. In terms of remuneration of the CEO, in 2020, the board of directors agreed to maintain for the executive chair and the CEO the same fixed and variable remuneration as in 2019. In 2021, fixed remuneration of executive directors, chairman and CEO, was the same as in 2020. Very important, the total remuneration for executive directors represented 0.27% of the ordinary attributable profit. While in 2015, it represented 0.41%, and in 2013, 0.48%. In other words, it has gone down significantly, this remuneration, in relative terms. The annual bonus is subject to financial and non-financial metrics. 20% corresponds to customer metrics, 10% risk metrics, 20% capital metrics, and 50%, the remaining 50%, profitability metrics. Also, variable remuneration. The figures that are published are in long-term targets that are closely linked to the interest of the shareholders. Plus 60% of variable remuneration, including the part that is not subject to long-term metrics, is perceived in part in shares in a period of five years. Their actual value is affected by the mid and long-term evolution and performance of the institution. Mr. Galeote, I remind you that my remuneration, that of the CEO, were reduced by 50% in 2020 voluntarily as a gesture of responsibility when faced with an exceptional situation as the health crisis caused by COVID. The amounts signed for this were contributed to a fund for the fight against the effects of COVID-19, which, together with the voluntary donations of employees, reached EUR 100 million. In general, and I say this also because it's important, from 2014, the cost of the top management has fallen 33%. 33%. While we've doubled profit and therefore we've had a significant reduction of top managers from 27 in 2014 to 15 people at the end of 2021. Therefore, the percentage represented by this remuneration over dividend and over profit has fallen significantly. Every year, we do an in-depth review of the remuneration policy in order to align it with the market standards for similar institutions. We carry out comparative studies in terms of size, the type of business presence, international presence. We have five metrics, new metrics on environmental and ESG issues directly connected to the degree of progress of our commitments to drive forward the responsible banking agenda. For example, we are going to take into account of percentage of women in top positions. It's included there. Ms. Begoña Pérez de Lua. I think that I have already answered your questions in my remarks a few minutes ago. In terms of Mr. José Manuel Galeote. The remuneration of the board top management, I already answered that question, and therefore, I'd like to respond to the issue of the online AGM. Mr. Galeote, the crisis has allowed us to verify the effectiveness of electronic means of communication. Our law now allows to celebrate AGMs telematically since last year, and that's also allowed by our bylaws. In any case, the bank, as we're doing now, still holds AGMs in hybrid format, and shareholders can participate in which manner they please. The online AGM works perfectly, and all the statements made by remote participants are recorded in the minutes. I don't share with your comments about delegations of vote. It complies with the law and is in line with the practices in comparable listed companies. Every shareholder is free to delegate his or her vote or not, and they freely choose whom they want to delegate their vote to. They might delegate in whomever they please. It is not necessary for the cards to be given in the branches. You can send them to the bank by the mail or through email. In terms of the price of the share, dividend, and remunerations, I'd like to refer to what I already answered other shareholders. In terms of Mr. Santiago Barrío, his questions. Santiago Barrío made some remarks and questions on the net zero target, the crisis, access to energy, and changes in our targets. I'm going to respond here to Mr. Julio José Sánchez Oliveros's question, who referred to financial inclusion. "What are we doing in Spain?" he asked, "And with the elderly?" Mr. Henriëtte Buchín, who talked about the exposure of the bank to fossil fuels, the activities of our company and their impact in the Amazon, and a question through the app, that came in through the app from Juan Prieto on the ESG metrics. I'm going to answer all these questions at the same time. In terms of the crisis, access to energy, et cetera, change of targets. The environmental agenda or ESG agenda is something that is important for all our stakeholders, and they generate new challenges, but they also generate opportunities that are going to end up in value creation for shareholders. Undoubtedly, climate change is the most important and urgent example of these. Energy, the energy crisis that we're experiencing, I think underscores its importance. We're still among world leaders in the financing of renewable energies, among the first three in volume of transactions. Just as an example, what this entails. The volume of renewable energy projects where we advise or that we fund is the equivalent of providing electricity to 9.2 million homes. Yes, we keep our ambition of reaching net zero in 2050. As I said in my speech, we want to support all our clients and customers in their transition to a low-carbon environment. Of course, this has to be done gradually, protecting employment and economic activity. This is important, particularly in developing countries, smallest companies, and the most vulnerable groups. We set targets to reduce emissions in our own loan portfolio. We've taken measures that Ramiro Mato already mentioned and that are detailed in our annual report. I wanted to say, 'cause we heard about carbon, that as of 2030, we will no longer render financial services to clients who generate energy and whose more than 10% of their solutions depend on coal. We will set other decarbonization targets for other industries, as we already said on some other occasion. For us, the E of ESG is fundamental, and clearly, the invasion of Ukraine has clearly shown the need to change energy policies. To clarify, this is very important for the financial industry. To clarify, this is not our responsibility, but clarify what are the acceptable terms for the transition of sectors and companies all over the world in order to support our customers and make it and do it well. In terms of financial inclusion, what are we doing in Spain, and what are we doing about the elderly? For us, it's very important, especially in Latin America, but not only there, to support people who are not included in the financial industry. We set for ourselves a target to empower 10 million people for 2025. We already reached 7.5 million people, and so we're reaching that target. The target is that all people can have access to basic financial services and know how to use them. We have several platforms. Superdigital, Getnet, and others that are helping us to achieve this goal. We operate in 8 countries already. We've rolled out Chile, Colombia, and Peru in 2021, where there's been a disbursement of more than EUR 500 million for more than 1,000 micro entrepreneurs as part of this program. In terms of the elderly, we work to care for the needs of all customers, whether they are digital or not, and we're especially sensitive to the elderly. We have implemented some initiatives to improve this value proposition, which we think is important. We extended hours of our branches until a few hours more, and we have the senior ambassador in branches, and we serve them before other groups over the phone. In terms of renewable energies, we financed many developments in many countries in the world. We know a lot about this in this industry. For years, we've been a world leader. We think it is an area where we need to continue to invest, and we will continue to do so because it helps the whole of society. It helps the economy to reach that carbon neutral economy that we all aspire to. Now, fossil fuels. We have the target of reducing our carbon intensity so that in 2030 it will be in line with the Paris Accord. I already said that as of 2030, we will no longer render financial services to companies who generate energy with more than 10% of their revenue depending on thermal coal. Well, this year we're going to set other targets. I already mentioned that. We have low exposure to fossil fuel sectors, as we can see in the Banking on Climate Chaos from BankTrack in 2022, where we occupy number 32 out of 60 banks. In terms of the question on specific clients, for confidentiality reasons, you know that we cannot provide information on our clients. More generally speaking, we are paying special attention to the financing of customers that carry out activities related to agriculture and the meat industry, so that we don't finance any operation that will lead to illegal deforestation and avoid problems of that regard that might affect native groups. In any case, if we were to see that there is illegality being carried out, we could declare or we could demand that the loan be paid in advance and terminate the contract. We think the best way to put an end to deforestation is collaborating with our customers to achieve sustainable development of the area of the Amazon, and that is why we have set that as a prior requirement. For lending, we, the meat processing industry clients in the Amazon, must have a totally trackable supply chain free of deforestation by 2025. This is the most ambitious lending rules of all the banks in the region, 5 years before the commitment to reach that target. Putting an end to deforestation is a complex challenge. It requires fast responses in collaboration with all the agents, all the players that can participate, and that's how we are proceeding from Santander Brazil, building a sustainable development model for the Amazon. We are committed to work along those lines with clients, with governments, with regulators, with banks, and we will continue to do so. In terms of ESG metrics, to your proposal from one of the shareholders that I referred to a minute ago, with a plan that will measure and cover level one and two emissions. The group, since 2019, has been publishing its emissions of level one and two. The level three ones, which are the most material ones for the group, there is a plan that has been published that refers to our clients. There are 153 million customers all over the world. There is a plan to report these emissions progressively by sector and to set, in any case, decarbonization targets up to 2030. To date, we always report indirect the level three emissions linked to the movement of our employees. As I said, net zero, that is our target for 2050. Let me underscore that shareholders can address these issues, broadly speaking, which have been included in our report when voting and when seeing non-financial information. Finally, the environmental footprint. Again, we aim to achieve those zero emissions, benefiting from the support of our customers, and we understand that this needs to be done gradually in order to protect the economic activity involved and employment. We are ourselves, Santander, are carbon neutral in our own transactions as of the year 2020. Miguel Ángel González Aragón, regarding the price per share, I think that we've dealt with that. Now, as to fees, I would say that these are standard prices in the bank. They're available to all of our customers in every branch, and they are furthermore available for everyone who wishes to visit our website, fully transparent. We have simplified fees. Customers who have their activities with us, incoming and outgoing, do not pay fees. In any case, I will talk with Francisco Lechuga Ariza, his branch manager, will reach out to him in order to see whether assistance is feasible. Vulnerable customers are not charged fees. As to sponsorships, we are very happy with our sponsorships. LaLiga and Ferrari. Brand is very important, and these sponsors help our brand be better known. We want to grow our customers. We have grown our customers. It's very important to benefit from this type of sponsorship. We've grown by 5 million customers, 30%. Investing in these activities and these actions is very important. Mr. Francisco Javier Martin Sanchez asked about dividends, forward-looking. I believe that we've taken this. I think that we answered before. I think that was the only question he posed. Now, as to Madam shareholder, Sara Mancera, about funding companies that manufacture weapons. I will respond also, and at the same time, to Madam shareholder, Gemma Amorós. I have said that the bank believes with regard to social and environmental, when we analyze risk, when we take our decisions, we consider funding. We have policies that target specific sensitive sectors, such as defense. Every year, we reassess our policies, you can see that on our website, in order to ensure that our business practices are appropriate. We verify that all of the customers comply with our defense policy. We turn back those transactions that do not comply. All transactions whereby Santander as a group is related with regard to manufacturing, trading, or distribution of weapons or double-use technology, complies with international conventions to the most stringent degree and with non-proliferation treaties. Furthermore, we especially focus on our funding not being destined to countries which have not ratified that Charter of the United Nations. As to customers, well, I cannot provide information about our customers for confidentiality reasons. The defense budgets, are we going to modify our policy? We do not believe at this point that we need to change our policy, defense-wise, but we reiterate that in accordance with our policy, Santander never, ever funds the manufacturing, commercialization, distribution of products or material that has to do with munition, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, biological weapons, or munition that involves uranium and any other. Okay, I have taken Gemma Amorós. Janira Torres Pascual, regarding changes and how they impact our business. Well, again, the changes that we have implemented and, well, some of them, I think, are going to be approved today, hopefully. As we underscored, we want to be the best possible open platform for financial services, and in order to so do, we need to change, we need to update the model. This is absolutely essential. If we want to be sustainable in the mid to long term, this is an essential change. These changes in the model and the way we operate, the roles, the CEO, myself, other profiles, of course, we are documenting in an ongoing manner what the model was partially, but also in order to be more nimble, in order to continue to quicken that change, because we want to grow, and we want to grow without taking into account, which is, of course, achieving the best possible earnings every year and providing the best possible service as of now. Now, that quickening of the execution of the strategy is doubtless one of the essential points that we seek to achieve via this change. This is important also. We align our model to that of our peers, and we make good on the most exacting standards of corporate governance. This is a decision that we have taken at a board level because we believe that this is what is best for the company, best for the entity. Now, for Diego Castañeda Peña, regarding the gap, gender pay gap. I have to say that I absolutely agree with the fact that our team does a great job. We continue to invest. We want to have a team that is diverse as possible, upholding our values, behaving as we wish, because we are absolutely convinced that this is the way we will achieve results now and in the future. This is something that we're going to continue to invest in. Specifically, the gender pay gap. Yes, 54% of the group is women, but only 26.3% hold top management positions. This is not enough, but remember, it was 20% a very short time ago, and as we've said, we need to take meritocracy into account. We want to have the best candidate for the best position, for the right position, rather. This low percentage of women in top managerial positions, well, we're on the right track. 32.3% of the gap results from the lesser representation of women in managerial positions, especially in the business, and more of a presence in retail and support. We're working on this. We are advancing. We are progressing very much so. We are going to have better succession plans, and we are going to ensure that we right this imbalance. As I said before, it is absolutely essential to deal with this, to solve this. We have to advance at a quicker speed. We have 40% on the board. As I said, it's going to take us a little bit longer in terms of top management. Yes, 23 March with the trade unions, a new equal rights commission in order to foster equal rights, to foster our achieving equal rights and equal pay for all. Madam shareholder Noemí Trabado Gago has posed five questions about gender gap and remuneration of the board and top management, I believe I have already responded to. As to adjustments of bank employees. Last year, we signed a bank agreement which is valid until 2023, which was backed by 83% of the trade unions represented in banks. Remember, this is one of the most important agreements. It affects over 90,000 employees. It looks not only at wage increases, it also looks at payment depending on results, insurance, and for the first time, working via remote and digital rights. The covenant agrees that salaries will be studied, improvements regarding productivity, earnings in the sector, among others. I have to insist that our policy, especially social benefits, our systems that we have in place for employees at Santander, are actually an improvement on the content of the trade union agreement valid for the banking sector in general. The banking sector, as many other sectors, but ours especially, is subject to an ongoing transformation, digital transformation. In fact, it is the customers themselves who are so requesting, and it is increasingly pressing. We're going to have to adapt to this new scenario, and we will have to be wherever customers want us to be in order to provide the best possible service to customers, and of course, the highest level of earnings possible and profits possible for our shareholders. There have been adjustments for structural reasons which result from organizational or production-related causes, and they have always been carried out after an agreement has been reached with trade union representatives in the group. It also is important to remember that we have been transparent, responsible, accountable. We have ensured that employees who so wished were helped to find new jobs and so on. As to commercial objectives and the workload, I've done it before, I'll do it again. I want to say thank you very much to all of the bank's employees who have worked so hard over these past few years. It's been very difficult for everyone. We agree. It was an essential service. Many persons have been working from home, providing care and attention to customers. Thank you very much to all of you. As of the very first day, top of mind was our employees' health and safety. I have to say that during the critical periods, the most critical, there were lockdowns, quarantines, sick leave. Our people's health has been most important. Possible misalignments have been solved thanks to the hard work, engagement, and commitment, and with specific measures. Let me say that in 2022, and this is part of the change in the model, we're going to be promoting something. One of the ways of helping our people out, because yes, we are less than we were before, but we're streamlining processes for customers. It's important to also streamline processes for our teams. This is a very important way of ensuring that we can work and focus on people as they perform their commercial duties. This streamlining is a strategic axis which the CEO and myself have discussed. I would add that to better understand, and by the way, this is something that we always aspire to improve on, we want to be closer to our teams, and we have therefore launched, among others, a model of ongoing approachability. Before we used to survey, now we want to hear from our teams what we need to do to do things better. This is bank-wide, and this is going to allow us to measure in order to ascertain that, in fact, the objectives that we have set forth are made good on. Finally, of course, it is very important if we think about our commercial objectives, behavior or managerial styles that do not adapt to our corporate, behavior are unacceptable. There's no doubt we want to be informed. We have, HR rather has an open channel to correct these behaviors, which perhaps do not align with our corporate culture. More questions. The gender wage gap, remuneration of the board, how we compare. I think I've answered those. Mr. Shareholder, Juan Antonio Ramos García, who addressed the dividend issue, I believe that also has been responded to. Mr. Julio José Sánchez Oliveros, inclusion, what are we doing in Spain for seniors, again, inclusion, what are we doing in Spain and specifically with our seniors? I think I've responded to that. As to Mr. Eduardo Martín Duarte, first, I need to say that your traditional aggressive posture vis-à-vis the bank dates all the way back to 1992. The provincial court and the Supreme Court have already cast a vote in our favor. Recently, the bank again has been vindicated. As to your statements, we reject them. We are used to hearing him often enough addressing issues which do not have anything to do with the board. We believe that because he wishes to defend his best interest, I remind you that this is not the place. This chair rejects your aggressive reaction. Mr. Martín Duarte, you are a lawyer and you know full well that what you are doing is absolutely inadmissible. As to the delegation of institutionals, the network, the campaign in the board, you have brought the bank to court. No sentence has been known. Because this is a meeting of shareholders, I reiterate that the bank deems that cards to delegate votes and the activities in the bank branches are fully aligned with legal mandates and are in line with practices in place in listed companies, nationally and internationally, and specifically, a delegation into the chair is institutional. The chair does not formally or personally request a delegation. Institutional investors basically vote via remote and cast electronically. The bank does not have anything to do with the ultimate beneficiary at the entity. Shareholders vote whatever they may wish. Specifically, in the case of delegations, the person holding that delegate vote must abide by the instructions provided by the shareholder in said card. As to reducing the time from 5 to 2, what we are recommending are justified for the reasons that we have made available to all of the shareholders in the documentation, which I remind you is available. There are over 4 million shareholders. Each one of the shareholders may participate. We need to be nimble. Going from 5 to 3 minutes is the minimum that is allowed, not the maximum. It is the minimum time, as you saw yourself. We're very flexible. You saw that in your own contribution. It is more than enough, and most shareholders can definitely allow for their concerns to be heard. We are doing what other listed companies are doing. There's a way of ensuring that maneuvers are not allowed to take place, which would run against the best interest of the entity. As to Mr. Orcel, we do not discuss legal cases that are pending resolution. We are talking approximately 80% of the sentence, although a part of that amount is pending return to the bank, EUR 7 million, roughly. There has been an appeal, and that amount, the bank hopes, will be returned to the bank with interest. The decision to not hire was taken by the board. As to HSBC, you can well understand that Mr. Simões has not traveled anywhere to do anything with HSBC. As to remunerations and the airplane, I already explained. I think the information is comprehensive and transparent and complies with legal mandate. Using corporate means complies with related party transaction rules. As to executive functions, we have talked about organizational changes, and in any case, the bank has and continues to abide by current legislation. As to alternative uses, buybacks, as we inform, point 7.D, 7.C and 7.D is the amortization thereof. As to information regarding litigation and accounts, this information is what is legally mandated, including information regarding litigation, and the provisions are what the provisions must be. To Mr. Miguel Arce, Mr. Miguel Arce talked about the bank strategy and requested more information. Well, we are in the midst of the second strategic plan, the first, 2015, the second, 2019, and we are making good on it. Actually, we are ahead of ourselves. The strategy is to continue to build on the basis of the three pillars that I've addressed in my speech: customers, diversification, and executing the plan, whereby the ultimate objective is to achieve the best possible financial services platform. We have articulated it. We've talked about three initiatives, which we launched, One Santander, PagoNxt, and Digital Consumer Bank. It's very important to remember that these are going to be reflected in today and future earnings. More details regarding One Santander. The objective basically is to grow connectivity even more than we've done, and we've been very successful, but we want to do more regarding connectivity. All countries, all businesses, we want to build common solutions. We want to leverage our technology, benefit from our technology, build platforms that will allow us to provide the best possible service to our customer in as efficient a way as possible. I think the results are good. In 2021, our ROTE in Europe went from 4%-10%. We've definitely been able to save costs. We are in the top three of the net promoter score, which is important. In North America, we've doubled our profits in the past year. We have focused more on consumer with an ROTE of 21%, adjusted to 12% capital. In general, in South America also, we're investing heavily in building a common franchise in all of the countries in the region. This is something which is allowing us to grow via the products and services which we have in Brazil and also in Chile, reaching out to other countries in a very efficient way. We've launched in Brazil the first insurance company, which is 100% digital, and it is already profitable just 10 months after launch. As to PagoNxt, this is essential in our strategy because payment is the heart of a relationship with a customer. This is what allows us to have an ongoing relationship. We believe, this is what the numbers tell us, we believe that we may very well compete in that market and offer this service not only to Santander customers, but also to third parties, which is a new opportunity to generate earnings much more than what we have in place today. As to Digital Consumer Bank, well, the business that we have, we're leaders in Europe, funding consumer. The aim is to onboard it to more modern technology, which will allow us, again, to grow better, to grow sustainably, to leverage technology, Openbank technology also for consumer, non-auto. This also is on the right track. Our objective there is to ensure that those profits, very attractive today, withstand the passing of time and also quicken future growth. Mrs. Cristina Benito Tomás asked about 2022 and buyback. I believe that again, we've answered this question. Mr. Santiago Álvarez Barosto, about the time allotted to shareholders, I believe I've answered. As to Miguel Ángel Hernández Marco, the strategy in the United States. Well, I just mentioned it. In the United States, we have a thriving business which is profitable at this point in time. Actually, I said we had times 2, but profits have times 3 ever since 2019. Actually, 2021, it was Brazil and the U.S. were head to head with regards profits for the group, and the dividends were very, very important. At the end of the day, this has an effect on shareholders. This is proof of the fact that geographic realities are very important. The United States grow, continue to grow despite the situation we have right now with the war in the Ukraine. It allows us, again, as we've seen on so very many different occasions during different crises, and the U.S. is absolutely essential. Being more resilient is so important. We are more resilient than our peers. In 2021, because of the regulatory reality, we couldn't tackle growth plans, which is what we're doing now. We began just last year. This is a market which is extremely attractive, which not only grows and profitably, it has a strong connection with Europe and with Latin America. Now, Mrs. Mercedes Ruiz Palacios, who asked about responsible. No, I'm sorry, the evolution of the share price, I believe. I think that also has been handled or answered, rather. Valores Santander. Yes. Valores Santander was in general correctly carried out, but I'm going to ask your branch manager in Alcorcón, Amparo Salmeron. I'm going to ask the branch manager to reach out to you to see whether perhaps some solution may be achieved. Mrs. Laura Ruiz de Galarreta from the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer. Let me say congratulations. Congratulations on what the association does. This is extremely important for persons who suffer, for persons who are sick. We are convinced that as part of a community, because we are involved and committed, it's very important to collaborate with groups such as yours. We know that in the midterm, being able to achieve sustainable results over time is very good. It's good for our shareholders to do these things. Let me just give you some numbers. In 2021, EUR 150 million went to social investment, of which EUR 106 million in the field of education. Over 172,000 scholarships. We invested EUR 46 million in other initiatives, providing support to the community. We reached out to over 2 million persons. We're very proud of how we collaborate with NGOs. We have a program which is called Euros from your payroll, whereby, well, you can imagine there are very many requests for assistance that come to us. What we've been doing for some years now is our own people, our own professionals, can provide support and recommend. There's always some kind of a filter, there's an assessment, but we back those associations that our employees recommend to us. What the bank does, it contributes the same amount as the employees do. Again, congratulations for your wonderful work. Mrs. Henriëtte Buchín, who asked about responsible banking and fossil fuels, JBS impact in the rainforest, and I've answered that as well. Mrs. María Ángeles Lobato asked about more banking consolidation in Spain and in Europe. Well, the fact is, nobody knows whether there is or there is not. What we do know is that we do not want to participate. Santander, as I said before, has very many opportunities to grow profitably organically. We do not need to acquire anything to further grow because we have very much within our customer base. We can reach out to other customers organically. It is true that in Europe, the more financial integration we have, the better it will be for the sector. We are not competing with the United States. European banks in general are small because we don't have a single European market really. We continue to be 27 countries. Therefore, consolidation in the financial sector is definitely important. But we need for steps to be taken which have not been taken yet, which we do not depend on. It is the authorities, it is the European Union who will have to take that step. The European Deposit Fund, a single services market. We have repeated this so very many times, and therefore what we're doing is our job. We continue to do things, hopefully every day a little bit better. We are absolutely sure of our strategy, which is to create value forward looking. Mr. Tomás Castillo Arenal from Amica. Again, let me begin by saying congratulations. Spectacular what you do. I have to say that we're very happy to be able to collaborate to those projects which are truly interesting, and we believe that this is the path. We would like to see more organizations traveling down that path because the impact is so very important. As I said, we're very sure that social projects make all the difference in a given community. This is good for the community, this is good for the bank, this is good for shareholders. Apart from being the right thing, which is first and foremost. What can I say? We're delighted to collaborate with that wonderful initiative which this shareholder is so deeply involved in. Now, remote questions, remote comments. Let me see. We have heard from three shareholders. Three shareholders via remote. Mrs. Rosa Maria Gonçalves Batista, who... From Santander Totta. Let me just tell this shareholder that her question does not have to do with the issues at hand. We cannot deal with private issues, but with regards what you've said about compensation, which has to do with her retirement, management of HR in Santander in Portugal will reach out to you to see whether we can provide answers or clarify whatever needs clarification. As to Mr. Juan Prieto, who actually posed two questions. One has to do with remunerations of the chair and the CEO. That question has been answered. Another question regarding the ESG metrics, which I believe we have also provided an answer to. Finally now, the final address, also very remote, Mrs. Silvia García, who wanted to ask about the Ukraine and measures during the humanitarian crisis, the coordination, what has the bank contributed? I again say that this humanitarian aid. We need to remember that we have a bank in Poland which is on the border. We have a branch on the border with Ukraine. We have followed, as you can imagine, with keen interest, and we have focused our aid. We have launched a number of measures, and we are in ongoing contact with European authorities especially. Let me underscore that as we said before, international sanctions are in place as set forth by Europe, the U.S., the U.K. and Poland, of course. We will not be carrying out new businesses with Russian companies. We're helping European institutions to help in whatever way possible. To the Ukrainian people, responding to the humanitarian crisis. Having a bank in Poland, as I say, well, it makes us feel that this is something very close to us. We have done away with fees and transfers, an initial donation of EUR 1 million to the UNHCR and the Red Cross, and we have contributed over EUR 10 million. Refugees can access financial services via Santander España Openbank. We have suspended fees for accounts and cards for Ukrainian customers in Poland, free use of ATMs, accessing cash, which also is very important. Finally, as mentioned before, we have also made El Solaruco building right here to provide temporary accommodation for 30 children, oncological patients, and their families. Now we will address the proposals and agreements, and then we will vote. We will vote here. As to points that are not included in the agenda, and including those made during the course of the meeting, including when applicable by remote attendees, the secretary will first read them, so that pursuant to the rules established in the announcement of the call to the meeting, those attending remotely can cast their vote on said proposals beginning at the time of said reading and until the voting begins in these premises. The secretary has the floor. I will first of all read the items formulated by a shareholder, Martín Duarte. He asked for all the administrators to resign. Item 10 of the agenda. Also, the same point as the previous one. The 25th, the proposals for the directors to resign. Ms. Botín, Mr. José Antonio Álvarez, all the directors, there was a proposal from one of the shareholders to ask for their re-resignation. With regards to the proposals out of the agenda, I remind the remote attendees that they can vote through the remote attendance application in favor, against, in blank, or abstain. If they do not take any action, it shall be deemed that they vote against the proposals submitted to a vote in each case. We have article 126, where according to the cards, the representative has precise instructions or the secretary general must carry out the vote on behalf of the shareholders. In whose case, these shares will be calculated as represented. Shares corresponding to those shareholders were to participate in this meeting due to having cast a prior distance vote shall not be considered shares present in person or represented by proxy or purpose voting on these proposals, as they could not exercise their voting rights in relation to items not included on the agenda, like those now before us. In terms of the proposals on the items on the agenda, and since the texts have been provided to the shareholders, and they were also available in the corporate webpage and the notary's desk, we will not read in full all the proposals that are submitted to your vote. The secretary will briefly summarize each one of these items. Items 1, A, B, and C, we submit annual accounts, individual consolidated accounts, and management reports corresponding to 2021. Item A, consolidated information and ESG social management during the year. The following proposed application of results obtained by the company in the fiscal year 2021 is submitted to the shareholders under Item 2. EUR 1,793,161 thousand to dividends in the following way. EUR 835 million to the payment of the dividend already paid prior to the date of this meeting, and EUR 865.424 million to the payment in cash of a fixed final dividend of €0.0515 gross per eligible share to be paid in cash as per May 2, 2022. The total amount has been estimated on the assumption that the number of standing dividend-bearing shares of the bank will amount to 6,104,352 after the implementation of the second buyback program announced on February 24, 2022. Item three, submitted to the shareholders under item three, the setting of the number of directors at 15 within the maximum and the minimum provided for in the bylaws. Under item three B, the appointment of Mr. Germán de la Fuente as an independent director, his appointment being subject to obtaining the appropriate regulatory approvals. Under item three, C, D, E, F, and G, respectively, to re-elect as directors Mr. Enrique de Castro as independent director, Mr. José Antonio Álvarez as executive director, Ms. Belén Román as independent director, and Luis Isasi and Mr. Sergio Rial as external directors. Item 4 is proposed to re-elect PricewaterhouseCoopers Auditores, S.L., as external statutory auditor for financial year 2022. In item 5, it is proposed to amend the following articles of the bylaws. Under item 5A, amendment of Article 6. 5B, Article 16 on capital reduction. 5C, Article 19 on issuance of other securities. 5C, Article 26, right to attend the meeting. In 5E, Article 45, Secretary of the Board, and Article 29, presenting committee of general shareholders meeting. 5F, Article 48, executive chair. Under item 5G, Article 52, audit committee. Under item 5H, Article 58, compensation of directors, and Article 59, approval of the directors remuneration policy. Article 59 bis, transparency of the director compensation system. Under item 5I, it is proposed to insert a new Article 64 bis, prior authorization for the payment of dividends other than in cash or on funds instruments. Item 6, it is proposed to amend the following articles of the rules and regulations of the general shareholders' meeting. Under 6A, Article 6, information available as of the date of the call to meeting. 6B, Article 13. Item 6C, elimination of the additional provision, insertion of a new Article 15 bis, remote shareholders meeting, and amendment of Article 19 on proposals. 6D, Article 17 on presentations. Under item 7A, it is proposed to authorize the Board of Directors to increase the share capital on 1 or more occasions and at any time within a period of 3 years by means of cash contribution by maximum nominal amount of EUR 4.35 billion, 165,000, 325.50 according to 50% of the bank share capital at this date. The proposal includes canceling the unused portion of the authorization for this type, previously in force, and to delegate to the board of directors the power to exclude preemptive rights up to a maximum of 867,032,065 EUR, representing 10% of bank share capital at this time. Under item 7B, C, and D, it is proposed within the framework of the shareholder remuneration policy communicated to the market on September 28, 2021. As regards item B-D, concerning the result of the financial year 2022 and subsequent years, to reduce the share capital by canceling 259,930,163 own shares acquired through the buyback program initiated October 6, 2021, and completed November 25, 2021. To reduce the share capital in the maximum amount of EUR 165 million by canceling 1.7 million own shares acquired through the buyback program approved by the board of directors in its meeting of February 24, 2022. That the board of directors may resolve to reduce the share capital by a minimum amount of EUR 867,032,065 by canceling a maximum of 1,734,064,130 of the company's own shares acquired under one or several share buyback programs or in any other manner permitted by law, delegating to the board of directors the power to resolve the reduction and to determine the other conditions as provided for in this resolution. Item H. Under item A, it is proposed to approve the director remuneration policy for financial years 2022, 2023, and 2024. Under item B, it is proposed to approve the maximum amount of the annual fixed remuneration to be paid to all of the directors in their capacity as such, setting it at EUR 6 million. Under item 8C, in compliance with the requirement imposed by Law 10/2014, the approval of the shareholders at the AGM is requested for the percentage that the variable components of the total remuneration of certain categories of employees represent of the fixed components to exceed 100% with a limit up to 200% if the resolution affects the executive directors and those categories of employees whose professional activity significantly impacts the risk profile of the entity or its group, up to a maximum of 746 people with a breakdown appearing in the proposed resolution. Item 8.D, it is proposed to approve the potential delivery of shares or rights thereon or remuneration linked to the value of the shares to executive directors under the implementation of the second cycle of deferred multi-year objective variable remuneration plan and execution of the provisions of the remuneration policies. 8.E, it is proposed to authorize the potential delivery of shares or rights thereon or remuneration linked to the value of the shares to potential new executive directors under the implementation of the group's BIAC policy. 8.F, the annual director remuneration report approved by the Board of Directors following the proposal of the Remuneration Committee, is submitted to a vote on a consultative basis. Item nine, it is proposed to authorize the board to interpret, remedy, supplement, implement, and develop the resolutions approved by the shareholders at the meeting, and authorize certain persons to convert the corporate resolutions into public instruments and to deposit the annual accounts and other documentation with the commercial registry. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. We'll now proceed to vote at these premises on each of the proposals included on the agenda. At the end of voting, the results will be announced. It is hereby stated for the record that pursuant to the rules of operation of the meeting, the remote attendees have been able to cast their votes since the declaration of a valid quorum for the meeting, and that the process for the casting of votes thereby is now closed. I would also like you to note that pursuant to the provisions of the rules and regulations for the GSM, if a shareholder physically present at this meeting wishes to vote against, in blank, or abstain in relation to any of the proposed resolutions included on the agenda, they must so state to the notary, who shall record such circumstance in the minutes of the meeting. The votes of those shareholders who do not state to the notary the direction of their vote, or that they abstain, shall be considered votes in favor of the proposals included on the agenda. Shareholders who are in the adjoining room connected to this room by audiovisual means and who wish to make communications to the notary about the direction of their vote, or if they are going to abstain, may request to do so through the support staff in that room. Furthermore, I remind you that pursuant to the provisions of Section 526 of the Spanish Capital Companies Act, directors that have made or are in a similar situation to a public solicitation for proxies that have a conflict of interest and that have not received precise voting instructions shall not cast a vote corresponding to the shares represented thereby in relation, when applicable, to the proposals made by the board of directors under items 1C, 3B through 3G, 8A through 8D, and 8F. That, as stated in the proxy cards provided, the General Secretary of the company shall cast the vote corresponding to said shares in his capacity as designated proxy representative for cases of conflict of interest in relation to those items in which a conflict exists, unless he himself is in a situation of conflict of interest, which will be the case in items 8C and 8D, and has not received precise voting instructions to that effect, in which case he shall abstain. Likewise, it is hereby declared that when voting on the proposal of the Board of Directors under item 8C of the agenda, and in accordance with the provisions of Law 10/2014, the voting rights of those shares whose direct or indirect holders benefit from this proposal may not be exercised in any case. The Secretary has the floor. As stated by the Chair, we will now proceed to the vote on each of the resolutions proposed at this GM. The voting results will be announced at the end. First, each of the proposals on the Board regarding items 1A, 1B, and 1C on the agenda are separately submitted. Are they approved? The proposal of the Board regarding item 2 on the agenda, approved. Proposals regarding items 3A through 3G on the agenda, are they approved? The proposal of the board regarding item 4 on the agenda, is it approved? The proposals of the board regarding items 5 A through 5 I on the agenda are separately submitted to a vote. Are they approved? The proposals regarding item 6 A through 6 D on the agenda are separately submitted. Are they approved? The proposals of the board regarding item 7 A through 7 D on the agenda are separately submitted. Are they approved? The proposals of the board regarding items 8 A through 8 E on the agenda are separately submitted. Are they approved? The proposal of item 8 F is submitted to a consultative vote. Are they approved? Proposal of the board regarding item 9, approved. As to the votes cast under the items on the agenda, I hereby inform you that pursuant to information received by the presiding committee, all proposals have been approved. As the minutes of the meeting have been prepared by a notary, we will be seeing the ones that have not been included, but Mr. Martín Duarte, which were read out by the Secretary. If anybody wishes to abstain, it must so be instructed to the notary who will take good note in the minutes. Shareholders who are in the hall next door and who wish to communicate with the notary regarding votes or abstention can reach out to attending staff. Votes contrary will be those of those shareholders who do not manifest the vote or abstention to the notary. Those shareholders who participate in this meeting who have voted via remote will not be deemed to be present with regards the voting of these proposals. They have not been able to exercise the right to vote with regards points that were not included in the agenda. Those actions with regards which we cannot exercise the right to vote because of conflict of interest in the implementation of Article 526 of Spanish legislation. That circumstance does not concur with regards to proxy cards received and whereby the proxy holder has precise instructions. In the absence thereof, the General Secretary of the company is to cast the vote corresponding to said shares in his capacity as designated proxy representative for cases of conflict of interest in the absence of precise instructions, in which case the said shares will be included in the calculation as shares represented. Mr. Martín Duarte's contribution regarding activities vis-à-vis the motion requesting the resignation of each one of the members of the board, 10A, as presented to this board. With regards to proposals that are not included in the agenda and taking into account information received, votes in favor, blank or abstain in relation to any of the proposed resolutions not included on the agenda, they must so state to the notary, therefore his requests are rejected, not having reached the necessary number of votes. We do not have to request the vote. The notary will perform in accordance to the law. Ladies and gentlemen, shareholders, we have come to the end of this session. This concludes the proceedings of this general meeting. Thank you once again for attending, and we do say goodbye until the next occasion. Thank you all very much. The meeting is brought to a close.