United States Senators Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT) have warned against the acquisition of a Connecticut-based bank by Spanish banking giant Santander, highlighting the risks posed to American workers and businesses by decisions made in Madrid amid growing divisions between the socialist government and Washington.
In a letter exclusively obtained by Breitbart News, Republican Senators Moreno and Sheehy expressed deep concerns about the pending acquisition of Webster Financial Corporation, a $84 billion-asset Connecticut-based bank, by Spain’s Banco Santander.
Writing to U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan Gould, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Travis Hill, the American lawmakers said that the “ceding control over U.S. deposits, data, and credit decisions to Spain’s premier bank raises questions that warrant careful regulatory scrutiny”.
The Senators noted that the matter has become particularly sensitive “given that Spain has not always acted as a reliable ally in advancing U.S. security priorities.”
Relations between the United States and Spain have soured considerably in recent months, with far-left y Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez openly condemning the U.S. and Israel for their conflict against the Islamist regime in Tehran.
The socialist inhabitant of the Palacio de la Moncloa even went so far as to bar the American military from using its bases or airspace for operations involving the Iranian conflict. In turn, President Donald Trump has said he is considering withdrawing all troops from Spain.
Senators Moreno and Sheehy said that their concerns over the potential acquisition were “amplified by Santander’s recent history with Iran-related sanctions risk,” noting that the UK branch of the Spanish banking giant was alleged to have provided a bank account to an Iranian shell company for a state-controlled petrochemical company claimed to have raised hundreds of millions for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force and other militant proxy forces via Russian intelligence.
Moreno Letter to Banking Regulators Re Santander Acquisition by Breitbart News
Santander UK said that it “conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations” and claimed to have “not found any breach by it of U.S. sanctions against Iran in connection with these allegations.”
However, the U.S. Senators noted that even if no sanctions were directly violated, “the fact remains that Iran’s state apparatus and intelligence networks were able to exploit Santander’s systems to help finance a murderous, anti-American regime’s Revolutionary Guard and its Russian partners.”
“If Iranian front companies were able to route sanctioned funds through a seemingly innocuous Santander account in the United Kingdom, U.S. financial regulatory authorițies must investigate whether Santander’s existing and future U.S. operations, including any merged institution that holds significant American deposits, are safe against similar exploitation,” they wrote.
The Republican lawmakers went on to note that the bank had additionally faced accusations of “anti-money laundering procedure failings allowed Beltcastle, a financial intermediary with well-established links to the Cali Cartel and other Colombian narco-trafficking groups, to bank with Santander UK.”
Moreno and Sheehy also expressed concern over the potential Webster acquisition, given that it would elevate Santander to one of the top ten commercial and retail banks in the United States by assets under its control, at an estimated $327 billion. Although Santander’s American operations are conducted under the Santander Holdings USA holding company and are therefore subject to American financial regulations, the Senators still warned of the potential pitfalls of empowering a firm that is “ultimately controlled by the foreign parent”.
“This is more than a simple business transaction: allowing a foreign bank to consolidate control over a critical regional lender would tie the economic health of American communities to decisions made abroad. This dynamic risks leaving American workers and businesses exposed to decisions driven by a foreign entity rather than domestic needs and priorities,” they said.