Santander Holdings USA To Appoint Scott Powell As CEO : Report

(RTTNews) - Santander Holdings USA Inc. has appointed a new chief executive officer as the unit of the Spanish banking giant works to shore up relationships with U.S. regulators, the Wall Street Journal reported citing people close to the firm.

The Boston-based unit of Spanish lender Banco Santander SA (BNC.L, BSBR, SAN) will announce as soon as Monday that Scott Powell, a former head of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s consumer-banking operations, will become the new CEO of the unit, the report said. The unit owns Santander Bank N.A., which has branches in the Northeast, and 60.5% of Santander Consumer USA , which went public last year and makes consumer and auto loans.

The expected move comes as Santander's executive chairman, Ana Botín, confronts numerous problems at the U.S. unit. Santander's U.S. bank is expected to fail the Federal Reserve's balance-sheet "stress test" this month over shortcomings in how the unit measures and predicts potential losses and risks, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Powell is replacing Román Blanco as head of Santander Holdings. Blanco will remain chief executive of Santander's U.S. retail bank, Journal said.