(Bloomberg) -- Banco Santander SA said the number of high earners in the US jumped by more than a third last year, after a push to build up its corporate and investment banking business on Wall Street.

Spain’s biggest bank said on Friday that 418 employees earned more than €1 million last year. The US accounted for 37% of the total. A year ago, the number was 357 people, with about 32% of those in the US.

A “significant part” of these employees “belong to the Corporate and Investment Banking business, where we obtained record revenue and profits during the year,” Santander said. 

Santander has hired strongly in the US over the past years as it picked up investment bankers from now-defunct Credit Suisse. While the newly-hired investment bankers are making inroads into businesses such as leveraged finance, some of their pay packages far exceed what longtime staffers get, Bloomberg News has reported. 

Santander said in the report that staff turnover influenced the number of high earners because it also includes severance and sign-on bonuses, “which all lead to very large amounts for several individuals that are not strictly connected to 2024.” 

The executives could lose the one-time award they received for joining Santander last year if they quit again before the end of the current year, the bank said.

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