INDEX / DIRECTORY / SANTANDER / V-DIG

Santander V-DIG

DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE AUDIT UPDATED 2026-05-18
V-DIG Score 0.14 /10 E Santander — BDS-1000 9
V-DIG 0.14

Evidence-only forensic audit. Scoring happens downstream — see the main dossier for the composite assessment.

V-DIG Audit — Banco Santander S.A.

Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

Santander Brasil selected GuardiCore’s Centra Security Platform to protect its Campinas data center in Brazil, confirmed via PR Newswire in June 2017 1. GuardiCore was acquired by Akamai Technologies in September 2021 for approximately $600 million 2. Santander Brasil remains listed as a current Akamai GuardiCore customer in 2024 customer databases 2. Santander invested $5 million in Israeli FinTech company MyCheck via Santander Innoventures in 2016 3. The GuardiCore/Akamai deployment is confirmed as a data center security function, not core banking infrastructure 1. No evidence found of Santander holding licensing, subscription, or integration relationships with Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, Nice, Verint, Claroty, or Palo Alto Networks 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Banco Santander served as anchor investor in creating Forgepoint Capital International (FPCI), a venture capital management company established in October 2022 with a commitment of up to €300 million 1011. FPCI’s stated mandate is to invest in cybersecurity startups mainly in Europe, Latin America, and Israel 1122. FPCI’s current portfolio includes at least three Israel-domiciled companies: Adaptive6 (dual location: Israel/North America), Capsule Security (Tel Aviv, Israel), and Cycode 1321. Damien Henault, FPCI Managing Director, leads investments in Europe, Israel, and Latin America 14. Michael Cortez, FPCI Partner, previously led investments and US operations as a Partner at YL Ventures, described as a leading seed-stage VC firm that invests in and supports Israeli cybersecurity entrepreneurs 12. Capsule Security (Tel Aviv, Israel) received a $7 million seed investment in August 2025 21. Forgepoint Capital’s alliance channels capital into Israeli cybersecurity startups through FPCI, constituting an indirect financial relationship with the Israeli cybersecurity technology ecosystem 101113.

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

No public evidence identified of Santander using facial recognition, biometric identification, or gait analysis technologies of Israeli origin (Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, Trax, or comparable vendors) 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander using Israeli-origin predictive policing, sentiment analysis, social media monitoring, or workforce surveillance tools 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of the above technologies reaching Santander indirectly via third-party platform providers, managed security services, or bundled enterprise suites 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

No public evidence identified of Santander operating, leasing, or co-locating data centre infrastructure within Israel 45678910111213132141516171819202122. No registered Santander Israel Ltd. entity found; no physical branches in Tel Aviv or elsewhere in Israel 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander participating in Project Nimbus or comparable Israeli government cloud initiatives 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander providing banking data-hosting services to Israeli government cloud infrastructure 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander providing services explicitly marketed to ensure digital sovereignty, data residency, or infrastructure resilience for Israeli state institutions or military bodies 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

No public evidence identified of Santander holding direct contracts, partnerships, or service agreements with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, Israel Defence Forces, intelligence agencies, or other state security bodies 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

The DBIO V Report (November 2025) ranks Banco Santander as the seventh European creditor with $20.606 billion in total loans and underwriting to 104 companies across military, technology, and settlement sectors for the period January 2023 through August 2025 416. The Centre Delas “Armed Banking” report (November 2024) documents Santander’s financing of Boeing, Leonardo, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Rheinmetall 5. The PAX “The Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers” report (June 2024) cross-verifies Santander arms financing figures 6.

The following arms financing figures have been documented: Boeing F-15 production received $887 million in loans from Santander; Leonardo F-35 components received $706 million in loans from Santander; General Dynamics 155mm projectiles received $166 million in loans from Santander; Lockheed Martin F-35 production received $222 million in underwriting from Santander; Rheinmetall M109-52 howitzers received $1.8 million in loans from Santander 56. Boeing F-15s and Leonardo F-35s are documented in IDF attacks on Gaza; Rheinmetall M109-52 howitzers are documented in Gaza Port attacks (October 2024) 5.

The DBIO I Report (October 2021) identified Santander providing $4.75 billion in financing to settlement-linked companies for the period January 2018 through August 2021, including ACS Group, Alstom, Cemex, CNH Industrial, eDreams ODIGEO, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise 8. Alstom is involved in the Jerusalem Light Rail, which operates in occupied East Jerusalem 8.

Santander’s Defence Sector Policy excludes financing for nuclear, chemical, biological weapons, anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, and depleted uranium ammunition, but does not exclude financing for conventional weapons manufacturers or settlement-linked companies 15.

No public evidence identified of Santander’s commercially available technology being deployed for military, intelligence, or law enforcement surveillance applications within Israel or occupied territories 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander developing, selling, licensing, or maintaining offensive cyber capabilities, zero-day exploit tools, or digital weapons systems 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

No public evidence identified of Santander providing artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, or autonomous decision-support systems to Israeli state, military, or security bodies 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander’s AI models or platforms being trained on, or provided access to, civilian population data, intercepted communications, or surveillance-derived datasets originating from Israel or occupied territories 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

No public evidence identified of Santander providing autonomous target generation, automated threat detection, or autonomous tracking systems to Israeli military or security forces 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

No public evidence identified of Santander operating research and development facilities, engineering offices, innovation labs, or accelerator programmes within Israel 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Santander anchored FPCI creation (October 2022) with up to €300 million commitment 1011. FPCI mandate explicitly includes investing in cybersecurity startups in Israel 1122. FPCI current portfolio includes at least three Israel-domiciled companies: Adaptive6, Capsule Security, and Cycode 1321. Capsule Security (Tel Aviv, Israel) received $7 million seed investment in August 2025 21. Santander invested $5 million in Israeli FinTech MyCheck (2016) 3.

No public evidence identified of significant patent portfolios, licensing agreements, or co-development arrangements between Santander and Israeli-domiciled entities or research institutions (Technion, Hebrew University, Weizmann Institute) 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

The DBIO V Report (November 2025) names Santander as the seventh European creditor at $20.606 billion in arms, settlement, and genocide-linked financing 416. The Centre Delas “Armed Banking” report (November 2024) documents Santander’s financing of Boeing, Leonardo, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, and Rheinmetall 5. The PAX “The Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers” report (June 2024) cross-verifies Santander arms financing figures 6. The AFSC Investigate database lists Palantir among companies enabling military occupation and genocide; UN Human Rights Council report A/HRC/59/23 (Albanese, July 2025) documents Palantir Israel’s role in surveillance and AI infrastructure 1819. The Vigeo Eiris Second Party Opinion (June 2020) confirms Santander as a client and that Vigeo Eiris maintains research partners in Israel 20.

The BDS Movement explicitly lists Banco Santander as a financial institution targeted for divestment under “Financial institutions funding the occupation” alongside AXA, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING, BBVA, Nordea, Société Générale, and Standard Chartered 9. Ethical Consumer rates Banco Santander as “Worst” for both weapons and military financing and settlement financing 7.

No OECD National Contact Point complaint found specifically filed against Santander regarding Israeli operations or technology provision 45678910111213132141516171819202122. Spain NCP handled a complaint against CAF (construction company) for Jerusalem Light Rail involvement (2021–2022); Santander was not named in that complaint 45678910111213132141516171819202122.

Santander’s Defence Sector Policy excludes financing for nuclear, chemical, biological weapons, anti-personnel mines, cluster munitions, and depleted uranium ammunition, but does not exclude financing for conventional weapons manufacturers or settlement-linked companies 15. Santander Human Rights Policy (2022) states commitment to the International Bill of Human Rights, ILO Declaration, and UNGPs, with references to due diligence in lending decisions 15. Santander 2024/2025 filings reference the Middle East and Israel conflict as a geopolitical risk factor but do not name specific Israeli technology vendors or disclose Israel-specific human rights due diligence procedures 17.

End Notes

Footnotes

  1. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/santander-brasil-chooses-guardicore-centra-security-platform-to-protect-data-center-300477090.html ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21

  2. https://www.akamai.com/newsroom/press-release/akamai-to-acquire-guardicore-to-extend-its-zero-trust-solutions-help-stop-ransomware ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21

  3. https://www.timesofisrael.com/europes-biggest-bank-now-israeli-tech-customer ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21

  4. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DBIO-V-report-DEF.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21

  5. https://centredelas.org/publicacions/bancaarmadaigenocidi?lang=en ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23

  6. https://paxforpeace.nl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/The-Companies-Arming-Israel-and-Their-Financiers-June-2024.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22

  7. https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/company-profile/banco-santander ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  8. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/DBIO-report-DEF_aangepast.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21

  9. https://bdsmovement.net/get-involved ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  10. https://www.santander.com/en/press-room/press-releases/2022/10/banco-santander-and-forgepoint-capital-announce-strategic-alliance ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22

  11. https://forgepointcap.com/perspectives/advancing-cyber-innovation-globally-forgepoint-international-and-our-alliance-with-banco-santander ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23 ↩24

  12. https://forgepointcap.com/perspectives/forgepoint-announces-new-european-hub-to-focus-on-cyber-ai ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  13. https://forgepointcap.com/companies ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22

  14. https://forgepointcap.com/team/damien-henault ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  15. https://www.santander.com/content/dam/santander-com/en/contenido-paginas/nuestro-compromiso/pol%C3%ADticas/do-Defence%20sector%20policy-en.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22

  16. https://www.banktrack.org/news/dont_buy_into_occupation_v_report_launch ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21

  17. https://www.santander.com/en/annual-reports ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  18. https://investigate.afsc.org/home ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  19. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/reports/ahrc5923 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  20. https://www.santander.com/content/dam/santander-com/es/documentos/presentaciones-de-renta-fija/2020/06/prf-vigeo-eiris-second-party-opinion-global-framework-es.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20

  21. https://www.ivc-online.com/Google-Card?id=63edc807-0c22-e911-80fd-0050569a1018 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21 ↩22 ↩23

  22. https://www.crunchbase.com ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18 ↩19 ↩20 ↩21