The chairman of Banco Santander, Emilio Botín, said Spanish financial institutions do not need to take up the country’s state-backed guarantee scheme as they are in robust shape, putting them into contrast with many of their European counterparts.

In a speech opening the Santander Group’s International Banking Conference yesterday, Mr Botín said the country’s banks will not require a state rescue, given their continued strength and solvency, according to Spanish media.

He did not blame the financial crisis on the US sub-prime mortgage disaster, saying this was merely a catalyst that exposed the failures of lax regulation and the excesses of the “bonanza period” enjoyed by world banks in recent years.

What Spanish markets really need from government right now, he said, is not just attention to liquidity but supervision, transparency and for a balance to be struck between solvency and protecting consumers.

Mr Botín, who built Santander from a small Cantabrian bank into the euro-zone’s biggest bank by market capitalisation after inheriting it from his father in 1986, called on European leaders to draw up a coordinated “road map” to safeguard against future problems and confusion in the markets.

He said the EU had done well to draw inspiration from the UK’s rescue plan for measures agreed upon at last weekend’s meeting.

Europe’s leaders may do even better to pay heed to Mr Botín. His Santander Group continues to expand. In the last three months, the Madrid-based bank has been on a spending spree, picking up UK-based Bradford and Bingley’s branch network and deposit business, UK lender Alliance and Leicester and, most recently, US thrift Sovereign Bancorp. It was also one of the early bidders for Wachovia and Washington Mutual, which were absorbed by Wells Fargo and J.P. Morgan respectively.

Bucking global trends, Santander forecasts considerable growth by the end of 2008, with particular thanks to eight Latin American operations from which it currently earns two thirds of its profits, according to Bloomberg. Yesterday, Reuters reported that the group’s Brazilian arm closed deals to buy five loan portfolios and that it was in talks to acquire more.