A bullish Emilio Botín, chairman of Spanish bank Santander, on Thursday predicted steady profits and dividends in 2009 in spite of recessions in some of the bank’s main markets and the global financial crisis that has felled some of his biggest rivals.

Even after a 73 per cent rise in its loan loss and other provisions to €6.14bn ($7.9bn) last year, Santander reported 2008 net profits, excluding capital gains, of €8.88bn – an increase of 9.4 per cent over 2007.