Santander has posted a group profit of 4.37bn ($5.92bn) for the fiscal year 2013, a 90.5% rise in net profits year on year.
Santander’s chairman, Emilio Botín, said: "After several years of strengthening the balance sheet and capital, Banco Santander is embarking on a period of strong profit growth in the coming years."
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In a statement Santander hailed the results as a turnaround after the declining profits of previous years.
The Spanish bank said: "The international economic crisis, which has been particularly severe in the euro zone, obliged the bank to make hefty write-downs that dragged down its results during that period."
The bank also credited emerging markets for over half of its profit for the fiscal year, saying: "In 2013, 53%of Group profit comes from emerging markets and 47% from mature markets."
On the same day as it released the results, a spokesman for Santander confirmed that it had no plans to spin off its UK division until at least 2015.
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By GlobalDataA week before, the bank successfully completed an IPO for Santander Consumer USA, selling a 21.6% stake.
In the UK, Santander scored a major retail banking hit via its value-added Santander 123 current account. Customer numbers increased by 1.1m year-on-year to 2.4m.
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