Adds details on customer deposits in paragraph 3, quote from head of DCB in 8, details on Openbank and its strategy from 7

By Jesús Aguado

MADRID, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Spain's Santander SAN.MC is merging its digital lender Openbank with its consumer finance business in Europe as part of a drive to simplify its structure and reduce costs, the bank said on Wednesday.

The new entity will manage Santander's consumer finance operations under the Openbank brand, starting with Germany, with other markets to follow, Santander said.

Openbank and Santander Consumer Finance belong to the group's global digital consumer bank business. In Europe, this business has 84 billion euros ($98 billion) in customer deposits.

SCF is an auto finance leader in Europe with over 140 billion euros in loans.

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In 2023, Santander reorganised its business into retail, consumer, payments, wealth, and corporate and investment banking units to try to improve efficiency and boost its value.

The euro zone's biggest lender by market value did not disclose potential cost savings from the merger.

Nitin Prabhu, global head of Santander's Digital Consumer Bank global business, said the combination would create a "more efficient and innovative digital-first bank".

Santander, which focuses on 10 core markets, is building its own technology platform for consumer and digital-only banking.

Openbank currently operates in Spain, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands and has expanded to the U.S. and Mexico.

In recent years, Openbank and SCF have forged partnerships with the likes of Apple AAPL.O, Amazon AMZN.O and Vodafone VOD.L in various European countries.

Santander said the integration would allow clients to access a wider range of products through a unified digital platform.

($1 = 0.8593 euros)

(Reporting by Jesús Aguado. Editing by Joan Faus and Mark Potter)

((jesus.aguado@thomsonreuters.com; +34 91 835 68 32; Reuters Messaging: Reuters Messaging: jesus.aguado.reuters.com@reuters.net))