Agreement Signed

Banco Santander Central Hispano SA
25 July 2000


                   SANTANDER CENTRAL HISPANO AND AMENA SIGN 
                   ACCORD FOR MOBILE PHONE PAYMENTS SYSTEM

Banco Santander Central Hispano and mobile phone operator Amena today signed an
agreement to develop the new system for payments via mobile phone that is being
promoted by the Bank.

The system, in whose development Banesto and 4B are also participating, has been
conceived as an open system so that other operators and banks can join and
thereby ensure its wider use. Amena will provide its telecommunications
infrastructure, and make the system available to its more than 2.5 million
customers. Banco Santander Central Hispano will supply the payments system.

A customer will be able to make payments in establishments where the system is
in use simply by keying into his phone the transaction amount and a secret code.
This information will be sent from the phone to an authorization centre via
short message system. The operation is confirmed and both the purchaser, via his
phone, and the store, who may also use a mobile phone, are notified.

The advantages of this system, new to Spain, are convenience and security. The
customer does not need to enter his credit card number, nor a telephone number,
and all transactions are encrypted from one end to another. The means of
payment, a virtual card linked to the phone, can be on a credit, debit or
prepayment basis and the customer can make use of payment arrangements with
different banks.

The system technology is based on SIM Applications Toolkit, Short Messages and
new Transaction Authorization Centre. At present, the majority of mobile phones
have this capability, which allow rapid development without having to wait for
WAP phones or third generation UMTS.

The experimental phase will begin in the next few days to validate the system in
order to market the service this summer. It is estimated that more than 300,000
customers will use this system within a year in more than 20,000 establishments.


Madrid, July 25, 2000