Emilio Botín II, who ran Banco Santander from 1950 to 1986, used to tell his children: “Banking is everything.” His son, Emilio III, apparently got the message. One of the wealthiest men in Spain, with a fortune estimated at €1.7 billion (£1.35 billion), Emilio took over Banco Santander in 1986, when he was 52, and went on to turn it, not only into the most powerful bank in Spain, but also into a dominant force in Latin America.

Banking runs in Mr Botín's blood. His great grandfather was a founding member of Banco Santander in 1857 and his grandfather and father followed in his footsteps.

Mr Botín joined the bank at 26 after attending Jesuit school in Gijon, and then taking, first, a law degree at the University of Valladolid, and later one in economics at Deusto, a Basque university.

But for all the weight of tradition, Emilio III revolutionised business practices at Santander with his risk-taking, in-your-face management style. In 1989, he shocked the Spanish business world by breaking the agreement among the country's banks to fix interest rates. He also introduced the first interest-bearing cheque account to Spain. When he inherited Santander, it was ranked 108th in the world. By 2004, it had become the 14th-largest bank by market capitalisation.

A hands-on manager, who pops up unexpectedly at regional meetings, he shows up regularly on Sundays and is known to have called last-minute meetings on Christmas Day. He has been known to say that “you have to have a vocation to be a banker, with all the consequences that brings”.

Of his six children, it is his eldest daughter, Ana Patricia, who is following most closely in his footsteps. Currently the president of Banesto bank, part of the Santander group, she is believed to be next in line to inherit the bank. That too, would be in keeping with the Botín family's tradition: the bank always goes to the firstborn.

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