Banco Santander SA Executive Chair Ana Botin says the lender’s decision to acquire Webster Financial Corp. in a $12 billion deal is a “strategically important” move. “It drives us to our ultimate goal, which is to be one of the most profitable banks in each geography,” Botin tells Bloomberg Television. The deal is one of the largest-ever US transactions by a European lender and it marks a major push by Spain’s largest bank to expand its operations in the US.