Santander U.S. unit reaches deal with Fed over unauthorized dividend

• At issue was a $0.15 per share dividend paid in May by Santander Consumer USA (SC +0.1%) despite the fact that the capital plan submitted by Santander Holdings - the U.S. unit of Santander (SAN +1.2%) - had not been approved by the Fed.
• Santander quickly mitigated the violation by injecting $20.8M into its U.S. operation, and today agrees to strengthen its board oversight of management regarding any capital returns.