Santander Bank has hooked the CFO of fish distributor Slade Gorton & Co. to head up the national expansion of the bank's seafood group.<br /><br />Michael Richard will be senior vice president and head of seafood industry banking at Santander. The Spanish banking giant's U.S. headquarters are in Boston. In addition to being CFO of Slade Gorton, Richard has worked in banking and management consulting.<br /><br />Santander's seafood group is part of its asset-based lending division and covers customers in fish farming, harvesting, processing packaging, distribution and retail.<br /><br />About half of Santander's asset-backed lending business is in the food and beverage industry, and much of that is in seafood.<br /><br />The bank says it intends to grow its regional seafood industry business across the U.S. and into Canada.