Santander picks ex-FDIC boss Bair for board amid U.S. push

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Santander bank, which is making a big push in the United States, has appointed the former head of the U.S. deposit guarantee fund, Sheila Bair, as an independent board member, it said on Monday.

Bair, who ran the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 2006 to 2011, will replace Terence Burns, who stepped down from Santander's group level board earlier this month. He remains the chairman of the bank's business in Britain, however.

Santander last week said it planned to increase the equity of its U.S. holding company Santander Holdings USA by up to $2 billion to back growth plans. Its consumer finance business in the United States was also listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

(The story corrects spelling of Bair in headline and throughout story.)

(Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Sarah Morris and Mark Potter)