Ana Botín and Andrea Orcel, Spain’s Santander and Italy’s UniCredit chiefs, deliberately avoided each other at a London conference and a National Gallery dinner last week. Their mutual avoidance underscores a bitter, long-standing feud with Shakespearean dimensions. The conflict traces back to the early 2000s when Orcel, then an investment banker, advised Emilio Botín, Ana’s father, at Santander.

After Ana succeeded her father, she briefly considered Orcel for CEO, only to rescind the offer, triggering a protracted €43.4mn compensation dispute now pending a Supreme Court ruling. The rivalry manifests in stark financial contrasts: Orcel’s UniCredit delivers 19.2% return on tangible equity versus Botín’s 16.3% at Santander, while Orcel’s €16mn pay last year eclipsed Botín’s €15mn. Yet Botín claims the upper hand with a 44% stock surge versus UniCredit’s 12%.