Suspend any disbelief you might have. Assume that Santander chairman Emilio Botin is right, and that the bank is over the worst. In one way, that might well be true – the 2012 numbers were depressed by a €6-billion ($8.1-billion) provision for real estate losses in Spain. That is unlikely to be repeated, so earnings this year will improve. But is there any reason to consider that, more generally, the bank is on the way up and that its shares deserve their rating of 1.3 times tangible book value?