Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley to be rebranded Santander


The banks will be renamed by the end of 2010, the Spanish bank said on Wednesday.

Abbey and the B&B's savings business, bought by Santander in 2004 and 2008 respectively, will be the first to go, between January and March next year. A&L will follow later in 2010. The banks' names date back as far as 1851.

However, the Spanish bank it will begin introducing the Santander brand this year, by changing over Abbey credit cards under the group name, as well as the commercial and corporate banking arms of Abbey and A&L, which include 20 regional banking centres.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Santander's UK business, said customers would benefit from access to all of the group's 1,300-branch network after the rebrand is complete.

Santander is spending £12m on the rebranding, although it is aiming to save £180m from integrating the three businesses.

Around 1,900 jobs have already gone as part of its efforts to combine the acquired banks.

Mr Horta-Osorio said customer feedback had shown support for the Santander brand in the UK.

"Customers trust us as a global brand and they feel very safe about their savings," he said.

"It's important for customers who travel around the UK to have 1,300 branches to transact with - and they will have the same product and the same people facing them in the branches," he said.

Santander has expanded aggressively in the UK over the past five years, using the banking crisis as an opportunity to buy up struggling rivals.

The group is now the UK's second biggest mortgage lender and third largest savings bank following last year's dramatic move to snap up the savings and branch operation of collapsed B&B in October, just a month after its rescue takeover of A&L.

The Government nationalised B&B's £50bn loan book, which remains in State ownership and is unaffected by the Santander rebrand.

Santander has emerged relatively unscathed from the financial turmoil, picking up swathes of savers searching for safety.

It said earlier this year that Abbey's annual pre-tax profits lifted by more than a fifth to £991m, due largely to the boom in savings business.

Credit cards will be offered to new customers under the Santander brand from next month.

But the group said specialist brands will retain their existing names, including internet bank Cahoot, Cater Allen, James Hy, and Abbey for Intermediaries, as well as the international businesses of all three acquired banks.

Santander has 25m customers in the UK and employs 23,000 staff.

It was founded in 1857 and has since grown to become a global business with operations in 40 countries and a 170,000-strong workforce

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