SPAIN’s Banco Santander Central Hispano intends to increase Abbey National’s network of 740 branches if it succeeds in acquiring Britain’s sixth-biggest bank.
Santander believes there is scope to increase its coverage by opening a number of new branches that are staffed by fewer than six people.
A Santander spokesman said: “In Spain we have a branch culture. We think that the branch continues to be at the core of the customer relationship. I would be very confident that we would maintain and indeed increase the branch network.”
The group, which intends to decrease Abbey’s reliance on independent financial advisers to sell its products, will carry out a review of Abbey’s network as soon as it is able to take it over.
Santander’s chances of achieving this were boosted last week when HBOS pulled out of making a counter-bid that would have led to a long competition inquiry.
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Santander has said it intends to cut 3,000 jobs at Abbey, but most of these will be from back-office functions rather than customer-facing staff.
Santander’s offer document, which was sent to shareholders on Friday, reveals the scale of the payouts that will be given to Abbey directors.
The biggest sum will be taken by Luqman Arnold, Abbey’s chief executive. When he steps down next June he will receive £1.6m in lieu of his one-year contract and a further £3.5m from share options.
Emilio Botin, Santander’s chairman, has appointed headhunters to find a British banker to run Abbey.