Abbey Group | Santander UK

Rebranded as Abbey in 2003, Abbey National was the first of the British mutual building societies to seek a wider market by converting to bank status in 1989. In 1996, Abbey launched a takeover of another society, National & Provincial, for Ł1.35bn, catapulting it into the ranks of the country's leading financial service businesses. In 2000 it opened merger talks with Bank of Scotland, but was quickly targeted itself by an acquisitive Lloyds TSB. In the end neither deal materialised and Abbey remained independent. The group reported two years of horrendous losses for 2002 and 2003 as a result of a disastrous move into wholesale banking, and it was acquired soon afterwards by Grupo Santander of Spain, who engineered a remarkable turnaround of the struggling business. During 2008, Santander further expanded its presence in the UK acquiring two rival lenders, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, both of which were absorbed into Abbey. All three British names are to be phased out by the end of 2010 in favour of a unified Santander branding.

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Abbey Group website

Abbey	James Hay
Cater Allen Bank	Cahoot.com
Bradford & Bingley	Alliance & Leicester

Grupo Santander

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