Santander rebrands Abbey and B&B branches
The first official Santander branch in Tottenham Court Road, London will be launched today by Banco Santander Chairman Emilio Botin.
Some 300 branches in the South East will also be renamed today, with another 700 across the UK to be completed by the end of January.
The rebranding in the U.K. is in line with Santander's policy of operating under the Santander name and brand image in all the markets in which it is present. Since the unified brand was introduced in 2005, Santander has rebranded in all its key markets, including Spain, Portugal, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Argentina.
To celebrate the move, Santander has confirmed the first of a series of initiatives aimed at giving its existing as well as new customers the chance to benefit from being part of one of the world's most successful and efficient banks.
As previously announced, the Santander Zero Current Account is available from today and anyone who currently holds a mortgage with the bank or opens one, can have the account. The account charges no fees even if the account is overdrawn;
In addition, any Santander UK current account customers will be able to use any Santander ATM in Spain free of charges, including foreign exchange fees.
Emilio Botin, Chairman of Banco Santander, said: "This is a historic day for Santander as its name is firmly established on the UK high street.
"When Santander acquired Abbey in 2004, there were some who doubted we could make it a success. Today, there can be no doubts. Over the last five years we have transformed our UK business into one of the most successful banks in the country. The decision to become Santander will put us in an even stronger position the UK."
Antonio Horta-Osorio, Chief Executive of Santander UK, added: "The success of our UK business has given us the confidence to move to the Santander name now and with it deliver the next phase of our transformation programme and make 1300 branches available to our 25 million customers in the UK.
"I am confident that this is a very positive move - both for our customers and our employees."
Following the acquisition of Alliance & Leicester and the Bradford & Bingley savings business last year, Santander now has an 11% share of UK retail banking and 25 million UK customers. Over the next few years, the bank aims to increase the number of products each of its customers hold through increasingly competitive and market-leading products to its customer base.
Santander's UK strategy has been built on three pillars - improving efficiency at a faster and to a greater extent than its UK peers; using this competitive cost advantage to give customers better value-for-money products; which in turn drives more customer business to the bank.
This successful strategy has enabled Santander to outperform its UK retail competitors for the last two years and it is now the UK's most efficient bank.