Abbey and A&L enjoy revenue rise

Santander will be rebranding all its UK businesses

The UK operations of Spanish banking group Santander - which includes Abbey and Alliance & Leicester - saw revenues up 20% in the first six months of 2009.

Santander said a growing range of investments, credit cards and insurance had helped the UK business, which also includes Bradford & Bingley.

Earlier this year, Santander said it was to rebrand all 1,300 of its UK High Street brands by the end of 2010.

Santander's global group net profit fell 4.5% in the period.

It made a profit of 4.51bn euros (£3.9bn), but beat analysts' forecasts as the rate of growth in bad loans slowed.

Industry analysts said that Santander had avoided the worst of the banking crisis through its policy of conservative lending and buying assets when they were cheap.

Repossessions fall

Santander's UK operations comprise the country's second-biggest mortgage lender and third-largest savings bank following last autumn's moves to buy A&L and the savings arm of B&B. The UK business reported pre-tax profits of £790m.

It said its gross UK mortgage lending was £10.8bn in the first six months of the year - a 16% share of the market.

The number of homes repossessed had fallen by 106 since March, and was also below the total seen in December 2008.

Meanwhile, the number of borrowers who were more than three months in arrears with their home loans increased to 1.34% between April and June, up from 1.13% in the first quarter - although Santander said this was better than industry average figures.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Santander's UK business, said the first half of 2009 had seen the bank "deliver an excellent increase in revenue and profit despite tough market conditions, underpinned by market share gains and growth across all business divisions".

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version