All UK businesses, which includes Bradford and Bingley, Alliance & Leaicester and Abbey will adopt the Santander global brand and name, taking total number of Santander branches to 1,300
Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley savings will all become known as Santander by the end of 2010. Abbey and B&B savings will be rebranded from the first quarter of 2010 and A&L will follow later in the year, as IT changes ensure any Santander customer in the UK can transact in all its UK branches.
The change reflects Santander Group’s policy to operate under a single brand. As a global brand, the flame logo and Santander name is now seen in over 40 countries around the world.
António Horta-Osório, Chief Executive of Santander’s UK Businesses, said: “We know from speaking to our customers that they value and appreciate the strength and financial security that being part of a world-class global bank offers particularly in the new global banking environment.
“Bringing together the three brands means it will be even easier for customers to manage their finances as they will have access to over 1,300 branches once the change is complete. With this in mind the time is right to make the move to a single UK identity as Santander, a powerful new force in the UK banking.
“Since Santander acquired Abbey in November 2004, we have set about transforming the business to reflect Santander’s business model and values. The Group’s focus on retail banking means we have been able to improve Abbey’s efficiency, allowing us to introduce better value-for-money products for our customers and invest in our front-line services.
“Our prudent approach and focus on branch-based banking enabled us to acquire the A&L and B&B savings business in 2008, despite unprecedented market turmoil. Since then, we’ve applied the same principles to both, improving the products and services we offer as well as the business performance of each bank.”
One of the key drivers in implementing the brand change has been the switch to Santander’s global IT platform, Partenon. In what was one of the largest IT programmes undertaken by any UK bank, Abbey has moved to Partenon over the last three years. The experience gained from this major project has enabled Santander to implement a similar programme more quickly for B&B branches and the Group expects to complete the switch of all B&B’s 338 branches by July 2009. A&L’s 254 branches will migrate to the Partenon system by the end of 2010.
The switch will mean that 25 million customers will be able to transact seamlessly across Santander’s UK branch network, whether they were with Abbey, A&L or B&B, providing as it does a single customer view that is unique in UK banking and will allow Santander to offer the full range of its products across its enlarged UK network.
More importantly, it will allow the UK business to leverage the expertise and product developments from Santander’s global business.
The first of the brand changes will happen quickly. Early in the second half of 2009, Abbey Credit Cards will be re-branded Santander. All new cards will be issued under the Santander name, as will replacement cards as they come up for renewal. Separately, later in the year, Abbey and A&L’s Corporate and Commercial Bank will also be renamed Santander and the 20 regional banking centres will operate under the new identity.
For our specialised-market brands we will retain the existing names. These include Abbey for Intermediaries, cahoot, Cater Allen, James Hay and the international businesses of Abbey, A&L and B&B.
António Horta-Osório, added: “Our partnership with Lewis Hamilton and Vodafone Mercedes McLaren, coupled with our sponsorship of the British Grand Prix has considerably raised awareness of Santander in the UK. Our distinctive advertising and reinforcement of “We are Santander” across the three current brands means that customers are telling us they are comfortable with the move to the Santander name. We’ll continue to offer better value-for-money products than our competitors and remain committed to maintaining our branch network and the teams that run them.”
