Abbey National Plc - Banco Santander

Abbey was previously known as Abbey National, until 2003, where a rebranding excersise changed the highstreet name. Its registered name is still Abbey National plc, but is now a subsidiary of Banco Santander Central Hispano SA (BSCH).

Abbey National Plc Facts

  • Abbey's registered office is in London and its main corporate centre is in Milton Keynes Buckinghamshire in the M1 corridor.

  • Abbey was the first of the UK building societies to demutualise, (July 1989), floating at £1.30 per share on the London Stock Exchange.

  • Abbey National took over the Bradford-based National & Provincial Building Society in 1995.

  • Abbey National shares peaked at more than £14 in 2000, before the stock market began a long decline.

  • As a result of its conversion to a bank, Abbey National plc had an unusually large number of small shareholders; approximately 1.8 million in total.

Abbey National Plc History

The Abbey Road & St. John's Wood Permanent Benefit Building Society was founded in 1874, based in a Baptist church in Kilburn. The society became the Abbey National Building Society following the merger of the Abbey Road Building Society with the National Building Society in 1944.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Abbey National gained a reputation for innovation and sometimes disruptive change. It was an early user of computer systems and in the late 1970s, all branches became on-line to a real-time system that maintained customer accounts. Under Chief General Manager Clive Thornton, new types of savings accounts were introduced as well as a cheque account.

The administration of the cheque account was restricted by building society rules and the need to find a partner that could clear Abbey's cheques (the Co-operative Bank). Later, Abbey became a full member of the BACS and APACS.

In 12 July 1989, the Abbey National Building Society de-mutualised and became a public limited company (Abbey National plc), floated on the London Stock Exchange. At flotation, the share price was £1.30.

By in 1994, Abbey National purchased “James Hay” one of the UK’s foremost independent provider of self-administered pensions and is one of the pioneer development of SIPP’s with the launch of the in 1996 of the James Hay SIPP. James Hay then went on to grow in straight and launched Abbey Wrap, the first Wrap a service in which IFA’s can keep the clients ISA’s, Peps, Offshore bonds and SIPP in one place. Abbey Wrap Managers was FSA approved in 2003. This in 2006 was re-launched as the James Hay Wrap.

In August 1996, Abbey National merged with the National and Provincial Building Society increasing the branch network by almost two hundred and bringing in three million more customers

In April 2000 Abbey buys Porterbrook from Stagecoach_Bus company for £773 million. Porterbrook is one of the three rolling stock operating companies created from by the privatisation of British Rail. Porterbrook supplies the rolling stock under leases to the UK train operating companies.

In June 2000 launches cahoot, Abbey's e-bank.

Two life assurance companies were demutualised and acquired, enabling Abbey to pursue the bancassurance model: Scottish Mutual in 1992 and Scottish Provident in 2001.

Abbey National changed its trademark to Abbey in 2003, (although it remained registered as Abbey National plc). The name could not be legally changed as the name Abbey plc was already taken by an Irish property development company, also listed on the London Stock Exchange.

On 26 July 2004 Abbey National plc and Banco Santander Central Hispano, SA announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Banco Santander of Abbey. Following shareholders' approval at the EGMs of Abbey (95 per cent voted in favour, despite vocal opposition from most of those present) and Santander, the acquisition was formally approved by the courts and Abbey became part of Grupo Santander on 12 November 2004.

Abbey National Plc Mortgage Products:-

  • Mortgages (Residnetial and Commercial)
  • Remortgages (Residnetial and Commercial)
Abbey National Plc Mortgage Products:-
  • Loans
  • Unseucred Loans
  • Secured
  • Loans Etc.,

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