page_title: Abbey National
section_title: Takeover and rebrand
hierarchical_section_title: Abbey National / History / Takeover and rebrand
caption_attribution_description: English: An Abbey branch opposite a Bradford and Bingley branch on Hounslow High Street, both banks are now subsidaries of the Santander Group.
context_page_description: Abbey National plc was a bank based in the United Kingdom and former building society, which latterly traded under the Abbey brand name.
  As the former Abbey National Building Society, it was the first building society in the United Kingdom to demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The bank expanded through a number of acquisitions in the 1990s, including James Hay, Scottish Mutual, Scottish Provident and the rail leasing company Porterbrook. Abbey National launched an online bank, Cahoot, in June 2000.
  In September 2003, the bank rebranded as Abbey, and in November 2004, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Spanish Santander Group, with a rebrand following in February 2005. In January 2010, the savings business of Bradford & Bingley was combined with the bank, and Abbey National plc was renamed Santander UK plc. Prior to the takeover, Abbey National plc was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
context_section_description: 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 the Santander Group on 12 November 2004.
  Francisco Gómez Roldán took over as chief executive from Luqman Arnold, who received a rumoured £5 million, made up of pay off and share options. Gómez-Roldán died suddenly in July 2006, three weeks before being succeeded by Antonio Horta Osorio.
  In June 2006, Abbey agreed to sell its life businesses to Resolution plc. The businesses sold to Resolution were Scottish Mutual Assurance, Scottish Provident Limited and Abbey National Life, two offshore life companies, Scottish Mutual International and Scottish Provident International Life Assurance Limited. 
  Abbey retained all of its branch based investment and asset management business, James Hay, Abbey's self invested personal pension company and James Hay Wrap.
  In July 2007, Abbey admitted that errors that it made in the 1980s have contributed to many borrowers' mortgage terms being extended by up to 15 years. During this period – which saw considerable turbulence in interest rates – Abbey extended the terms on customers' repayment style mortgages without their knowledge. The Financial Ombudsman Service stated that Abbey customers may be eligible for compensation.
  As a result of the banking crisis of 2008, Abbey purchased the savings business and branches of Bradford & Bingley in September 2008 following the nationalisation of B&B by HM Government. The purchase of Alliance & Leicester by Santander had been agreed earlier that month.
  Abbey migrated all customer accounts to the Partenon computer software used by Santander in June 2008. On 27 October 2008, Abbey reached an agreement to sell Porterbrook to a consortium of Deutsche Bank, Lloyds TSB and Antin Infrastructure Partners.
  The Santander Group announced in May 2009 that Abbey and the Bradford & Bingley branch network would be renamed under the Santander brand on 11 January 2010. Credit cards issued by Abbey were the first to change to Santander. The Abbey name was retained for the Abbey for Intermediaries mortgage division and was retained for a time for Abbey International before the latter was subsequently rebranded as Santander Private Banking.
  The Cater Allen, James Hay and Cahoot brands remained. Santander UK plc also retained the name Abbey National Treasury Services ltd ("ANTS") for the division responsible for managing its liquidity, risk management and wholesale banking needs.
caption: Branches of Bradford & Bingley and Abbey opposite each other on Hounslow High Street prior to the January 2010 rebranding
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