A little bit of Spain in the UK

Spanish banking giant Santander is to rebrand all of its major UK High Street brands - Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley. A total of 1,300 branches will have their names changed to Santander by the end of 2010, in a £12m move.BEY

Santander gained a foothold in the UK banking market in 2004 after buying Abbey for about £8bn, in Europe's biggest cross-border bank takeover. The Spanish bank saw further expansion opportunities in 2008, as it bought Alliance & Leicester in a £1.3bn deal. In September, Santander stepped in and paid £612m to take control of 197 Bradford & Bingley branches and £20bn in deposits.