Santander's Abbey sees profits up more than 20%
Spanish-owned Abbey National has provided some rare good news in the embattled banking sector awith annual pre-tax profits up by more than a fifth to £991m.
But Santander’s UK operation group, which now also combines recent takeover Alliance & Leicester and the savings arm of failed bank Bradford & Bingley, said bad debts were rising as borrowers struggle with repayments.
The group has upped provision to cover bad debts, contributing to a 3.57bn euro (£3.18bn) writedown at parent group Santander for 2008.
Abbey said the number of homes repossessed soared by 62% to 860 last year, with the number of loans more than three months in arrears increasing by 39% to 10,897.
The group is now the UK’s second biggest mortgage lender and third largest savings bank following last year’s dramatic move to snap up the savings operation of collapsed Bradford & Bingley and Santander’s rescue takeover of Alliance & Leicester.
