Santander's Abbey surprise

SANTANDER chairman Emilio Botin promised to surprise shareholders with a quick transformation of Abbey 'better and sooner than forecast'.

The head of the Spanish bank, which paid £9.7bn for Abbey last summer, told the group's annual meeting in northern Spain: 'We have made more progress than expected in costcutting and we have also taken measures to stabilise revenue.'

Abbey's new boss Francisco Gomez-Roldan pledged in May to cut another 1,000 posts on top of 3,000 already earmarked to go. He wants to squeeze out £150m a year in costs from the business, but is committing £9m to making over its branches in the corporate colour red.

Botin said Santander would concentrate on organic growth for the time being as it digests Abbey.

Few, if any, of Santander's 1.5m new British shareholders, inherited from Abbey, made the trip to their first AGM. Abbey's former chairman, Lord Burns, had his promotion to the Santander board voted through.