Santander UK, the British unit of Spain?s biggest bank, recently announced a 20 per cent increase in its share of the UK mortgage market. This 5 per cent increase compared to 2009 follows the bank?s renaming of its branches and acquiring additional customers in the country.
In January 2010, the bank renamed 1,000 of its Abbey and Bradford & Bingley branches to reflect its own identity. It also gained 276,000 new bank account customers in the first quarter of the year.
As the second-largest lender by stock of mortgages in 2010, the company increased its gross mortgage lending from ?5.2 billion to ?5.7 billion.
Santander?s UK Chief Executive Officer Ant?nio Horta-Os?rio ascribed this to a sound business model. He told Bloomberg BusinessWeek: ?Our business model continues to deliver improved performance, increased market share and sustained profit growth.?
This increase in business is both significant and encouraging for Santander?s future in the country. The reason for the phenomenon could be a general public perception of poor business practice by traditional UK banks.
Indeed, banks have relied heavily upon billions of pounds worth of taxpayer money to help themselves out of trouble following the economic downturn. Although Santander?s operation via Abbey and Alliance & Leicester operations formed part of this system, rebranding appears to have won the hearts of UK mortgage consumers.
Santander is now in a position to take advantage of increased mortgage activity and evidently has done so in the first quarter of the year. Whether this is an indication of long-term growth will remain to be seen.
