The Spanish bank which has done a deal to take on Bradford & Bingley’s saving accounts and 197 branches already has a key office in Bradford employing more than 800 people.

As part of the B&B rescue package, Santander has paid £612m for the doomed bank’s savings business, which has £20 billion in deposits and 2.7m customers. It is also buying some head office functions.

Banco Santander bought the loss-making Abbey National for £9 billion in November 2004 – and the Bradford centre remains one its key bases.

At the time the Abbey, which had merged with the former National & Provincial Building Society in 1996, employed about 2,000 people in Bradford. This has since shrunk to about 800 staff but Bradford remains one of Abbey’s key offices with an operations centre at Nelson Street. The reduction in numbers has not been dramatic.

Although there have been some redundancies, it has largely been the result of not replacing leavers and through reorganisation and changing technology.

The Abbey tie-up created the fourth largest bank in Europe and the eighth largest in the world.

The deal was also Europe's biggest cross-border banking take-over.

Linda Rolph, general secretary of Advance, the union representing about 10,000 Abbey staff, said: “Since Santander took over Abbey National we have continued to represent employees’ interests in discussions with the company and ensure that we are kept informed about developments.

“Our members’ security is the foremost issue in all our dealings with Abbey and we continue to work hard in their interests.”