High street bank Abbey will not say whether a new round of job cuts will effect its Bradford operations, where it employs about 1,200 people at its call centre and branches.

The bank has hinted that a fresh round of redundancies are likely over the next two years following its takeover by Spanish-based Banco Santander.

The bank has already shed 4,000 jobs but a spokesman said there had been few compulsory redundancies in Bradford and many staff had been deployed elsewhere.

The bank has also strongly denied suggestions that it was to shut down its Indian-based call centre operations following resistance from customers, a move which could bring more jobs to Bradford.

"We've no plans to close down the Indian centres," said an Abbey spokesman. "What we are doing is reviewing our relationship with third party operators."

Abbey has disclosed plans to beef up its operations to compete with other major high street banks but it would be streamlining its operations.

"The Santander model is very much about making back office functions more efficient and giving front offices all the tools to deal with customers," added the spokesman.

"We're speaking to the unions at the moment about the plans but we don't have any specific areas for job losses."