The acquisition of Abbey, formerly Abbey National, by Banco Santander Central Hispano, has been put to the vote by Spanish shareholders and has received their formal approval. This, combined with the UK regulator the Financial Services Authority (FSA) approval of the takeover paves the way for the formal takeover on 12 November.
Our view
The Spanish bank is well known to . The takeover, we hope, will rid the UK, in our opinion, of one of the more aggressive, least helpful and certainly least consumer friendly banking groups in the UK! "Bye Bye Abbey".
We welcome a little bit of the Spanish relaxed approach to business although not too much of the manana, manana for the administration please.