Banco Santander, after taking over Abbey last year, have decided to close their Isle of Man office, moving all activities to their Jersey based offshore centre. This has been taking place over a period of four to six weeks, with the Jersey team taking full responsibility for providing sales and customer support with effect from Monday 31st July 2006.
As a result of these changes, the employees at the Isle of Man office will be leaving Abbey.
Our view
Banco Santander is a Spanish banking group and given that under Spanish laws, they penalise investors who have offshore accounts and investments in so-called 'tax-havens', it may come as no surprise that they are re-thinking offshore operations.
An alternative view may be that it seems illogical to run both Jersey and Isle of Man based banking operations. This move will save on costs but likewise it means those clients who had Isle of Man bank accounts and the safety of the Isle of Man investors compensation fund, should a bank fall into liquidation, will not have the same protection in Jersey.
Every perosn who has an Isle of Man account should take advice on whether to stay with Abbey or move.
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