AfI will continue to be the lender of choice for brokers

11 January 2010

Today the face of high street banking changes as Santander begins the rebrand of its Abbey and Bradford & Bingley branches under a single name.

While the retail network of Santander takes shape in its new guise our research shows that brokers value the relationships we have built up under the Abbey for Intermediaries brand.

Therefore, we believe it is in the best interests of intermediaries and our business that the AfI brand remains in place. As this move could raise some questions and cause confusion I would like to take this opportunity to explain the rationale behind our decision and the benefits we believe it will bring to the intermediary community.

In the past few years we have worked hard to provide support and build strong relationships with brokers in challenging times. We hope that by retaining the AfI brand we will continue to demonstrate the importance of the broker market in our longer term business plans.

We believe that by having a separate intermediary brand we will be able to develop our relationship with the broker community more effectively through differentiated marketing and product strategies.

We will continue to develop propositions tailored to meet the specific needs of the broker market. In fact, we are already starting to demonstrate this.

We recently enhanced our website with new tools and guides tailored to meet brokers’ needs and provide exclusive products that are available to more than 90% of the intermediary market.

We have also introduced an exclusive broker-only Homebuyer Plus range that allows customers to save on the upfront fees associated with the purchase of a new home. .

It has been said by some that the decision to maintain the AfI brand has been driven by a desire to dual price products to the detriment of brokers but this is not the case.

To achieve a balance between our branch network and our intermediary business there may be some disparity in pricing. Regardless of whether we share the Santander name or retain the Abbey name this slight disparity is always likely to exist.

But dual pricing can and has worked in favour of the intermediary market and we will continue to ensure this is the case by offering broker exclusives.

On the whole we expect intermediaries to notice little difference as a result of the retail bank rebranding outside of what we expect to be a continually improving service proposition and a competitive mortgage range.

We will continue to offer an Abbey mortgage through intermediaries because the legal entity will change to Santander UK plc and any back office references - including the fees payable by customers - will be referenced under the Santander UK plc name.

As we enter a phase of transition for Santander in this country it is important to understand that whatever the name over the door we will continue to operate business as usual and strive to remain the lender of choice for the broker market.