Monday, January 11, 2010

Abbey >> Santander today

Abbey sign in Belfast

If you go down in the woods town centre today you’re sure of a big small surprise. Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic Abbey National signs vanishes from the UK’s high streets and is replaced with red Santander branding.

I noticed a strange looking sign above the door of the Abbey National branch opposite Belfast Rickety Wheel last week. The middle of the sign looked out of place.

Temporary sign above abbey branch disguising the new Santander sign underneath

And then I spotted the TEMPORARY SIGN printed in the corner of the plastic section that was obviously loosely affixed over the Santander sign underneath.

Sometime on Sunday, teams of guys with ladders will have toured around the Northern Ireland Abbey branches to unscrew the temporary signs and reveal the Spanish banks logos.

Same story for Bradford & Bingley who make the switch today. The smarter investors in the Alliance & Leicester will have to wait until later in 2010 for the Santander branding to appear.

2 comments:

ScatterCode said...

The Halifax on the Cregagh Road appeared to be being rebranded yesterday morning. Is there any connection?

Andy Boal said...

No connection with HBOS. Structurally, Santander has two UK banking licences - Abbey/B&B and Alliance & Leicester. When Santander took on B&B, it was via Abbey.