Abbey axes 335 IT jobs

Abbey is to axe 335 IT jobs as part of the restructuring plan agreed with new Spanish owner Santander Central Hispano (SCH).

Around 200 jobs will go from its Milton Keynes operations, with a further 85 in Belfast and 50 in Glasgow. The move follows the departure of Abbey IT director Yasmin Jetha at the end of last year.

The restructuring plans will also see a further 150 IT staff offered redeployment to SCH's Milton Keynes-based subsidiary Isban, which was set up to roll out SCH's banking platform across Abbey. Another 90 IT staff at Abbey's online banking arm Cahoot will also transfer to Isban.

The losses are part of a wider round of cost-cutting moves that will see 3,000 jobs axed across the Abbey group, but a spokesman for the bank said the 1,300 remaining Abbey IT staff are unaffected by the announcement.

Consolidating the two banks' IT systems and updating Abbey's ageing and costly legacy systems is a key plank of the €500m savings SCH outlined in its £8.5bn takeover of the high street bank.