Abbey hits bond market for new funds

Abbey National, which last month reported a record £1bn loss, is selling £2bn worth of mortgage backed bonds to raise much needed cash. The move follows HBOS' sale of similarly backed bonds last month, which raised £4.7bn for the UK's biggest mortgage lender. Abbey announced its first annual loss in its 150 year history after a disastrous foray into wholesale banking, and additional losses from other investments caused it to take a writedown of more than £2bn for 2002. Job cuts are already set to take place, for example, through moving call centre operations to India fr...