Santander

Lloyds Banking Group retained the top mortgage lender spot last year with a 30.3% share of the market, compared to 28.2% in 2007, Council of Mortgage Lenders figures show.

Abbey and Alliance & Leicester has become the second biggest mortgage bank in the UK by claiming a 16.3% share of gross mortgage lending in the first half of 2009.

Spanish banking giant Santander is to rebrand its UK high street brands, with Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley (B&B) all to become known as Santander by the end of 2010.

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander says it now has a 13% share of the UK mortgage market following a series of high-profile acquisitions in 2008.

Banco Santander has announced it is to cut 1,900 jobs across its UK businesses, Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, next year.

Banco Santander has snubbed 1.8 million small shareholders in Britain, excluding them from taking part in its €7.2 billion (£6 billion) capital-raising, The Times says.

Santander, Britain's second largest retail bank, has this morning announced a surprise €7.2bn rights issue.

US hedge fund manager Philip Falcone has built up a €208m short position in Britain's second largest retail bank Santander.

The Government this morning nationalised the UK's eighth-largest bank Bradford & Bingley, with Santander taking on the beleaguered lender's savings business.

The FSA is believed to be talking to a number of foreign financial heavyweights about a take-over of troubled bank Bradford & Bingley, according to The Sunday Telegraph.