Private banking: Abbey International increases interest rates on large deposits

Sterling interest rates on its popular 18 month fixed rate contractsare to be increased to 3.25% gross (3.22%AER), giving an effective rate of 4.87% over the 18 month term of the account with immediate effect.

Abbey International has also upped the rate on its 2-Year Escalator Bond to 3.50% gross/AER in year 1 and 4.00% gross/AER in year 2, giving an excellent combination of return and safety. The minimum balance is again GBP100,00.

Abbey International is located in Jersey which the company describes as "a secure, well-established and politically stable financial centre, which is renowned internationally for its high standards of regulation." Jersey's unique constitution and relationship with the British Crown dates back hundreds of years. This provides for a unique legal and neutral tax system that can provide significant wealth planning opportunities for the international investor.

Abbey International has a minimum balance entry requirement of GBP50,000 (or currency equivalent) across its portfolio of products. The minimum balance amount can be spread across a range of accounts, subject to the minimum opening deposit for each account being met.

All deposits carry the full and unconditional guarantee of Santander UK plc, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of the Santander Group.

In the UK, Santander operates two retail businesses - Santander, which was formed out of the Abbey and Bradford & Bingley retail network, and Alliance & Leicester. Together they have over 1300 branches, around 4,500 cash machines and they provide a full range of retail and corporate banking services to 25 million customers. Alliance & Leicester will become known as Santander by the end of 2010.

Banco Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N, BNC.LN) is a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain, with presence in 10 main markets. At the end of 2008, Santander was the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization and third in the world by profit. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1.271 billion in managed funds at the end of 2008. Following the acquisition of Sovereign Bancorp. of the U.S. in January 2009, Santander had 90 million customers, around 14,000 branches - more than any other international bank - and over 170,000 employees. It is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America, with leading positions in the United Kingdom and Portugal and a broad presence in Europe through its Santander Consumer Finance arm. In the first half of 2009, Santander registered EUR4,519 million in net attributable profit.