Santander jobs boost for graduates - graduate jobs

Spanish banking giant Santander is planning to create more than 600 jobs this year which could benefit graduates and job seekers across the country.

The company, which owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester, and the savings business of Bradford & Bingley, already has 22,500 staff in the UK. The banking group will be adding more staff as part of its aggressive push into the UK market and its drive to open one million new accounts for the second consecutive year.

During the first half of 2010 the company opened 519,000 new accounts and took £4.6 billion in retail deposits. To support its growth Santander, which is second only to Lloyds in the savings market, will employ hundreds of graduates and job seekers across its 1,300-strong branch network.

Pre-tax profits rose 10% to £875 million for the first six months of the year although Santander also expects credit demand to remain "subdued" in a challenging market. Santander rebranded the Abbey and B&B branches in January, with Alliance & Leicester to follow later this year. It is now targeting its 25 million customers with extra savings and investment products through its branch network.

Chief executive Antonio Horta-Osario said: "We are continuing to pass on the benefits of being the most efficient UK bank to our customers with more best buy mentions than any UK competitor."

The bank is currently writing around one in five of every new mortgages in the UK, with gross lending of £12.3 billion during the first half of 2010.