An influx of new savers helped Santander-owned Abbey National, report a 32 per cent increase in 2007 pre-tax profits of £1.11bn ($2.1bn) against £840m in 2006.

Santander, which held abortive takeover talks with the UK’s Alliance & Leicester last year, said it was close to completing its three-year turnround of Abbey by implementing Partenon, its IT system.