Abbey, the UK bank owned by Santander of Spain, enjoyed a 25 per cent increase in first-quarter pre-tax profits to £372m, although bad debt provisions in the UK doubled from the same period last year.

The bank, which took over the retail deposits of Bradford & Bingley as well as buying Alliance & Leicester last year, said its funding position had benefited from acquiring B&B’s deposit book as well as £800m of new deposit inflows from customers who saw Abbey as a haven for their savings. It now relies on wholesale markets for about 20 per cent of its funding.