Attention affiliates: keywords coming (Santander mortgages and others)

The following email must be popping up in hundreds of thousands of inboxes across the UK.

On Friday, 10 October, we formally completed the acquisition of Alliance & Leicester. It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the Santander Group.

You are now part of one of the world's most successful banks. Santander is first bank in the Eurozone by market capitalization, and fifth in the world by profits, with over 70 million customers in 40 countries.

We are, fundamentally, a retail bank with over 13,000 branches worldwide - more than any other international bank. Santander has already a strong presence in the UK through its ownership of Abbey and more recently, Bradford & Bingley's savings accounts and branches.

The addition of Alliance & Leicester will further strengthen our UK presence. A&L has strengths in areas where Abbey intended to grow and both banks have built reputations as challengers to the big banks with attractive offers such as high-interest current accounts, strong savings rates and good mortgage and credit card deals.

By becoming part of the Santander Group, Alliance & Leicester has acquired strong backing, which is crucial in these difficult financial times.

I am convinced that Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, as part of the Santander Group, will be a leading UK bank focused on giving you great service and value-for-money products.

The summary? The Santander bank has bought a lot of banks and bank assets in the UK. Affiliates should be expecting brand changes and keyword targets shifting as a result.

Will they rename Alliance & Leicester or the Abbey? If so then some juicy keywords slide nicely into range. What about Santander mortgages as a target?


You'd fancy your chances at taking the 4th position with little effort; wouldn't you?