HIGH street bank Abbey National closed the door on a possible £10bn tie-up with Bank of Ireland last night by insisting it was better off on its own.

The UK's second biggest mortgage lender said there was "no material new information" in detailed proposals issued by BoI to win it over.

It said there was a "questionable strategic fit" between the two groups and said BoI's financial resources would "bring little" to a group of its size.

Abbey's statement followed BoI's decision to release the full terms of its offer, initially rejected by the UK bank's board of directors a week ago.

BoI said it would pay Abbey shareholders £1.9bn in cash in a deal valued at between £9.8bn to £10.3bn when based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Dublin-based bank added that it believed a tie-up could generate £400m in cost savings and other benefits in the first four years.

The scale of the targeted savings had raised fears that thousands of jobs could go as offices and branches close across the UK.

James Leal, banking analyst at Gerrard, said: "Unless Abbey's shareholders lobby the management to accept, this is probably the end of it."

Abbey has been linked with a range of merger or takeover partners, from Lloyds TSB to Bank of Scotland and last week National Australia Bank.

It has yet to replace Ian Harley, who left as chief executive three months ago ahead of poor half-year results.

The group is drawing up its own plans to shake up the business and these could include 3,000 job cuts when announced next month.

Abbey said it believed the best route to maximising value for its shareholders was to continue work on the "substantive" internal operating and structural changes.

BoI governor Laurence Crowley earlier confirmed a combined operation would be based in Dublin, led by its chief executive Mike Soden, and would draw the best management from both parties.

BoI, which owns the Bristol & West mortgage business, revealed it made its proposal to Abbey on September 18.

A month ago the deal would have valued each Abbey share at 770p to 805p, but the fall in BoI's own market value since means this range has fallen nearer 678p to 708p.

About £113m of savings were expected to come from combining BoI and Abbey's retail banking operations with £63m from head office cost cuts.

Abbey employs 28,500 staff and runs 760 branches, while BoI has a workforce of 18,500 with a branch network of 540