STAFF at Abbey National were yesterday braced for thousands more job losses after the bank's Spanish owner intensified efforts to turn around its performance.

Santander Central Hispano insisted the cuts would not be as great as the 4,000 announced earlier in the year, but it could be as high as 2,500.

About £200m will be saved from the restructuring - twice the amount expected by Santander when it clinched a £9.5bn takeover a year ago.

Abbey has already closed its contact centre in Gateshead, making 235 people redundant.

The fate of its mortgage processing and call centre in Thornaby, near Stockton, which employs about 700 people, remains unclear.

The bank is in talks with the Abbey National Group Union (ANGU). The ANGU said it was disappointed at the prospect of fresh job cuts.