Santander plans to hire 6,000

6th Sep 2010 15:51

Santander, the Spanish bank that is taking over many high street branches from RBS, plans to recruit 6,000 staff over the next year or two, according to the Financial Times.Santander, which already owns Abbey National, currently has 22,000 staff and will become the employer of 5,000 RBS workers when it completes the acquisition of 318 branches.The recruitment drive is in contrast to RBS, which last week said it is cutting another 3,500 UK jobs as it trims its back office operations.Banks cut staff levels sharply during the 2008-2009 financial crisis, but have begun to rebuild as the post credit-crunch landscape takes shape. One new feature of the new banking environment is Metro Bank, the first new banking chain on Britain's high street in more than a century, which said today it has achieved its target number of bank accounts for its first year of operation in just five weeks.