Banco Santander Central Hispano , is the largest bank in Spain and is part of the Santander Group which has large scale operations in the continents of Europe and South America. As part of the Santander Group, Banco Santander Central Hispano bases its strategy on its own business model, based upon a five pillar system. These are: Within Spain BSCH operates under a range of brand names including: In the United Kingdom, Abbey is a wholely owned subsidiary of BSCH. Prior to its takeover by BSCH, it was known as Abbey National, the first of the UK building societies to demutualise. It also... operates as Cahoot for online banking. BSCH was created in 1999 following the merger of Banco Santander and Banco Central Hispano , founded in 1991 following the merger of Banco Central and Banco Hispanoamericano . On 26 July 2004 Abbey National plc and Banco Santander Central Hispano, SA announced that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition by Banco Santander of Abbey.
more