The Partenon platform is being introduced at Abbey in phases through 2006 and 2007.

Abbey says there are a number of further developments coming later this year, including the introduction of a single customer database.

Francisco Gomez-Roldan, CEO, Banco Santander, says: "We're introducing better analysis and information on product profitability, sales capacity and productivity by channel, region and branch. This approach is enabling us to focus our efforts on reducing under-performance, targeting incentives and managing performance across the business more rigorously."

Santander set up an IT subsidiary, called Isban, in UK last year to roll out the Partenon banking platform across Abbey's operations.