Spanish banking giant Santander has outlined plans to create around 400 call centre jobs in the UK to support a customer base that has ballooned in recent years.
The roles at centres in Liverpool, Glasgow and Leicester - along with 600 branched-based positions announced in July - will be filled by the first quarter of next year.
Santander entered the UK market in 2004 after buying Abbey but has recently taken advantage of the economic crisis to become a far bigger player, snapping up Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley to bring its customer base in the country to over 25 million.
The Spanish bank is overhauling its complaints procedure after being accused of shabby service standards by UK customers. The recent switch of five million Alliance & Leicester savings accounts to Santander's central Partenon platform has led to a rash of complaints from customers who have encountered difficulties accessing accounts online. Others have struggled with direct debits going awry and delays in switching ISA accounts.
The problems have been compounded by an apparent absence of protocols for handling complaints, with customers being shunted around different departments within the bank.
In June, Consumer watchdog Which? named Santander the worst bank in terms of customer satisfaction.