SANTANDER banking chiefs have put their faith in Bradford by creating the 1,000-strong chain’s largest and busiest UK branch in the city centre.

More than £1 million has been invested by the Spanish-owned company to develop the historic listed branch building on Darley Street into a flagship operation.

The former Bradford & Bingley office, which was originally a Martins Bank branch, has been upgraded by Santander to incorporate the operations of separate city branches once run by B&B, Alliance & Leicester and Abbey which all became part of Santander.

Branch director Matthew Hall said all staff had been retained through the merger of the branches. The investment at Darley Street had created an operation providing personal and business banking with more than 40 staff.

“ We now offer the full range of financial services under one roof with traditional retail banking mixed with a corporate banking centre based in the branch.

“We offer mortgage advice, protection advice, investment advice and cater for business banking from the smallest start-up to multi-million national turnover businesses on a face to face basis,” he said.

The Darley Street branch handles around 20,000 transactions a week, along with another 10,000 cash machine transactions.

“The refurbishment retained historic features like the pillars and ornate ceiling while enabling us to create a fully resourced building providing a better customer experience and service levels.

“Bradford Council were also accommodating and allowed us to install an ATM machine, broadening the way customers can interact with us,” said Matthew.

The business banking team can cater for customers ranging from start-ups to £50 million turnover national enterprises – at a time when many of Santander’s competitors limit branch staff to dealing with businesses up to £5 million turnover.

Matthew anticipated that the number of business accounts would rise as a direct result of the regeneration of Bradford city centre, boosted by the council’s £35 million Growth Zone scheme.

The bank was keen to encourage new start-up and by participating in the Healthy High Street programme run by Business in the Community, to help find new occupants for empty premises.

“ The scheme is all about promoting the city centre and trying to ensure that when the Westfield Broadway shopping centre opens later this year we don’t have derelict and neglected parts of the city centre,” he said.

In addition to the Bradford branch refurbishment, Santander has also doubled the size of its branch in Main Street, Bingley.

The bank also employs around 2,000 people at its operations and call centre on Nelson Street, Bradford.

“Bradford is a key centre of operations for Santander and we’re committed to developing our business here,” said Matthew.