Abbey continues to leave international arena

Abbey National has stepped up its move away from wholesale and international banking by selling its Australian loan book, it was confirmed today.

The move comes just days after the bank announced its Irish-based life operations, Scottish Mutual International and Scottish Provident Ireland, were closing to new business.

The Australian loan baokk fund large-scale infrastructure projects and have been taken on by three Australian banks as part of Abbey’s efforts to concentrate on its UK high street banking business.

A spokeswoman said today: “We are getting out of anything that doesn’t fit with our strategy of concentrating on UK personal financial services and that’s the majority of our wholesale banking operations.”