Abbey to offer fees free bank account to mortgage customers

Abbey is to offer a fees free bank account, the Santander Zero Current Account, from the start of the 2010 to all mortgage customers including Bradford and Bingley customers.

It will be offered to Alliance and Leicester mortgage customers in the late summer of 2010.

The announcement comes just days ahead of a judgement on whether the Office of Fair Trade (OFT) has the power to decide if unauthorised bank charges are fair or not.

The group has two million mortgage customers and 400,000 of these also have a current account.

Antonio Horta-Osorio, chief executive of Santander UK, said: "Santander is uniquely placed amongst UK banks to change the way it does business, and our new approach is one based on simplicity: the more business you do with us, the more we will offer you in return."