Abbey outsourced its call centres in 2003 to India and the decision to bring operations back the UK follows feedback from retail banking customers, who said dealing with offshore call centres caused frustration and dissatisfaction.
Customers’ calls will now be handled by staff based in Glasgow, Leicester and Liverpool.
Santander said the project had been planned for “many months”, with an additional 500 staff hired to handle an estimated 1.5 million calls a month.
Santander’s UK call centres employ a total of 2,500 staff.
The move forms part of the lender’s strategy to reduce the level of customer complaints it receives.
Ana Botín, chief executive officer of Santander UK, said: “Improving the service we offer is my top priority. Our customers tell us they prefer our call centres to be in the UK and not offshore. We have listened to the feedback and have acted by re-establishing our call centres back here.
“This is a major step for us and I am determined that we will do even more to improve the service we offer as I plan further initiatives later this year to build on the progress we are making.”
FSA data shows that the volume of complaints received by Santander fell 24% from H1 2010 to H2.
