ABBEY staff in Hampshire face fresh uncertainty over their livelihoods after official confirmation that 3,000 jobs will be lost if the UK bank's takeover by Spain's Santander Central Hispano (SCH) goes ahead.

The proposed redundancies, which is less than some reports had forecast, should save 450 million euros (£304.8m) in the three years following completion of the £8.2 billion takeover, which was first announced last month.

More than 470 people work for Abbey at its call centre at Segensworth, near Fareham, with scores of other staff working at regional bank branches.

SCH announced the jobs total following a meeting yesterday afternoon with Abbey's recognised trade union, ANGU.

The Spanish company also gave assurances that employees' pensions would be safeguarded.

Despite outlining its planned cost savings, SCH still faces potential hurdles to seeing through the offer, including a possible rival bid by Halifax and Bank of Scotland owner HBOS.

HBOS has already said it is considering its position on Abbey, with a final decision on whether to bid likely to be made within the next month.

Analysts expect a move by HBOS to generate far more job cuts as about 70 per cent of Abbey's 741 branches are within a quarter of a mile of an HBOS outlet.

SCH does not have a branch network in the UK and will instead seek efficiencies through improvements to IT systems.

Abbey currently has a 26,000-strong workforce.

Meanwhile, SCH also said it would award Abbey employees 100 Santander shares - currently trading at 7.94 euros each - as part of the acquisition.

The tie-up between SCH - Spain's largest bank and Abbey would create the tenth biggest banking operation in the world.

Peter Gruenewald, assistant general secretary of the union representing Abbey staff, told business South: "We want to see as many people redeployed as possible. We do not know yet where the job losses will be."

Meanwhile, SCH has warned it will walk away if the involvement of HBOSdrags Abbey into a drawn-out investigation by competition authorities.

SCH is reportedly concerned about the potential damage to Abbey's business by a probe that could last longer than 24 weeks.

SCH hopes to complete the acquisition by the end of the year but must first win the approval of shareholders, many of whom are believed to have doubts.

However, the takeover has the support of the board at Abbey.