AS many as 3,000 jobs will be lost at Abbey if the UK bank's takeover by Spain's Santander Central Hispano (SCH) goes ahead.

The proposed redundancies - fewer than some reports had forecast - would save £304.8m in the three years following completion of the £8.2bn takeover.

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

SCH announced the jobs total following a meeting with trade union ANGU, which represents Abbey staff.

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

Despite outlining its planned cost savings, SCH still faces potential hurdles, 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 lead to a greater number of 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 has a workforce of 26,000.

Linda Rolph, general secretary of ANGU, described the meeting as positive on both sides and stressed the importance of building up a dialogue with SCH in an attempt to limit the impact of the job cuts over the next three years.

She said: "We are comfortable with how the meeting went and we got some assurances from the company. Only time will tell."

The union hopes a large number of the 3,000 job cuts can be achieved through natural wastage.