Spanish-owned high street bank Abbey today said new deposits had jumped 70% so far this year as customers looked for safe havens in the banking turmoil.

Spanish-owned high street bank Abbey today said new deposits had jumped 70% so far this year as customers looked for safe havens in the banking turmoil.

The bank took £4.3 billion in deposits during the first nine months of 2008, compared with £2.5 billion last year.

Abbey is owned by Santander, the Spanish giant which has swooped to buy ailing Alliance & Leicester and the savings business of nationalised Bradford & Bingley.

The deals give it around 1,300 high street branches and deposits of £116 billion - making it the UK's third biggest deposit taker behind Royal Bank of Scotland and soon-to-merge Lloyds TSB and Halifax Bank of Scotland.

Abbey chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: "We had strong deposit inflows demonstrating that Abbey, backed by the strength of Santander, is regarded as a secure and trusted home for UK savings customers."

Abbey has not taken part in the Government's plans to pump billions of pounds into ailing banks, as it has capital resources "well in excess" of regulatory requirements.

Around 60% of the bank's balance sheet comes from customer deposits, with less than 10% of funding depending on volatile wholesale markets.

Santander injected £1 billion of its own funds into Abbey following the turmoil, which Abbey said had "profoundly changed the landscape for UK banking".

But in contrast with other strugglers in the sector Abbey's pre-tax profits over the first nine months of the year were up 20% to £737 million.

Abbey took advantage of its stronger balance sheet to fund an assault on the UK mortgage market earlier this year.

The bank's share of new mortgage lending eased back from its peak at the half-year stage but it still boasts a 28% share.

The group has lent £10.8 billion in new mortgage lending during the first nine months of the year, 61% above the same stage in 2007.

The firm lent £2.5 billion in the third quarter but with "negligible" lending at a loan to value of more than 90% - where properties are likely to be hit by falling house prices.

"The quality of our lending continues to be based on affordability and robust risk management and this will not change," Abbey said.