Abbey National reported another loss as its unsuccessful venture into wholesale and corporate banking continues to hit profits. The bank said it made a pre-tax loss of £144 million during the first half of the year, compared with a profit of £412 million during the same period in 2002.

The company, which made losses of £984 million in 2002 because of one-off costs at its corporate lending arm, is now in the first stages of a three-year restructuring programme designed to save £200 million a year but it would seem that key areas like mortgages and saving will not be restructured.

Despite the bad profits news investors were pleased with the bank's progress at restructuring the business and sent the company's shares up 8% to 530p in early trade today.

Abbey, who employs around 25,000 people and has 750 branches, said it had reduced its non-core assets by 57% to £25.7 billion during the first half of the year.

Abbey's chief executive Luqman Arnold, has plans for the bank to sell or wind-down all of its non-core businesses within the next three years.

This means corporate lending and wholesale banking activities such as car, train and plane lease financing will all go.

Although pledging to carry out a full brand re-launch and to step up marketing and advertising activity, Abbey did not disclose details of how it would do this. However it said that key market segments including mortgages and saving products "where the company had under performed in recent years…represents an opportunity within our power to grasp."