Santander UK closes investment advice arm Santander UK is to stop offering investment advice to new customers following concerns over the quality of its advisers" recommendations. On Thursday, the bank confirmed that it had decided to close down its UK investment advice arm - putting more than 800 jobs at risk - after carrying out a strategic review in February. Last month, it also emerged the bank is facing a regulatory investigation into its provision of investment advice. Santander UK said it will continue to make investment advice available to existing customers through a new financial planning team comprising around 150 advisers. These roles will be spread across its UK branches. However, it will no longer offer face-to-face advice for new customers. The move will put 874 employees in its bancassurance division at risk of redundancy, although Santader UK said it will consider any affected staff for its new financial planning arm. "We are working closely with other business areas to ensure that many of those who may be impacted are able to secure roles in a growing Santander Group," the bank said. We are committed to redeploying as many colleagues as possible. In February, Santander UK announced it was rethinking the provision of investment advice to customers. It had already suspended its advice service in December because of concerns that staff would not be able to meet new rules being introduced by the Financial Services Authority at the end of 2012, as part of its Retail Distribution Review. Last month, the FSA published the findings of a "mystery shopping" exercise that uncovered failings in the investment advice given by high street banks. It found that a quarter of customers were given poor investment advice - leading Santander's UK operation to be referred to the regulator's enforcement division. Santander's decision to exit the advice market follows similar moves by high street banks over the past two years. In January 2011, Barclays became the first big bank to stop offering customers financial advice at its branches. Lloyds Banking Group has also axed its mass market investment advice service and now only offers advice to customers with more than £100,000 to invest.