Shares in Abbey National fell further on Wednesday as the bank's boss prepared to meet major shareholders to explain the company's troubles.

There have been calls for chief executive Ian Harley to be sacked after the bank warned that its profits would be substantially lower than expected.

We've got issues, we're dealing with those and Ian's adding a huge amount of value in making sure we deal with them

Mark Pain, Abbey National

Mr Harley is about to begin several days of meetings with big City investors.

If he is to hold on to his job, he will need to persuade them that he is not to blame for the difficulties at Abbey National.

Strategic errors

At the beginning of the week, the company said its profits would be hit mainly because it was writing off debts in its business banking division.

Last year, Abbey National wrote-off a total of �256m in its business banking unit.

The bank said it would be writing off a similar amount for just the first six months of the current financial year.

Mark Pain, head of the company's wholesale banking unit, has admitted that strategic errors were made.

Respect

Mark Pain said the bank's foray into high-yield or junk bonds in the late 1990s had proved tougher than expected, and was the main cause of the current problems.

Mr Harley had his backing, he added.

"I've worked with Ian for a long time," Mr Pain said.

"I like him, I respect him.

"We've got issues. We're dealing with those and Ian's adding a huge amount of value in making sure we deal with them."

Tough time

Mr Pain also said he thought other banks might suffer similar problems with bad debts because of continuing problems with companies defaulting on loans in the global economic downturn.

"This is a tough time, and we won't be alone," Mr Pain said.

"We've seen more corporate defaults in the last six months than over the last 50 years."

On Wednesday, credit rating agency Fitch Ratings said it was cutting Abbey National's individual rating following the profits warning.

City reaction

On Monday, Abbey National's shares fell 79 pence to 928p.

The shares lost a further 6p on Tuesday, and on Wednesday hit 882p in afternoon trading before recovering some ground to close at 896p, down 26p.

The company will release its annual results at the end of July.