![]() The Bank's sole shareholder is the Co-operative Bank Finance plc. The Bank is now a plc with debt securities listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Customer Union for Ethical Banking have expressed their desire for the bank to return to co-operative ownership in the future. Following restructuring and the formation of a new holding company on 1 September 2017, the Co-operative Group no longer owns a stake in the bank and the relationship agreement between the two organisations ended in 2020. The Co-operative Group, which had previously owned the bank outright, became a minority shareholder holding a 20% stake in the bank. The financial impact resulted in the bank's previous owners, private households across the UK, losing control of the bank, while US Hedge Funds funded the recapitalisation and absorbed the loss's equity. It was a private transaction and thus avoided the part-nationalisations that befell larger rivals in UK, USA and elsewhere in the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. This swap successfully reduced the bank's liabilities while increasing its ability to withstand the significant losses which had rapidly become apparent. This avoided outright losses for the creditors, insolvency of the society and the collapse of the bank. The move reflected the fact that they could not be repaid with cash on hand, but provided them with ownership stakes in the bank, and therefore a share of any potential future profits. Representatives of the bank's then 12.6 million co-owners and management at the time dealt with a crisis by negotiating with creditors to exchange their claims on the bank's liabilities for equity in a debt-for-equity swap. In 2013–14, after a merger with Leek based Britannia building society, a failed attempt to buy a larger rival and a troubled commercial property loan portfolio, the bank was the subject of a rescue plan to address a capital shortfall of about £1.9 billion. It also campaigned against tar sands oil extraction, and accepted votes cast by women co-owner members some fifty years before wider women's suffrage in the UK. It introduced fee-less accounts – personal bank accounts without a monthly fee – now a mainstay of British banking, but unusual globally. The bank was an early pioneer of branchless banking, allowing customers to use the telephone, and later the internet and mobile phones to access money, rather than visiting a physical branch. " and maintained full and later partial ownership until 2017. That society, The Co-operative Group, maintains some relationship with the bank today, including managing the licensed use of the brand name the "Co-operative. In the 1970s it was registered as a separate PLC that was wholly owned by the co-operative society it was part of, in order to achieve its status as a bank among other banks entitled to use inter-banking systems. ĭespite its name, the bank has never been a cooperative itself. The Bank does not provide banking services to organisations that conflict with customers’ views on a comprehensive range of issues, for example: human rights, environmental stability, international development and animal welfare, or those involved in irresponsible gambling or payday lending as stated in its ethical policy. The latest Values and Ethics report was published in May 2020. The Ethical Policy was revised and expanded in 2015 in line with over 320,000 customer responses to a poll. The Ethical Policy was introduced in 1992 and incorporated into the Bank's constitution in 2013. The Co-operative Bank is the only UK high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy which is incorporated into the Bank's Articles of Association. ![]() Branches for residents of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands were closed in the 2010s during a significant rescaling exercise. Transactions took place at cash desks in co-op stores until the 1960s, when the bank set up a small network of branches that grew from 6 to a high of 160. ![]() Established as a bank for co-operators and co-operatives following the principles of the Rochdale Pioneers the business evolved over the twentieth century into a mid sized British high street bank operating throughout the UK mainland. The Co-operative Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester.
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