Our view 29 June 2017

The Co-op Bank yesterday announced that it has successfully agreed the terms of its capital raising plan, with the headline news being the Co-operative Group's stake will fall to roughly 1%, with the relationship between the Group and Bank reaching a formal end by 2020. The bank has made its continued commitment to its ethical policy clear, and the capital injection will hopefully allow the Co-op Bank to continue as a going concern, and eventually return to profitability. But the end of the relationship with the Co-operative Group, which established the bank in 1872, and the effective loss of a co-cooperatively-owned stake in the bank, is disappointing for all of us. We need to look at the deal in more detail, and will urgently seek a meeting with the bank about how co-operative values will be preserved at the bank, and possibilities for a new co-operative stake. We'll then consult with our members, as we've committed to do from the beginning of this process, on whether to support this deal.

You can see our initial view here published on 26 June.

You can see our demands for the sale process here.

Further statements:

From the bank on the deal

From the Co-operative Group on its position

From Co-operatives UK on use of the name