Campaign update: Saturday 26 October

In just two days the campaign has generated a huge amount of interest in social media and increasingly the mainstream media.

Negotiations between the hedge funds and the Co-operative Group are intense. This is demonstrated by the hedge funds’ claim today that “It is important to us that the bank maintains its unique characteristics and ethos” (Guardian). No-one trusts them of course – but we think it shows how this campaign is already having an impact.

Many people are asking how the bank could be re-mutualised. We are discussing this with experts we will, of course, keep you up to date. We would love to hear from anybody with legal or banking expertise.

Comments

I'm amazed, considering just how long this has been going on that as customers of the bank / Co-operative group members, how very little we seem to have been told. I am visiting newspaper websites etc just to find out what is actually going on.

I realise that things seem to be changing day by day and that a definitive statement from the bank might not be possible, but a simple acknowledgement from the bank that it appreciates how unsure its customers possibly feel at present might at least encourage us to say loyal. 

 

I think I can hear a sort of weariness in the voices of the staff who answer the phone. What will happen to them in all this. The bank has had a good reputation as an employer umtil now. Are redundencies in the pipeline?

The article in the trade press here certainly suggests there will be redundancies. If true, those redundancies would probably have happened even if the Co-operative Group were retaing majority ownership.

Front page coverage in the Morning Star today Monday 4th November - and they bank with Co-op (or least used to)

Time for the Labour and Trade Union Movement to step in and prevent this disaster.

I guess it will be the staff that suffer in all of this, I am a customer of over 25 years, it is the bank that is saying goodbye to me, not me to the bank! Every time I have contacted the telephone banking service I have always received a first class customer service, the staff are always friendly and polite. Where as management just hide behind the frontline staff, they won't even reply to letters you send them. It's not the staff to blame for all of this it's the weak management and board. I hope they do the right thing and all resign, you alone are responsible for where the bank is today!