Welcome to this newsletter from the Customer Union for Ethical Banking, the independent union for customers of The Co-operative Bank and Coventry Building Society.
Coming soon: the CUEB Annual Gathering Saturday November 22nd
“Reclaiming ethical leadership: how can we help the newly remutualised bank get out in front?.”
That’s the title of our upcoming Gathering for members and supporters of the Customer Union, coming up next week on Saturday. We hope you will join us to contribute to the discussion and help set our strategy for the year ahead.
We’re also delighted to be joined by senior speakers from the bank, the building society and the wider co-operative movement. To present its vision for a leadership role in the mutual sector and answer your questions, we’re pleased to welcome (TBC) Maria Cearns, Chief Operating Officer at the bank, as well as Jeremy Cox, Head of Strategy, & Performance at Coventry Building Society. We’ll also be joined by Rose Marley, Chief Executive of Co-operatives UK, to share her thoughts on how the new merged group can lead the sector.
The Gathering will be held online at 2pm on 22nd November 2025, preceded by our members-only formal AGM at 1pm. View the agenda and register here.
NZBA RIP
Shortly after our last newsletter, the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) announced it was throwing in the towel after just four years, following a vote by the alliance’s member banks. The NZBA was the banking sector’s flagship initiative to combat climate change – or, if one were being cynical, to look busy combating climate change while pushing meaningful action decades down the road.
Since Trump’s return to office, the NZBA had suffered an exodus, led by the biggest US banks and joined by others including Barclays and HSBC. Ethical bank Triodos had already left earlier in the year, objecting to the watering down of the initiative.
Neither the Co-operative Bank or Coventry were NZBA members, but the bank explicitly sought to align with NZBA methodologies (as well as those of the much stronger Science-based Targets Initiative), and had aimed to become a member.
The collapse of the NZBA will of course mean those plans are off the table. More widely, it doesn’t change much, and indeed the death of what was largely a greenwashing initiative can be seen as a good thing. But it also clearly shows the context as we move into our Gathering next week: the banking sector is now clearly moving backwards on climate issues. With the merger providing an opportunity for growth, the Co-op could be a beacon by continuing to move forward.
The Co-op is a Which? Eco Provider
Keeping with the climate theme (there is after all a COP on), the consumer affairs magazine Which? recently published a guide (three decades after Ethical Consumer’s first one) that “reveals how your money could be funding climate change – and where to move it”. The bottom line: “Ditch your bank if it’s a major fossil fuel financier, [and] try one of our Eco Providers (Triodos or The Co-operative Bank), or a building society.” Not very original advice in this day and age, but good to see it from a high profile publisher.
That’s all for this month’s newsletter; thank you as ever for reading and supporting the Union, and we hope to see you at the Gathering if you can make it!
Save Our Bank = Customer Union
With the Co-operative Bank back in mutual ownership we've retired the Save Our Bank name - in use since we started the campaign in 2013.
Our website is now at: https://customerunion.coop
You can email us at: [email protected]
(The old email and website addresses still work).
On Bluesky? Follow us there!
Tag us with your Co-op Bank related views and questions on BlueSky – @customerunion.bsky.social.
With best wishes,
The Customer Union team
Have you joined the Customer Union yet? It costs £15 a year to be a member of the first ever customer union co-operative, and help us ensure the Co-op Bank sticks to its principles. We also welcome Coventry Building Society members. It only takes a few moments to sign up here.
