In its report on trading in the nine months to September 2019, the Co-operative Bank pointed to "Balance sheet growth driven by resilient mortgage performance" and "Underlying profit £2.3m year to date with core income in line with 2018".

However at £118.6m, losses were actually up 36% on the same three quarters in 2018. The bank pointed to its £60m 'PPI charge' as being the cause. This is the provison that the bank makes to allow for pay outs on payment protection insurance claims, and follows the final deadline for claims to be submitted. Other banks have experienced very high volumes of last minute claims.

We asked the bank to comment and they said:

"...due to the extremely high volumes received in the final weeks leading up to the deadline, processing is still ongoing and we won’t definitively know the final cost until the middle of 2020. Having said that, our £60m charge is based on the estimated impact of the volumes we’ve received, and is within our expected range of £55m to £75m."

You can read the full trading report here.