archive

The Co-operative Bank informed us (on Monday 21 December 2020), that the discussions around a potential bid for the bank have ended.

This article was published with our July 2020 newsletter, and forms the first part of a review of the Customer Union’s second aim, to work for an eventual return of the Co-op Bank to full co-operative ownership.

Since then the ownership has changed. You can see an updated version here.

In this first part we look into who owns the bank now.

The Cooperative Bank has been named Current Account Provider of the year in the Moneyfacts awards 2020.

Lee Tillcock, Editor of Moneyfacts said "By continuing to provide support via a straightforward and reasonable agreed overdraft rate and a leading rewards bonus, the Co-operative Bank is the deserved winner of the Best Current Account Provider category at the 2020 Moneyfacts Awards."

The Cooperative Bank has announced Q1 2020 trading results.

we are providing payment holidays for approximately 17,000 mortgage, loans and credit card customers to date

Headlines are:

Earlier this year we asked members of the Customer Union (and Save Our Bank supporters) to send in questions that they'd like us to ask the Co-operative Bank at our regular meeting with them in March. Since we met the bank, the COVID-19 crisis has significantly worsened and this has prompted some further dialogue with the bank.

We assembled - and in some cases amalgamated - a list of questions from members before presenting them to the bank for initial discussion. The bank then went away to consider a more detailed response, and there was a further dialogue.

CEO of the Co-operative Bank, Andrew Bester, has issued a message addressed to all customers.

The message, which you can view here, makes it clear that the Bank will stand behind customers, explains that the bank is getting a lot of calls, and warns about scams. 

The Co-operative Bank has signed up to a code that sets standards to detect and prevent Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams. It includes a commitment to reimburse customers who lose money through no fault of their own.

This means the Co-op now joins 7 other banks signed up to the 'Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code' and is the first payment service provider to sign up since its launch in May.

In December 2018 Save Our Bank provided the Co-operative Bank with a number of issues and questions raised by our supports in recent months. The Co-operative Bank provided the below responses in January 2019.

Save Our Bank: A member complains that he was told that he could not open an account for a voluntary association because the bank only provides service if it’s a charity or registered company. The voluntary association does have a set of rules.