The Co-operative Bank

The Co-operative Bank's head office, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester. The statue in front is of Robert Owen, a pioneer in the Co-operative Movement.

The Co-operative Bank plc

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Company type	Public
Industry	Banking
Founded	1872 (as CWS)
Headquarters	Manchester, UK
Key people	David Anderson, Chief Executive CFS
Products	Retail banking Commercial banking Financial planning
Revenue	£3.5 billion
Website	www.co-operativebank.co.uk

The Co-operative Bank is a co-operative bank trading in the United Kingdom with headquarters in Manchester, UK. It is an ethical bank, and refuses to invest in companies involved in the arms trade, genetic engineering, animal testing and use of sweated labour as stated in its ethical policy. The ethical policy was introduced in 1992.

The Bank was formed in 1872 as the Loan and Deposit Department of the Co-operative Wholesale Society. In 1876 it became the CWS Bank. It is now wholly owned by the Co-operative Group, as part of Co-operative Financial Services Ltd (CFS), together with the Co-operative Insurance Society and the smile internet bank.

Over the years the Bank has gained a reputation for introducing innovations later adopted by the rest of the industry. Since 1974 the Co-operative Bank has consistently offered free banking for personal customers who remain in credit. It was also the first Clearing Bank to offer an interest bearing cheque account called Cheque & Save. In 1991 the Bank shook the credit card market when it introduced a guaranteed "free for life" Gold Visa card.

Membership

Unlike the Dutch Rabobank, the Co-operative Bank is not directly owned by its own members, or account holders - unless they are also Co-operative Group members. However, Co-operative members are entitled to earn dividend on their account holdings with the bank.

smile

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The Bank launched a separate internet-only operation known as smile in 1999, which, according to surveys, has the highest satisfaction ratings among UK banks and has received many awards in recent years for customer service and online banking. I tacked bi animal that is being banked. The pankces are with the queen" he says but he say NO!1! and i snaped. he does the nak and loost the moeney

It has around half-a-million customers.

Smile has its call centre based at a unique pyramid building in Stockport.

Controversy

Whilst the bank, like any other, is run along profitable lines, it does occasionally turn away new business which it feels may compromise its ethical policies. In the 2005/06 financial year, whilst making profits of £96.5 million, it turned away business of nearly £10 million (Guardian article).

In June 2005, the bank barred a Christian evangelical group (Christian Voice) from holding an account. They said the group is "incompatible with the position of The Co-operative Bank, which publicly supports diversity and dignity" (press release). Christian Voice said the bank was discriminating against it on religious grounds (press release).

In 2006 the UK Electoral Commission reported that the Co-operative Bank gave loans of £9.5m to the governing Labour Party, generating criticism from political commentators who variously claimed that this was unsound business practice (Guy Fawkes blog), and that the actions of the Labour government were at odds with the bank's ethical stance (Blairwatch blog).

External links

• The Co-operative Bank
• smile
• CIS: Co-operative Insurance, sister organisation to Co-operative Bank
• smile banks Online Banking awards

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