Is there a separate registration for corporate and sole trader customers. I’m sure some specifically chose the Co-op for ethical reasons and they would individually have more ‘clout’ than personnal customers.
Best way to have an impact is to switch now. I am deeply disillusioned with the decision of the Co-op Bank. You also have to question how it got itself into this mess – its not just down to the decision to take the Britannia. The management had no idea what they were doing or were reckless. I have therefore switched today.
By switching now, one by one, we have less impact. Your switch is principled but it will just be written off as inevitable “churn” by the hedge funds. By amassing in one place – here – we will have influence.
This needs to go much wider to have any impact – there need to be thousands of responses not a couple of thousand. Any ideas how to spread the petition more widely?
I have been appalled at the reduction in customer service and series of bad decisions over the last few years.
How could the Coop have mis-sold anything when they were supposedly an ethical bank?
I consider the management structure is dysfunctional. We need to ensure that members with senior management and financial expertise are represented on the board.
Once the Co-op bank was in difficulties they should have pursued the option of asking existing members to buy bonds/shares. This would have made it more likely that stakeholders would have had the values of the Coop in mind. I would certainly have been prepared to invest in this.
I am both an individual account holder and a senior finance officer of a charity with tens of thousands of pounds held in the Co-op.
For me the ultimate question is not so much ethical values and policies in how the bank does business – lending etc – hugely important though that of course it. It’s ownership. If the ‘bank formerly known as co-operative’ is majority-owned by conventional investors (ie the hedge funds), then the majority of the profits generated from my business with the bank flow to those investors. The point of a co-op is that it’s not run for the benefit of outside investors. Co-op and mutual structures aren’t problem-free – as we’ve seen. You need really good oversight and checks and balances to make sure the people at the top don’t run it in their own interest. But the fundamental principle of ownership by the customer is crucial. I have no idea how/whether remutualisation is technically possible. But it has to be the objective.
In principle I”m ready to switch both my personal account with Smile and my – only very recently opened – small business account with the Co-op. Another thing I’m concerned about though is the impact on the hundreds of completely innocent staff who are caught up in this. They must be as sick to their stomachs about this as we are – and what impact will switching have on them?
One thousand staff are to lose their jobs – what’s ethical about that? They are mostly people who live in the already disadvantaged North East. The Co-op was one of the few banks that employed locals and didn’t farm out their call centre to cheaper labour markets. I have always found their customer service impeccable: friendly, helpful and accurate. We must not switch our accounts now, or there will be even more people sacked. Vince Cable needs to re-mutualise the Co-op, not throw it to the hedgefunders who have already caused enough financial havoc.
i love the coop for its history and decency, but ethical does not mean left leaning and indulgent to favoured causes. why did the people who drove the bank into the ground indulge the labour party with a £3m+ overdraft they have little chance of paying back?
new and stronger ethical banking values must be the order of the day in the future
Save Our Bank 
Is there a separate registration for corporate and sole trader customers. I’m sure some specifically chose the Co-op for ethical reasons and they would individually have more ‘clout’ than personnal customers.
Good point Martin. We’ll see how best to do that.
Best way to have an impact is to switch now. I am deeply disillusioned with the decision of the Co-op Bank. You also have to question how it got itself into this mess – its not just down to the decision to take the Britannia. The management had no idea what they were doing or were reckless. I have therefore switched today.
By switching now, one by one, we have less impact. Your switch is principled but it will just be written off as inevitable “churn” by the hedge funds. By amassing in one place – here – we will have influence.
This needs to go much wider to have any impact – there need to be thousands of responses not a couple of thousand. Any ideas how to spread the petition more widely?
We’re confident we will get thousands. We need all the help we can though so please pass the message on.
I have been appalled at the reduction in customer service and series of bad decisions over the last few years.
How could the Coop have mis-sold anything when they were supposedly an ethical bank?
I consider the management structure is dysfunctional. We need to ensure that members with senior management and financial expertise are represented on the board.
Once the Co-op bank was in difficulties they should have pursued the option of asking existing members to buy bonds/shares. This would have made it more likely that stakeholders would have had the values of the Coop in mind. I would certainly have been prepared to invest in this.
I am both an individual account holder and a senior finance officer of a charity with tens of thousands of pounds held in the Co-op.
For me the ultimate question is not so much ethical values and policies in how the bank does business – lending etc – hugely important though that of course it. It’s ownership. If the ‘bank formerly known as co-operative’ is majority-owned by conventional investors (ie the hedge funds), then the majority of the profits generated from my business with the bank flow to those investors. The point of a co-op is that it’s not run for the benefit of outside investors. Co-op and mutual structures aren’t problem-free – as we’ve seen. You need really good oversight and checks and balances to make sure the people at the top don’t run it in their own interest. But the fundamental principle of ownership by the customer is crucial. I have no idea how/whether remutualisation is technically possible. But it has to be the objective.
In principle I”m ready to switch both my personal account with Smile and my – only very recently opened – small business account with the Co-op. Another thing I’m concerned about though is the impact on the hundreds of completely innocent staff who are caught up in this. They must be as sick to their stomachs about this as we are – and what impact will switching have on them?
One thousand staff are to lose their jobs – what’s ethical about that? They are mostly people who live in the already disadvantaged North East. The Co-op was one of the few banks that employed locals and didn’t farm out their call centre to cheaper labour markets. I have always found their customer service impeccable: friendly, helpful and accurate. We must not switch our accounts now, or there will be even more people sacked. Vince Cable needs to re-mutualise the Co-op, not throw it to the hedgefunders who have already caused enough financial havoc.
i love the coop for its history and decency, but ethical does not mean left leaning and indulgent to favoured causes. why did the people who drove the bank into the ground indulge the labour party with a £3m+ overdraft they have little chance of paying back?
new and stronger ethical banking values must be the order of the day in the future