The Customer Union for Ethical Banking is an independent body representing customers of the Co-operative Bank. The Customer Union aims to ensure that the bank sticks to its word on being an ethical bank with customer-led values. We aim to see an eventual return of the bank to majority cooperative ownership. The union is a co-operative itself, democratically controlled by its 1,200 members and regulated by the FCA.
Click on a link below to read more about the union:
Our history
Cartoon by Martin Rowson, January 2014. If, as feared, asset strippers were after the bank, this could be thwarted by customers working together. Thanks to Martin and Red Pepper magazine
Late in 2013, after a huge gap was found in the Co-operative Bank’s balance sheet, the bank agreed with regulators on a deal to raise £1.5 billion. The deal saved the bank, but led to a group of private equity companies and hedge funds owning 70% of the bank’s stock. Its previous owner, the Co-operative Group, was left with just 30% (eventually reduced to zero).
In response, a group of Co-op Bank customers set up the Save Our Bank campaign with support from Ethical Consumer magazine. The campaign had two aims: to ensure that the bank sticks to its principles and, with time, to help the bank return to some form of co-operative control.
The Save Our Bank campaign launched in October 2013 with a press release headlined “DON'T PANIC AND STICK WITH THE CO-OP SAYS SAVE OUR BANK”. We called on customers not to switch, but to stick together. In a few months, 10,000 had signed up to the campaign, including major charities and campaigning organisations.
In 2014 we campaigned for the bank to stick with its ethical policy and teamed up with Unite the Union to demand an ethical approach to executive pay. We we scrutinised the bank’s ethical survey, warning the bank that slippage on ethics could result in a mass walk-out. We succeeded in getting the chief executive to promise in public that all existing commitments would be retained.
In 2015 the bank launched a new ethical policy, with “nowt taken out” as we had campaigned for.
Next, we needed to move from a campaign led by Ethical Consumer magazine to an organisation in our own right, with a budget to hold the bank to account. We crowd-funded to establish a Customer Union, smashing our £15,000 target and raising over £30,000 from over 1,500 supporters.
And in December 2015 we launched a campaign including a petition on 38 degrees after the bank’s “de-risking” approach sees it close a swathe of accounts for groups like the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Customer Union established as a Co-operative Society in 2016
At the start of 2016, the Customer Union was formally established as a co-operative. In July we held a round table with Amnesty UK on the impact of bank account closures on charities and campaign groups, which helped lead to a reinforced approach to de-risking at the bank.Amnesty welcomed the change. We also held our first Gathering in November 2016.
The start of 2017 saw the Co-op Bank put “up for sale”, and Save Our Bank commissioned a briefing paper, “Capital raising at cooperative banks”, to investigate how the bank could raise capital in a way that enhanced rather than reduced co-operative ownership or customer control. Eventually the bank’s existing owners invested more capital, with the Co-op Group’s stake falling to zero. In December 2017 we held our second Gathering, which included a vote on whether to stay with the bank under the new ownership, with a positive outcome.
In 2018 we published an analysis of the Co-op Bank’s gender pay gap figures and held our third Gathering.
Recognition agreement signed with the bank in 2019
In 2019 the bank formally recognised the Customer Union in a ground-breaking recognition agreement - reflecting the productive and cooperative engagement that has been growing between the bank and the union.
In 2020, Jonathon Porritt spoke out in favour of our campaign for the Co-op Bank to resume independent assurance of its ethical reporting. We again published a detailed analysis of the bank’s values & ethics report, and we shone a light on the question of “Who owns the Co-operative Bank”. Cerberus, a hedge fund with a reputation for asset-stripping, made a bid for the bank which was fortunately knocked back.
In 2021, the Co-op Bank committed to us to resume independent assurance of its ethical reporting. We delved into the archives of the Co-op Bank’s old TV ads on topics like landmines and pollution, and we told the bank it was time to start measuring and managing its financed emissions.
2022 saw the bank update its Ethical Policy again, with substantial involvement from the Customer Union in the process. The bank expanded its policy, started campaigning for the Climate and Ecology Bill, and went on the front foot with ethical ads once again.
In 2023, we closed a second successful crowdfunder, which was all about developing a ten-year plan to build a cooperatively-owned shareholding in the Co-operative Bank. But then, in December, news broke that Coventry Building Society had made a bid for the bank.
Co-operative Bank acquired by Coventry Building Society
The deal was agreed in June 2024 and completed in early 2025. With this, the seemingly impossible was becoming a reality – the Co-op Bank was returning to mutual ownership. The Customer Union considered the bank to be “saved”, and the “Save Our Bank” name was retired.
However the Customer Union still has work to do, and resolved to continue with revised aims: to ensuring the bank’s powerful customer-led ethical stance is maintained and extended across the merged business, and to work with Coventry Building Society to engage fully within the cooperative and mutual sector and play a leading role promoting ethical finance.
