Dear supporter

Welcome to this newsletter from the Save Our Bank campaign. We’ve got lots to tell you about. The bank has responded to our questions on its Values and Ethics report; we are planning our next annual Gathering in Manchester; and we’ve got a new logo and a freshly designed website to help spread the word about the Customer Union.

Save the date: Save our Bank Gathering, Saturday 24th November

We’re planning our  annual get-together, which will once again be held in Manchester and this year will take place on Saturday 24th November. This will be an opportunity for Save Our Bank supporters and members of the Customer Union to get together to discuss strategy for the coming year. Our main theme for this year’s gathering will be ownership, and what practical steps we can take to campaign for and work towards returning the Co-op Bank to co-operative ownership, in whole or in part. We’ll have details on the venue and how to register in our next newsletter. Hope to see you there!

The bank responds to our questions

The Co-op Bank has provided a response to the four questions we put to the bank after reviewing its 2017 Values and Ethics Report. The bank has a good record of engaging with the Save Our Bank campaign as a representative of ethically motivated customers, and we appreciate them taking the time to respond.

In its response, the bank offered an explanation of how its change in focus is leading to fewer Ethical Policy referrals. It gave some further detail on the case in which an existing customer involved in the fur trade had its account closed, but declined to comment on how long the policy breach had gone on before being discovered. It also said it would consider our recommendation to provide more detail on customers turned away for risk management reasons in future. The bank stood by the ‘limited level’ of assurance provided by the report’s auditors as “robust and sufficient to provide the right level of assurance for our customers.”

You can read the bank’s response in full here. 

Our new logo and membership campaign

As you can probably see at the top of this email, Save Our Bank has a new look. We have a new logo, which we hope represents the Customer Union’s do-it-yourself, crowd-power approach with its stencil styling. And we have a redesigned website - take a look.

This is all part of our effort to grow the Customer Union so we can represent more Co-op Bank customers, have more resources for campaigning, and be a stronger force for change. As another part of these efforts, we’ve created some images for you to share on Facebook and Twitter to spread the word that we are out there. 

Please take a look and share or retweet (or if you prefer offline actions, you could print one and post on a bank branch noticeboard, if you ask nicely. Send us a photo if you do.)

20% Discount on Ethical Consumer Conference in London

There's still space at the Ethical Consumer magazine conference in London on October 12th and Save Our Bank supporters can buy tickets for less than £20 - a 20% discount. The conference theme is “innovations in ethical consumption - new ideas to solve the big issues of our time” and the Customer Union/Save Our Bank will be there. For tickets at the discounted price sign up here and use promotional code 'saveourbank' (click on 'Enter promotional code' just above the 'Order now' button) .

Thanks for your support,

With best wishes,

The Save Our Bank team

Have you joined the Customer Union yet? It costs £12 a year to be a member of the first ever customer union co-operative, and help us ensure the Co-op Bank sticks to its principles. It only takes a few moments to sign up here.