Welcome to this, the first newsletter of 2025 from the Customer Union for Ethical Banking, the independent union for customers of The Co-operative Bank, which is now officially part of Coventry Building Society.
Coventry Building Society completes purchase of The Co-operative Bank
On 2nd January, the Coventry Building Society and The Co-operative Bank jointly announced the completion of a merger. As a result, the Co-op Bank is now a subsidiary of Coventry Building Society, and has been brought back under mutual ownership. The bank’s media release is here.According to the FT, the merged organisation will now have assets of around £89bn and around four and a half million members and customers across the country. Coventry’s CEO, Steve Hughes, announced the “monumental” news in a LinkedIn video, setting out what this will mean for customers of both organisations. An article for Co-op News called the acquisition “a good news story for UK mutuality”. We very much agree!
The bank’s CEO, Nick Slape, is meanwhile stepping down, saying on LinkedIn that this “feels like the right time to pass the baton”. Picking up that baton will be Andrea Melville, now at Santander, who takes over as the bank’s new CEO from June.What the merger means for customers
The short answer is that nothing will change for quite some time. We expect it to take years before the two brands merge and operate as one. The bank has said “there will be no change to the way you use our services right now.” Those with savings or deposits in both institutions will also continue to have savings of up to £85,000 protected by each brand under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
What the merger means for the Customer Union
The completion of this merger also represents the achievement of one of our main goals as a union of Co-op Bank customers: to work for an eventual return of the bank to co-operative ownership. We have also been successful so far in our other aim of ensuring the bank keeps its customer-led ethical stance in place.
As a result, we’re now retiring the Save Our Bank name. We’ll henceforth be known just as the Customer Union for Ethical Banking, or CUEB for short. Expect to see a website with an updated name soon.We discussed the merger with our supporters and members in our Gathering and newsletters, and the widespread support for this outcome is clear. However we also consider that we still have work to do. We have accordingly adapted our mission.
Now the Customer Union will aim to:
- Ensure that the Co-operative Bank’s powerful customer-led ethical stance is maintained and extended across the merged business,
- Work with Coventry Building Society (including the Co-operative Bank) to engage fully within the cooperative and mutual sector, and urge it to play a leading role promoting ethical finance
During the integration of the two businesses, we will also work to represent the interests of our members within the merged organisation.
For us this is news to celebrate, and we thank all our members and supporters who have worked with us towards this point. Feel free to get in touch with any questions and comments on what this means for the Customer Union.
Other news: Call for investigation into Mortgage Prisoners
The issue of mortgage prisoners has not gone away. This month it was reported that Lib Dem peer Lord Sharkey has written to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) asking it to investigate the treatment of “mortgage prisoners” by the Co-op Bank owned Mortgage Agency Services Number 5 (MAS5).
This issue has dogged the bank for some years now and we have raised it with them before, including calling for the bank to clearly address the issue in its Sustainability Reporting. The last we heard, the Co-op Bank was told in November 2023 by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to pay redress to mortgage customers who were affected.
We contacted the bank for comment and they said:
"The Bank addressed this matter in 2023 and fully disclosed in the Annual Report and Accounts and associated disclosures that impacted customers would be remediated in line with the FOS ruling during the course of 2024. There remains a very small number of impacted customers which we have been unable to contact, otherwise the remediation programme is complete."
Membership renewals
Many of our members' annual renewals are due around now. If you are a member then please look out for a renewal email from us. To renew just click on the link in the email, or copy it and paste it into your browser. You can tell the email is from us because it will start with "Dear" and the full name you gave when you signed up. The renewal link will start with "saveourbank.coop/renew/..." - this link is safe to visit.
If you are a member, thanks for your support! If you aren't yet, please do consider joining us and helping us achieve our new aims.
With thanks and best wishes
The CUEB team.
Have you joined the Customer Union yet? It costs £15 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.
info@saveourbank.coop
@SaveOurBank
@saveourbank
