The Customer Union for Ethical Banking Ltd (CUEB) is a Cooperative Society registered under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

As a Co-operative Society:

  • CUEB has a set of rules. These are based on model rules for a ‘multi-stakeholder cooperative’ You can read the rules here.
  • It has members who own and control it. Each member has one vote.
  • It holds an annual general meeting where a board of directors is elected.

The board of directors oversees the day-to-day running of the society.

At the Annual General Meeting in November 2022, two directors (Ryan Brightwell and Shaun Fensom) stood down as required by the rules. Both stood for re-election and both were re-elected. Stephanie Landymore and Barry James also stood down from the board because of other commitments. We thank Steph and Barry for their valuable contributions. Dawn Varley decided to step down from the board in September 2023, and Carol Davenport also plans to step down. We thank them for their valuable contributions.

At November 2023, the board now consists of the following directors:

Any member interested in joining the board please get in touch at hello@saveourbank.coop

The team

The Customer Union pays some fees for work to be carried out, these fees are paid to:

  • Ethical Consumer Research Association, a cooperative. CUEB pays Ethical Consumer mostly but not entirely for work carried out by Rob Harrison, who is a director. Rob is secretary of the society and looks after most governance and financial matters.
  • BankTrack, a campaigning NGO based in the Netherlands. CUEB pays BankTrack mostly for work carried out by Ryan Brightwell. Ryan is responsible for CUEB's communications and social media.
  • Shaun Fensom, a freelance. Shaun codes and operates the website and looks after day-to-day communications with members.

The three team members were the founders of the Save Our Bank campaign, which created the Customer Union. Ethical Consumer has supported Save Our Bank both financially and administratively from the start. Each of the three team members has contributed many hours of voluntary work for the customer union.

Co-operatives UK membership.Co-operative status

CUEB is a member of Co-operatives UK, which brings together and speaks for thousands of cooperatives in the UK. Co-operatives UK is part of the International Cooperative Alliance.

All cooperatives agree to follow the seven cooperative principles.