Coop Bank
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Coop Bank or the Co-operative bank is headquartered in Manchester and is a commercial bank in the UK. The bank is celebrated as one of the few ethical banks that refuse to invest in any company involved in global climate change, arms trade, animal testing, genetic engineering and use of sweated labor. This ‘Ethical Policy’ was laid down in 1992.
In 2002, Co-operative bank was bought by the Co-operative Group Limited along with the Co-operative Insurance Society and was brought under the control of Co-operative Financial Services.[br]
Coop Bank: History
Formed in 1872 as the loan and deposit department of ‘Manchester’s Co-operative Wholesale society’ (CWS), it started full function as bank after four years in 1876. Though the bank didn’t become a registered company until 1971, it still functioned as a bank under the CWS umbrella. In 1975, the bank became a member of the committee of London Clearing Banks and gained the rights to issue checks of it’s own.
With an ethical and benevolent approach towards their business, coop bank even offers free banking to people who remain in credit. Their operations reflect the same approach. The bank is not owned by its members instead Co-operative Financial Services, which is in turn is owned by Co-operative Group, owns it. Though, the members of the Co-operative Group do earn dividends on their account holdings.
Coop Bank: Innovation
Coop bank has been the forerunner of innovations in financial products. It started in 1991 with their ‘free for life’ Gold Visa card followed by another ‘free for life’ Visa card called Robert Owen, after the social reformer who fathered the consumer Co-operative movement.[br]
Again in 1996, the Co-operative bank came out with its lowest ever interest rate card and called it the ‘Advantage Card’. This card was aimed at people who regularly borrowed and end up paying a lot extra to the credit issuer due to the high interest rates.
Coop bank launched ‘Smile’ in 1999. Smile was the first full internet bank in UK. With lesser overheads and infrastructural cost, the company was able to launch many products that offered high interest rates on savings and attracted lesser interest rates on borrowing.
