Cooperative Bank
Cooperative Bank: 125 Years of Ethical Banking
Cooperative Bank has been helping communities for more than a century through its banking ethos. A bank owned by its customers, this UK bank has maintained its ethical focus whi le continuing to offer a wide range of banking services which strive to exceptionally meet its customers’ needs.
Ethical Banking with Cooperative Bank
Cooperative banking understands that a solid foundation for a successful working relationship is through the building of trust with an accommodating attitude which its clientele can really feel good about. The national cooperative bank’s guiding principle is by forging rewarding partnerships with its clients which are based on its ethical, creative and flexible approach. This approach underpins cooperative banking.
Making a Difference for 15 years:
Guided by its ethical approach to banking, cooperative bank believes in taking action against climate change. One of its actions is by not investing in any business involved in fossil fuel extraction and production. They believe that businesses do not operate in a vacuum as its activities will inevitably lead to negative social and ecological impacts. These impacts may not be immediately apparent but could lead to environmental degradation in the long run. Cooperative bank recognizes that these impacts may be exacerbated by simply providing finances. Through its ethical policy, they ensure that these negative impacts are managed.
Introduced in 1992, the national cooperative bank’s ethical policy set out standards which govern what types of businesses the bank will finance or not. Cooperative banking based their decisions on ‘what ethics to embrace’ by considering ‘whose ethics to embrace.’ This decision is founded on their customers’ concerns since it is their customers’ money that is being used. Cooperative banking believes that its customers should have a say on how their money is used or invested, making it the only high street bank which encourages customer input on their ongoing Ethical Policy development.
Continuing Cooperative Bank’s Ethical Policy
To guarantee the continuity and affectivity of cooperative bank’s ethos, compliance systems are incorporated into its standard bank procedures. This starts from the time you open an account with the Cooperative Bank where you are required to fill out an Ethical Policy questionnaire. Your completed questionnaire is then assessed against cooperative’s ethical policy by a Business Relationship Manager and/or a member of cooperative bank’s New Business Center. After it is decided that the completed questionnaire is not in conflict with any of cooperative’s ethical policy, then one is offered its banking facilities. This ensures that its ethical policy is upheld at all times.
See Also: