ABSTRACT
The Co-operative Bank, headquartered in Manchester, England, has 4.4 million customers, the majority being individual retail customers (4.3 million) and the rest made up of small and medium-sized businesses, social enterprises, charities, credit unions and co-operatives.2 It is the UK’s eighth largest bank with a market share (of current/checking accounts) of 2.06 percent.3,4 The Co-operative Bank of the UK off ers current accounts (known as checking accounts in the United States), savings accounts, mortgages, credit cards and loans to its customers. The Co-operative Bank sets itself apart from other banks by positioning itself as an ethical bank: being “the only UK high street Bank with a customer-led Ethical policy,” which customers have helped to shape and underpins how its business is run.5 This is underlined in the 2015 update of its ethical policy, so while it “does the usual bank stuff ,” it claims: “we’re not your usual bank: on the outside we’re every bit a regular bank, but on the inside we are proud of our passion for values, for ethics, for the community.”6 The bank’s stated values, in common with the Co-operative Movement, are: honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.7
