Co-operative Bank earns laurels with its ethical moves |
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Published
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Mon, 23 May 2005 16:15
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Ethics do pay you sooner or later, and who can prove that to you better than the Co-operative Bank, which rejected £8.7m worth business last year in its bid to withhold its ethical and ecological stance and has now received handsome rewards in return for its focus on ethics.
The Co-operative bank lost more business last year as compared to £6.9m of the previous year. However, ethics did pay back to the Manchester-based co-operative society and about 34% of the banks’ £132m profits last year can be accredited to its ethical stance alone, against 29 per cent in the previous year, 2003.
The Co-operative banks’ policies attracted an increased number of customers for its loan and savings account categories who wanted to be associated with the bank due to its morally strong principles.
| Spokesman for the Co-operative society, Simon Williams, stated, "When we launched our ethical stance back in 1992, its initial appeal was very much to individual customers who wanted to know what happened to their money while it was in the bank. Now, 13 years on, 36 per cent of personal customers and a quarter of the bank's corporate customers join us precisely because we are prepared to turn away certain sorts of business."
The society has always turned down those business offers, which did not conform to its ecological policies or ethical rules. For instance, it is known to have refused serving companies violating ecological codes, which cost it £3.8m last year, whereas rejecting business to safeguard animal welfare cost the bank about £1.29m.
Meanwhile, turning down business with firms, which were reputed to having poor human rights and labour practices, made it lose a huge £847,000 and declining those companies that were found to be producing harmful or contentious chemicals increased its loss by £688,000.
The co-operative society’s instances of refusal increased at a considerably quicker pace after the society intensified its research on the background and credentials of the customers seeking an account.
Williams explained the Co-operative’s probe method and said, “Our customers expect us to rigorously police our ethical stance and so we not only look into the activities of a would-be customer but also the supply chains in which they are involved. For instance, we investigate a company to see if it is concerned directly in the extraction or production of fossil fuels, and also whether they supply products and services of strategic importance to such areas.”
Employing at least 4,200 people across 100 branches in the country, the co-operative bank can today boast of having 2m customers. The Co-operative Financial Services, which the co-operative bank is a part of, comprises of the internet bank Smile and the Co-operative Insurance Society. The Co-operative Financial Services has more than 7 million customers.
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