The Co-operative Bank

[JimD]

Interesting that big (and at least one not so big) banks run for profit are bailed out by the taxpayer, but the mutual...well..."you'll have to do it all on your own sonny".

[eighthobstruction]

They were doing so well seemingly until the current Executives came along....and as to your point....yes....of course there used to be so many mutuals but now they are all incorporated....

[Serial_Apologist]

They were doing so well seemingly until the current Executives came along....and as to your point....yes....of course there used to be so many mutuals but now they are all incorporated....

And here's £500 laddie if you'll vote at the annual shareholders' meeting to go for incorporation. That's how it was engineered - bribery. Even my privatise everything dad regarded that as iniquitous, and started to see through the equation of nationalisation with socialism for the Thatcherite propaganda it always was - less infrastructure than infra dig, and certainly not infra Red.

[johnb]

I used to work for the Co-operative Group (ex CWS) and one of the signs that an independent co-operative retail society was heading for trouble and would probably need to be taken over by the CWS was when they started having grandiose ideas and building new headquarters.

A year ago or so I bought something from the Co-op Electrical website and was talking to one of their sales assistants who, as it happens, worked in the "Old Bank Building" - a building which I knew very well indeed. Whilst chatting he told me that the Co-operative Group were about to build new 'designer' headquarters on the waste ground opposite the current HQ. (Actually the waste ground had been used as an NCP car park for Co-op employees for decades.)

You could argue that a new building was required as the Co-operative Group's Manchester premises stretched over many office blocks, even before Britannia BS take over. Nevertheless, I wondered whether the pattern will run true to form.

It has.

The building was completed in February this year.

[Petrushka]

I used to work for the Co-operative Group (ex CWS) and one of the signs that an independent co-operative retail society was heading for trouble and would probably need to be taken over by the CWS was when they started having grandiose ideas and building new headquarters.

A year ago or so I bought something from the Co-op Electrical website and was talking to one of their sales assistants who, as it happens, worked in the "Old Bank Building" - a building which I knew very well indeed. Whilst chatting he told me that the Co-operative Group were about to build new 'designer' headquarters on the waste ground opposite the current HQ. (Actually the waste ground had been used as an NCP car park for Co-op employees for decades.)

You could argue that a new building was required as the Co-operative Group's Manchester premises stretched over many office blocks, even before Britannia BS take over. Nevertheless, I wondered whether the pattern will run true to form.

It has.

The building was completed in February this year.

In my job as a credit controller I have, over the years, found various tell-tale signs of a company being in trouble and the building of a new headquarters or an extensive refurbishment can often be one of them. Grandiose doesn't even begin to describe this building. Megalomaniac would appear to be a more fitting word. Did Albert Speer design it perchance?

[greenilex]

There's quite a bit in the previous posts that I find confusing.

The International Coop Alliance (ICA) has values and principles all coops subscrbe to. One of the most important of these involves independence, self-relianceand self-responsibility. Coops rely only on their members.

The Group has a huge membership, and we are not short of a penny or two.

The Co-op Bank is therefore in no danger whatever.

End of story.

[johnb]

The International Coop Alliance (ICA) has values and principles all coops subscrbe to. One of the most important of these involves independence, self-relianceand self-responsibility. Coops rely only on their members.

The Group has a huge membership, and we are not short of a penny or two.

The Co-op Bank is therefore in no danger whatever.

End of story.

Sorry, but that is a bit naive. The Co-op Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Co-operative Group. Most of the membership of the Co-operative Group comprises people who have a £1.00 share. What do you suggest the Co-operative Group asks of them?

[greenilex]

I am sure the total assets of the Co-operative Group is a figure available to all. We are not in debt, and have enormous land and property holdings.

Check the odd pennies of divi each member contributes to socially worthwhile causes every year.

You too can influence how we dispose of our wealth by joining us.