Important information

Registered Address

The Co-operative Bank p.l.c., (990937) P.O. Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester, M60 4EP. The Co-operative Bank is a UK Bank and its products are only available to UK, Channel Islands & Isle of Man residents and British expatriates overseas (subject to any restrictions laid down by English law).

The Co-operative Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (No. 121885), subscribes to the Banking Code, is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service and is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading (No. 006110).

Privacy

The privacy of Co-operative Bank customers is very important to us, and how we deal with personal information is outlined in our terms and conditions. We hope the way in which we gather and use your personal information addresses and respects any concerns you may have:

We will only use the personal information we gather:

  • in the normal course of our business to provide the products and services you have requested
  • to identify you when you contact us
  • to determine if we can offer you a better service or more relevant products
  • to send you e-mail updates of service changes which are important to you or which we feel may be of interest to you
  • for credit assessment, to review the conduct of and to administer/operate your accounts
  • for statistical analysis, including automated techniques (eg behaviour and credit scoring) and to monitor and analyse our business

We will disclose your personal information only to:

  • our agents and sub-contractors to administer and operate your account or to conduct our business
  • the insurer of any payment or card protection cover which you take out in connection with your account
  • our licensed credit reference agency who may keep a record of any search we make and your personal information may be shared with and used by other lenders in assessing applications from you or members of your household
  • any person to whom we transfer our rights or obligations under this agreement
  • for debt tracing or fraud prevention
  • to help desk advisers, minicom/typetalk operators or their equivalent
  • if required or compelled to do so by law

We subscribe to the Banking Code and the Business Banking Code. These voluntary codes encourage higher standards for the benefit of customers.

Our relationship with The Co-operative Insurance
and The Co-operative Investments

The Co-operative Bank plc operates closely with our sister company the Co-operative Insurance which is a marketing group associate.

Our Guarantees - The Banking Code for Personal Customers

What is the Banking Code (“Code”)?

The Code is a voluntary code followed by banks and building societies in their relations with business customers in the United Kingdom. As a subscriber to the Code, the Bank must ensure that all Code requirements are complied with. The revised edition is effective 31st March 2008.

Business customers are defined within the Code as, sole traders, partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and limited companies with an annual turnover of under £1 million, as well as associated charities and clubs with an annual income of under £1million.

The Code provides business customers with valuable protection and explains how financial institutions are expected to deal with them on a day-to-day basis and in times of financial difficulty.

The Code does not apply to currency accounts, factoring (invoice services), leasing, asset finance, hire purchase, investments or insurance.

Key Commitments

The updated promise on fairness is covered within the Key Commitments and states:

"We promise we will treat you fairly and reasonably when providing you with products and services covered in this Code. We will keep this promise by meeting all of the key commitments shown below."

  • We will make sure that our advertising and promotional literature is clear and not misleading and that you are given clear information about our products and services.
  • We will give you clear information about accounts and services, how they work, their terms and conditions and the interest rates which may apply.
  • We will help you use your account or service by sending you regular statements (where appropriate) and we will keep you informed about changes to the interest rates, charges or terms and conditions.
  • We will help you to switch your current account between financial institutions subscribing to this Code.
  • We will lend responsibly.
  • We will deal quickly and sympathetically with things that go wrong and consider all cases of financial difficulty sympathetically and positively.
  • We will treat all your personal information as private and confidential, and operate secure and reliable banking and payment systems.
  • We will publicise this Code, have copies available and make sure that our staff are trained to put it into practice.

Who are the Banking Code Standards Board (“BCSB”)?

The BCSB are the regulators who ensure that subscribers (e.g. The Co-operative Bank) to the Banking Code adhere to the Code. They continually monitor Code adherence through mystery shopping exercises, themed visits, and by analysing responses to the Annual Statement of Compliance. The Annual Statement of Compliance is a self certification exercise which all subscribers must undertake on annual basis, to confirm their firm’s positioning in respect of compliance with the Code.

Their address and contact numbers are:

Banking Code Standards Board
Level 12
City Tower
40 Basinghall Street
London
EC2V 5DE

Tel: 0845 2309694

Website address:www.bankingcode.org.uk

Code Compliance Officer

We are required by the Banking Code Standards Board to appoint a Code Compliance Officer. The Code Compliance Officer and Deputy Code Compliance Officer reside in CFS Compliance and are responsible for liaison with the BCSB, co-ordination of regulatory visits and cascade of relevant Code requirements to the business areas. Any enquiries should be addressed to Richard Weddell, Code Compliance Officer, CFS Regulatory Compliance or via email to richard.weddell@cfs.coop.

How to obtain information and copies of the Banking Code:

  • Banking Code posters are on display in all Bank branches.
  • Personal customers can also pick up a copy of the Code booklet from any of our own branches, as well as any other member Bank or Building Society.
  • You can download a copy of the Business Banking Code from the Banking Code Standards Board here PDF format from The Banking Codes Standards Board.The Code guidance can also be obtained from the BCSB, whose contact details are given above.
  • Alternatively you can request a copy of the Code through Telephone Banking, by phoning 08457 212 213.

Information on the Banking Code and copies of the Code are also available from the BBA (including large print, Welsh and Braille versions).

British Bankers' Association
Pinners Hall,
105 - 108 Old Broad Street,
London, EC2N 1EX

Website Address: www.bba.org.uk

Call Charges & Information

Calls to 0845 numbers will cost no more than 4p per minute for BT customers. Call charges from other companies may vary and you may want to check this with your service provider.

Calls to 0870 numbers will cost no more than 8p per minute for BT customers. Call charges from other companies may vary and you may want to check this with your service provider.

Calls to 0800 numbers are free from a UK landline, mobile costs may vary. You may wish to check this with your mobile provider.

Calls may be monitored or recorded for security and training purposes.

Our Disclaimer

The Bank has taken the greatest of care to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this website, but cannot accept responsibility (to the extent permitted by law) for any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors whether in respect of the information provided on the Bank's website or on any to which the Bank's website may be linked. The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. (the "Bank") is a United Kingdom bank and its products are only available in the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) to United Kingdom residents.

The information on this website may only be used by UK residents and expatriates for their own purposes. Permission must be obtained from the Bank for any other use.

What is Social Bookmarking?

The term Social Bookmarking is used to describe websites designed to store and share bookmarks on the web, instead of the Bookmarks or Favourites area of your web browser.

By sharing bookmarks, you can ensure other web users are introduced to the content you have found to be interesting, informative or useful. Social Bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious and Reddit represent communites of web users by listing these shared articles and news stories from across the internet.

At The Co-operative Bank we are very interested in the emerging web communities, and see this as an opportunity to introduce new audiences to our knowledge, particularly on ethical issues. This is why we now provide links to Social Bookmarking websites in the right-hand column of some of the pages in our Ethics section.

To share our pages with a Social Bookmarking website:

  1. Click one of the links on the Social Bookmarking panel, in the right-hand column. You will then see the Submit page of the Social Bookmarking website.
  2. If you have not visited the site before, you will be prompted to Register. Simply fill in the Username and Password boxes before clicking the OK button.
  3. If you are already registered, you may be prompted to Login to your account. If so, enter your Username and Password before clicking the OK button.
  4. When you have been informed of your successful submission to the site, close the window to return to The Co-operative Bank website.

Important information for non-UK mainland residents

Non-UK mainland residents who wish to apply for Co-operative Bank accounts should contact our Offshore Banking Centre in Guernsey. email: guernsey@co-operativebank.co.uk or tel: +44 1481 710527.

Online applications can not be accepted from non-UK mainland residents.

email security

For your additional peace of mind, every marketing customer e-mail sent by us, will include the last part of your postcode as it appears on your Co-operative Bank statement.

Financial Services Compensation Scheme

The Co-operative Bank is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme established under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. In respect of deposits with a UK Office, payments under the Scheme are limited to 100% of the first £50,000 of the depositors total deposits held with the Bank. Visit www.fscs.org.uk for details.