| Location Country: | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters: | Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester, M15 5RF |
| Members: | 1,200 (2019)[1] |
| Founded: | February 2016[2] |
The Customer Union for Ethical Banking is a United Kingdom consumer organisation campaigning for The Co-operative Bank to maintain and strengthen its ethical standards and return to co-operative ownership in the future.[3] It has also played a part in pressuring the leadership of the bank to implement external auditors for its annual values and ethics report.[4] It has over 10,000 registered supporters among the bank's customers, as well as 1,200 paying members.[5]
In the first half of 2013, the Co-operative Bank (then a subsidiary of the Co-operative Group) lost £700m, making the planned expansion of the bank impossible, and raising some warning signs for the bank's customers. Later that year, in May, a £1.5bn "black hole" was found in the bank's accounts. This failing was largely blamed on the bank's chairman, Paul Flowers and the takeover of Britannica Building Society in 2009.[6] [7]
This led to the eventual takeover of the bank by several hedge funds, to plug the financial gap of the bank, which otherwise would have collapsed.[8] In April 2017, the Co-operative group sold off its remaining 20% stake in the bank, marking an end to co-operative ownership. At this time, serious questions were raised by the Save our Bank campaign about its ethical status, with the union saying that the bank 'would not stand a chance' if it did not continue with its ethical policy.[9] [10]
The consumer union was born out of the Ethical Consumer Magazine's Save our Bank campaign, which was spun off into a separate co-operative society in 2016, after a successful £30,000 crowdfunding campaign was completed. The union says that becoming a co-operative society will help their members to 'contribute to the debate on how to keep ethics at the heart of financial decision-making at the Co-op Bank'.[11] In 2019, the Customer Union signed a recognition agreement with the bank.[12]
In the future, the union has said that it will hold the Co-operative group to account for the continued implementation of its ethical policy. It also plans in the future to slowly buy a share in the bank, in a bid for an eventual return to co-operative ownership.[13]