The Co-operative Bank is a UK high street bank founded in 1872, now owned by Coventry Building Society after a £780 million acquisition completed on 1 January 2025. It serves around 2.5 million personal customers across current accounts, savings, and mortgages, and is best known as the UK's original ethical bank.
Customers
2.5m
UK accounts
Founded
1872
154 years old
App Store
4.8 ★
85k reviews
Google Play
4.6 ★
53k reviews
Live offers
2
Worth £249
The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority (Financial Services Register No: 121885). Eligible deposits with The Co-operative Bank are protected up to £120,000 per person by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Ethical banking with a switch reward attached. Quidsy has the Co-op Regular Saver live right now, paying out £49 profit on monthly deposits over 12 months. Best suited if you want your money sitting somewhere with a customer-led ethical policy. Eligibility is tied to holding a Co-op current account first.
Updated:
Value
£49
Value
£200
The Co-operative Bank is a UK high street bank founded in 1872, now owned by Coventry Building Society after a £780 million acquisition completed on 1 January 2025. It serves around 2.5 million personal customers across current accounts, savings, and mortgages, and is best known as the UK's original ethical bank.
Its customer-led ethical policy was the first of its kind in British banking and still drives decisions about who they will and won't lend to.
If you want a bank whose investments line up with your values, this is the obvious pick. The ethical policy rules out fossil fuels, weapons makers, companies with poor labour records, and businesses that test cosmetics on animals.
Customers who care less about ethics and more about branch coverage may find them limiting. The branch network is much smaller than the big high street banks, and most banking happens through the app. The switch offers they run periodically also reward short-term joiners, so you don't have to be a long-term convert to benefit.
Yes. The Co-operative Bank is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the FCA and PRA (Financial Services Register No: 121885). Eligible deposits are protected up to £120,000 per person by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Since 1 January 2025, the bank has been owned by Coventry Building Society, but the two organisations keep separate banking licences, which means your FSCS cover with The Co-operative Bank is not shared with any savings you hold at Coventry.
The bank's history isn't spotless. After a £1.5 billion capital shortfall surfaced in 2013, both the FCA and PRA censured the bank in 2015 for serious risk management and transparency failings between 2009 and 2013. The PRA said the conduct would normally have warranted an £85.3 million fine, but waived it because penalising the bank would have undermined its recovery.
The bank rebuilt under new investor ownership in 2017 and now sits inside the larger Coventry Building Society group, with stronger capital and the same separate FSCS protection as before. For day-to-day customers, the deposit protection is the same as any other UK bank.
Next step
£200 Free Cash is the strongest live The Co-operative Bank route we have listed right now.
The Co-operative Bank is ideal for customers who value ethical banking. Their ethical stance means they refuse to invest in fossil fuels, weapons manufacturing, companies with poor human rights records, and businesses involved in animal testing for cosmetics. If you want your bank to align with your values, they're worth considering as a longer-term bank beyond just the switch bonus.
The UK's original ethical bank. Refuses to invest in fossil fuels, weapons, animal testing, or companies with poor labour records, all guided by a policy customers helped write.
The Current Account has no monthly fee, alongside competitive regular savers and cash ISAs. Branch coverage is light, so most banking happens in the app or online.
Highly rated mobile app covers payments, transfers, card freezing, Apple Pay, and Direct Debit management without phoning the bank.
Eligible deposits are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £120,000 per person. The bank holds its own banking licence, separate from new parent Coventry Building Society.
If you care about where your money sleeps at night, The Co-operative Bank is one of the few UK high street banks where the ethical position isn't just marketing. The customer-led policy is genuinely binding on what they will and won't lend against, and that's the main reason to choose them as a long-term home for your current account or savings.
Beyond ethics, the proposition is more "solid and free" than "market-leading on rates". The Current Account has no monthly fee, the mobile app does the job, and the Regular Saver has been one of the more competitive on the market when it's open to new applications. They also run periodic switch offers, which are a low-risk way to test the bank.
The two things to know going in: branch coverage is light, and any past worries about the 2013 capital crisis are now contained inside Coventry Building Society after the January 2025 takeover, with separate FSCS cover preserved. For ethically-minded switchers, easy yes. For best-in-class everything, look elsewhere.
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