Case study: How The Co-operative Bank works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices

Stakeholder identification and consultation

Please describe which stakeholders (or groups/ types of stakeholders) you have identified, consulted, engaged, collaborated or partnered with for the purpose of implementing the Principles and improving your bank’s impacts. This should include a high-level overview of how your bank has identified relevant stakeholders, what issues were addressed/results achieved and how they fed into the action planning process.

The Co-operative Bank engages with stakeholders from three distinct groups:

1. Those with an economic relationship with The Co-operative Bank: customers, colleagues, suppliers, and community partners.
2. Those without an economic relationship but with a significant societal interest in The Co-operative Bank: charity and NGO partners, the UK government and financial regulators, local communities, and the financial sector.
3. Advisors providing insight and knowledge.

The Co-operative Bank values the importance of continuous and transparent engagement with stakeholders and seeks opportunities to do so as part of its business operations. Notably, The Co-operative Bank maintains engagement with the Customer Union for Ethical Banking, an independent body representing the bank’s customers. The Customer Union is tasked with holding The Co-operative Bank accountable, ensuring it upholds its ethical banking principles and customer-led values, and is formally recognized by The Co-operative Bank.

For instance, in 2021, The Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Poll gathered the views of 47,000 customers. Additionally, the bank has involved charity and community partners in co-creation workshops to ensure its updated Ethical Policy reflects the perspectives of a broad range of stakeholders.

How did The Co-operative Bank work with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities?

In its 2024 PRB Self-assessment Report The Co-operative Bank reports that it works with its clients and customers to encourage sustainable practices and enable sustainable economic activities as follows:

The Co-operative Bank’s customer-driven Ethical Policy is fundamental to maintaining a responsible relationship with its customers. The Co-operative Bank regularly conducts customer consultations to ensure their most pressing ethical concerns are incorporated into the Ethical Policy. The latest consultation, known as The Co-operative Bank’s Values and Ethics Poll, was conducted in 2021.

The Co-operative Bank will continue to refuse banking services to businesses or organizations involved in the exploration, extraction, or production of fossil fuels, along with making similar commitments on various environmental and social issues.

Additionally, The Co-operative Bank supports customers in adopting sustainable practices by offering advisory support such as:

• Green Additional Borrowing options for existing mortgage customers to help make their homes more sustainable and energy-efficient.
• As part of mortgage eligibility criteria, customers are required to create an Energy Saving Home Improvement Plan using The Co-operative Bank’s free tool powered by the Energy Saving Trust (EST). This tool assists customers in developing their Energy Saving Home Improvement Plans.
• The introduction of Zellar, a sustainability platform that helps business customers create roadmaps to enhance their sustainability.

UN Principles for Responsible Banking: Accelerating a positive global transition for people and the planet

With over 300 signatory banks representing almost half of the global banking industry, the Principles for Responsible Banking are the world’s foremost sustainable banking framework. Through these Principles, the banking community takes action to align core strategies, decision-making, lending and investment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and international agreements such as the Paris Climate Agreement.

FBRH Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) Assurance:

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The combination of all the above empowers FBRH to provide first class Principles for Responsible Banking (PRB) assurance services.

References:

This case study is based on published information by The Co-operative Bank, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/assets/pdf/bank/investorrelations/UNEP-FI-principles-for-responsible-banking-report-2024.pdf

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