Student Finance Overview

All Co-operative Bank (and Smile) products are covered by its customer-led Ethical Policy. For details of additional green and ethical products on offer, see the profile for the Co-operative Bank.

The Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Policy applies across all its services and is developed in consultation with its customers. The Policy’s exclusion/inclusion criteria include:

Human rights

The bank will not finance:

• Any government or business which fails to uphold basic human rights within its sphere of influence
• Any business whose links to an oppressive regime are a continuing cause for concern

Arms trade

The bank will not finance any business:

• Involved the manufacture or transfer of armaments to oppressive regimes 
• Producing equipment to be used in torture or in any other way that violates human rights
• Involved in the manufacture or transfer of indiscriminate weapons e.g. cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions

International Development

The bank will not finance organisations:

• That fail to implement basic labour rights as set out in the Fundamental ILO Conventions. These include the avoidance of child labour, or to oppose the rights of workers to freedom of association (e.g. in a trade union)
• That take an irresponsible approach to payment of tax in the least developed countries or engage in irresponsible marketing practices in developing countries, for example with regard to tobacco products and manufacture

Ecological impact

The bank will not finance any business:

• Whose core activities contribute to global climate change via the extraction or production of conventional fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas), with an extension to the distribution of fuels that have a higher global warming impact, e.g. tar sands and some biofuels.
• Manufacturing certain polluting chemicals
• That harvests natural resources in an unsustainable way
• That develops genetically modified organisms where there is evidence of uncontrolled release into the environment or negative impact on developing countries
• That developments nanotechnology in circumstances that risk damaging the environment or compromising human health

The bank will also seek to support businesses involved in:

• Recycling and sustainable waste management
• Renewable energy and energy efficiency
• Sustainable natural products, including timber and organic produce

Animal welfare

The bank will not finance businesses involved in:

• Animal testing for cosmetic or household products or their ingredients
• Intensive farming, for example caged egg production
• Blood sports
• The fur trade
• The exploitation of great apes, for example in experimentation or general commercial use

The bank will seek to support businesses involved in:

• The development of alternatives to animal experimentation
• Farming methods that promote animal welfare like free range farming

The implementation of Co-operative Bank's Ethical Policy is assessed independently by a third-party (csrnetwork) and customers are invited to comment to express concerns and opinions of it too. The bank’s Ethical Policy Unit is comprised of five full-time staff members.

Social enterprise

• The bank seeks to support charities, co-operatives, credit unions and community finance initiatives. 

The bank offers a basic bank account to low-income and unemployed customers. It is also the largest provider of banking services to credit unions in the UK – covering 60%.

The bank provided IT, administration and training resources to the recently launched Credit Union Current Account (operational in a small but growing number of credit unions since 2007) and has also made donations to support the Association of British Credit Union’s (ABCUL) annual conferences and its newsletter (£24,000 in 2007).

The bank is engaged in a project, Credit Action, to enable prisoners to open a basic bank account to facilitate employment and housing for offenders leaving prison.

Access: the bank offers financial products and service through non-branch-based channels including the internet, telephone, Post Office and a network of financial advisers, enabling customers to access many services from home.

Smile’s website is ranked as meeting A-level in relation to their level of accessibility for customers with disabilities according to the Web Accessibility Initiative’s (WAI)  content accessibility guidelines (where AAA is the most accessible).

Microfinance: in 2007 the Co-operative Bank created a special £25m fund to support the development of small businesses in a number of third world countries.

Work in Communities: As at June 2007, 8% of business current accounts and 7% of business loans were provided to small businesses in deprived areas. This compares to industry average figures of 4.7% and 3.6% respectively.

The bank’s environment policy covers climate change/energy efficiency and waste management and shows a commitment to continued improvement of environmental performance and has targets for same. An Environmental Advisory Committee is in place.

The bank has also been involved in lobbying the UK government with regard to carbon emission reduction targets and has worked with environment charities like Friends of the Earth to further the climate change cause.

Some 99% of the bank’s electricity is sourced from renewable sources, such as wind and hydro technologies. The bank has also committed £400 million to invest in the renewable-energy sector.

The Co-operative Financial Services (incorporating Smile) plans to go ‘beyond’ carbon neutral by repaying 10% off its outstanding carbon ‘debt’ in addition to the existing carbon neutrality of all its business operations.

The bank’s parent company, Co-operative Financial Services, has gone ‘beyond’ carbon neutrality by repaying 10% off its outstanding carbon ‘debt’ in addition to its existing carbon neutrality.