People repelled by what they have seen as the predatory recklessness of commercial banks have sometimes trusted their affairs to the Co-operative Bank.
That too is now in trouble, unable to pay the interest on its permanent interest bearing shares, so some elderly folk are likely to lose a substantial proportion of their income.
I've long been puzzled by the co-operative movement. Its shops are not supposed to make a profit, yet are markedly more expensive than their profiteering rivals. It appears that unimaginative self righteousness fares no better than reckless greed.
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As a satisfied customer of the Co-Op Bank for the past 19 years, I'm worried by what I read about the trouble the bank is in, but I don't fully understand the implications; nor do I understand what - if anything - the effects that the bank's current troubles may have upon my humble account.
Sasha, a good site to read for financial gossip is zerohedge.com; you may find it philosophically uncongenial but it undeniably gets news way before the mainstream media does, in some cases months before, and the analysis pieces are often very good too (and often very bad!). Once you're there, search for "bail-in" and/or "co-operative bank". Here's an article that combines both: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-06-17/european-bail-ins-will-continue-until-morale-improves -- worrying news, but restricted to PIB holders rather than account holders.
European countries generally are also moving to restrict the guarantees that the State gives to cash account holders in their major banks; EUR100,000 was the figure mentioned -- hopefully nobody has that much money depreciating in a bank account.
Read this for a quote of a good article from Citywire: http://www.iii.co.uk/investment/detail/?display=discussion&code=cotn%3ACPBC.L&it=lb&action=detail&id=10717858 (this is on the III site, one that I much recommend for its discussion boards). The sentence that I took away from this, the saddest one, is: "‘People trust the Co-op , they see it as a safe and ethical organisation,’ said Taber. ‘I have worked on campaigns like this before but I have never come across people who are so heavily reliant [on income from one institution].’".
People on the left do seem to me to engage in a great deal of wishful thinking. As most political power is on the left nowadays, I shudder to think what's in store for us.
Further, it's interesting to see that the capital adequacy problems for the Co-op Bank stem from its takeover of the Britannia Building Society, which itself got into trouble (and therefore had to be rescued by the Co-op) and which appears to have been speculating on commercial property lending and high loan to value retail mortgages: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/10052605/How-Britannia-merger-sowed-seeds-of-Co-ops-woes.html
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