[ Introduction ]
Introduced in 1992, our Ethical Policy sets out, in 13 clearly defined statements, how our customers wish to see their money invested - and how they don't. The Ethical Policy is regularly reviewed and revised, in order to reflect the changing concerns of our customers. For example, as a result of our last consultation exercise in 1994, we added a new statement on support for fairtrade initiatives.

In this section, we report on how our customers view our Ethical Policy and Ecological Mission Statement; and, more generally, on what they expect of a socially responsible business. (You'll find a detailed report on our Ethical Policy and its implementation under Society).

2a) Support for the bank's Ethical and Ecological Policies

[ Existing commitment ]
The bank is committed to the implementation of an Ethical Policy that stipulates how customers money "should and should not be invested."

[ Performance & comment ]
The Partnership Ballot found that nearly all customers believe that the bank Social Responsibility should be mindful of ethical and ecological considerations when investing their money. Younger customers in particular feel strongly about this.

Furthermore, customers feel quite strongly that the bank should be aware of its environmental impact and improve its performance. And again, younger customers hold the strongest views.

[ Future objective ]
To ensure that customers continue to be assured of the bank's commitment to its Ethical and Ecological Policies, and that they retain confidence in our ability to assess all such relevant matters.

SIMON WILLIAMS Head of Corporate Affairs 

JIM SINCLAIR Group Marketing Manager 

2b) Support for the bank's Partnership Approach

[ Existing commitment ]
Last year in our Partnership Report, 'Strength in Numbers' we described our Partnership Approach and announced our commitment to this new way of doing business.

[ Performance & comment ]
The Partnership Ballot found that there was overwhelming support for the Partnership Approach with 97% of customers who responded saying it was a good idea.

At The Co-operative Bank we believe that commercial organisations have a purpose beyond mere profit. This means recognising that we have responsibilities towards everyone who is involved in our business in any way - customers, staff and their families, companies who supply us, local communities, society at large and past and future generations, as well as the traditional responsibility to our shareholders. In this way we believe we can be more successful in the long-term.

It seems that our customers are fully supportive of the idea of business moving away from the shareholder-focused concept of recent times, and toward a more inclusive model. Their rationale for this conviction was shown to be a concern that the shareholder-focused model leaves the country, and particularly people and their families, worse off. Our customers are split virtually in half on the benefits of the shareholder-focused model to the company itself.

[ Future objective ]
To ensure that customers continue to be assured of the bank's commitment to all its Partners, and that they retain confidence in our ability to manage the Partnership Approach.

SIMON WILLIAMS Head of Corporate Affairs