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The Co-operative Bank*
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Delivering Value |  Indicators |  Partnership Report 2001 |  Our Performance |  Home
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Financial Statements 2001

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Delivering Value : Introduction
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the partnership approach
The Co-operative Bank aims to deliver value to all its Partners in a balanced fashion over time, where 'value' is defined by the Partner, not the bank. The bank is seeking to enhance the utility enjoyed by those groups on which its business is dependent. This is what makes the bank's Partnership Approach a genuine triple bottom line sustainability strategy (ethics, ecology and economy). True corporate sustainability relies not only on delivering social responsibility and ecological sustainability, but also on satisfying the desires and needs of a range of Partners.

Ascertaining priorities
Determining the views of Partners, such as shareholders, suppliers, customers, staff and co-operators, is relatively straightforward; research is usually carried out via a combination of focus groups, postal questionnaires and telephone surveys. With regard to 'local communities' and 'national and international society', the bank seeks the opinions of charities and campaigning groups as trusted proxy representatives. Community involvement accounting and reporting continues to evolve in line with Business in the Community'si understanding of best practice (follow this link for details of the bank's community involvement programme). With regard to wider societal interests, the bank is guided by its Ethical Policy consultation, the most recent review of which took place in 2001 (follow this link for details of our 2001 Ethical Policy Review). In relation to Co-operators, the bank is guided by the deliberations of the European Community of Consumer Co-operativesii (follow this link for details of our work with the Co-operative movement).

Developments
In this fifth Report, the bank has deepened its analysis of the financial costs and benefits of its pursuit of sustainable development (follow this link for a value analysis of the bank's pursuit of sustainability). This has enabled the bank to more fully account for and disclose the contribution made by the bank's ethical and environmental positioning. This year, for the first time, the bank directly gauges customer and staff satisfaction with the bank's ethical and ecological performance. The bank provides, for the first time, details of personal customer satisfaction with savings products, credit cards and loans. In relation to corporate and business customers the bank now provides details of small business support in deprived areas. In relation to staff, a new indicator on work/personal life balance has been introduced.

Assurance
An assessment of the degree to which the bank succeeds in delivering value to its Partners is provided by Mark Goyder, Director of the Centre for Tomorrow's Companyiii (follow this link for Mark Goyder's assessment of Delivering Value). For further details, please contact Jayne Beer, the bank's Partnership Adviser (jayne.beer@co-operativebank.co.uk), or visit the bank's website.iv 		*
  1. www.bitc.org.uk
  2. www.eurocoop.org
  3. www.tomorrowscompany.com
  4. www.co-operativebank.co.uk/2000/ethics/ethical_partnership.html
    To follow any of the links mentioned within the Partnership Report 2001, please visit the links page.
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The above data and commentary has been audited by ethics etc...