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corporate and business customers
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- Satisfaction with ethics
- Satisfaction with service and relationship
- Business centre network
- Profile
- Develop and launch an enhanced current account for business customers. TARGET ACHIEVED
- Mintain the high levels of overall customer satisfaction. TARGET NOT ACHIEVED
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performance
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| Available Channels, 2002 |
| Telephone Banking |
Postal Deposits |
PayPoint |
| Branches |
Internet |
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| Post Offices |
Cash Collection Service |
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| Financial Director |
Cash Machines |
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| Satisfaction with the Bank's Ethical & Ecological Performance |
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|
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Very Satisfied |
 |
Quite Satisfied |
 |
Quite Dissatisfied |
 |
Very Dissatisfied |
 |
Don't Know/ Unsure |
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| Business Centre Network |
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| Customer Satisfaction with Priority Attributes of Performance |
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Agree |
 |
Disagree |
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Don't know/No opinion |
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Each category consists of several attributes:
Service: problems resolved quickly, competent staff, accounts opened
promptly, services accessible through branches, straightforward borrowing
process, calls answered and automated answering service available.
Relationship: treated as a valued customer, provided with an adequate range
of products and services and informed about ways of accessing accounts.
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Retail Corporate and Business Customer Profile - by
Industry Classification (December 2002)
Lending
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Deposits
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(Source: Financial Control 2003)
Summary of Small Business Suppport in Deprived Areas 
| |
The Co-operative Bank
% of Small Business Activity in Deprived Areas 2001 |
The Co-operative Bank
% of Small Business Activity in Deprived Areas 2002 |
Industry Average
% Small Business Accounts
in Deprived Areas (November 2000) |
Industry Average
% Small Business Accounts
in Deprived Areas (April 2002) |
| Business Current Accounts |
6.79% |
6.66% |
4.5% |
4.3% |
| % in overdraft |
5.66% |
4.66% |
- |
- |
| Business Deposit Accounts |
7.26% |
8.08% |
4.6% |
4.2% |
| Number of Loans |
3.95% |
3.68% |
- |
- |
| Loan and Overdraft Balances* |
4.02% |
5.02% |
3.3% |
3.0% |
| Deposit and Current Account Balances |
9.82% |
9.88% |
- |
- |
| Ratio of Savings to Lending |
23.57
(cf. 9.64 all small businesses) |
15.94
(cf.8.11 all small businesses) |
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* Information in shaded areas represented in graph below
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(Sources: Co-operative Bank figures: Corporate and Business Banking 2003
Industry averages: Bank of England, Finance for Small Businesses in Deprived Communities, November 2000
and Bank of England, Finance for Small Firms, April 2002) |
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The Co-operative Bank
2001 |
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The Co-operative Bank
2002 |
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Industry Average
November 2000 |
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Industry Average
April 2002 |
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commentary
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Financial exclusion The bank discloses its support for small
businesses in deprived areas against the benchmarks
published by the Bank of England.i Although few banks publish
their individual results, the Bank of England data refers to all
banks with significant exposure to the UK small business
market. The data relates to small business lending (defined as
accounts with an annual debit turnover below £1 million) within
some of the most deprived areas of Great Britain. This covers
approximately 5% of postcode sectors. The Bank of England
concludes that the figures suggest that businesses in deprived
areas have similar access to loan facilities but the amount lent
to them is likely to be smaller than on average nationwide.
The bank's profile in deprived areas continues to indicate
that it has more current and deposit accounts and higher loan
and overdraft balances than the banking average.
Customer profile In conjunction with the bank's social
auditor, ethics etc.., an eleven category breakdown has been
agreed based on the Standard Industry Classifications of the
Office for National Statistics.ii As in previous years, the majority
of the bank's lending and deposit balances are in real estate;
professional services; housing, education, welfare and leisure;
and wholesale and retail sectors. This is consistent with what
might be expected of a bank that has operated an Ethical
Policy since 1992.
Customer satisfaction During 2002, overall customer
satisfaction has decreased, with 73% rating the bank as
'excellent' or 'good' (2001: 76%). However, 80% of customers
would still recommend the bank, 94% of customers said that
their expectations of service had been met and 94% of
customers would consider the bank for an additional business
account. Business Customer Services and Personal Customer
Services were brought together into a single 'Customer
Services' team during 2002. The bank believes that this
realignment will provide long-term benefits to customers and
will result in the delivery of high levels of customer service.
However, the process of realignment was not problem-free and
this is partly reflected in the customer survey results. The
teething problems experienced have now been resolved and
the bank is working to improve the service provided to
customers. During 2002, the bank also transferred its clearing
operations from London to Northampton. The logistical issues
surrounding this move caused a degree of inconvenience to a
small number of customers. Separate satisfaction research is
undertaken with the bank's 'major relationship' customers.
These customers include local authorities, co-operative retail
societies, football clubs, large corporates and large charities.
Overall satisfaction with the quality of service among 'major
relationship' customers is 86%.
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New products Business Direct was relaunched in an
enhanced form as Business Directplus iii in October 2002. For
new customers, there are no monthly charges for 18 months
where a credit balance of £2,000 is maintained and the
account is operated within transaction limits. New features
include higher credit interest rates, access to arrangement-fee
free overdraft facilities, improved accessibility through Post
Offices (enabling the paying in of both cheques and cash) and
a new simplified telephone-based account application
process. The product relaunch has generated a high level of
new account enquiries. During 2002, the bank launched
Cashflow Finance iv, a factoring and invoice discounting service
which enables customers to borrow against invoices issued.
Business centre network East Midlands Business Centre
was opened in 2002 and Glasgow business centre was
relocated with the branch. This co-ordination of personal and
corporate operations is intended to improve customer service.
No business centres closed during 2002.
Complaints The bank remains the only high street bank to
provide all customers with service level guarantees across a
range of routine banking activities; where the bank fails it
apologises and pays £25 in compensation. The bank's
Customer Care team received 58 complaints in 2002 (2001:
122), of which 9 were referred to the Financial Services
Ombudsman (2001: 2).
Industry codes The bank complied with all aspects of the
Business Banking Code v in 2002.
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Our Business Direct account was enhanced, rebranded and relaunched in October 2002 as Business Directplus, offering new SME customers a range of features, including 18 months free banking.
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- www.bankofengland.co.uk
- www.nationalstatistics.gov.uk
- www.co-operativebank.co.uk/business/currentacc_business_direct_new.html
- www.co-operativebank.co.uk/business/helpingbusiness_cashflowfinance.html
- www.bankingcode.org.uk
To follow any of the links mentioned within the Partnership Report 2002, please visit the links page.
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ethical and ecological value analysis
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Ethical choices The bank has conducted detailed research
with business customers to gain a better understanding of the
importance of the bank's ethical and ecological policies in
attracting and retaining customers. The results indicate that for
28% of customers, the bank's ethical and ecological policies
are the most important reason for opening and maintaining an
account (2001: 19%). 43% of all customers indicate that
ethical and ecological policies were one of the important
factors that influenced them to open and maintain an account
with the bank (2001: 42%). The research also indicated that
ethically motivated customers are more likely to recommend
the bank and are more likely to consider the bank for additional
business accounts. See pages 27-28 for an estimate of
the total profitability contribution attributable to ethically
motivated customers.
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new targets
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- Develop and launch an enhanced business current account, whilst maintaining the bank's transparent approach to pricing.
Debbie Chalmers, Product Manager, Corporate Marketing
- Increase the number of Corporate and Business Banking customers registered to use Internet banking by 15%.
Steve Jennings, Head of Business Development/Ceri Henfrey, Sales Development Manager, Business Development
- Increase the percentage of Corporate and Business Banking customers rating the bank as 'excellent' or 'good' to 75%.
Bryce Glover, Executive Director, Corporate and Business Banking/Rob Woolley, Head of Customer Service Centre
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