Skip to main navigation Skip to main content Skip to footer content

Important information

What is Your Registered Address?

The Co-operative Bank p.l.c., P.O. Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester, M60 4EP. Registered in England and Wales No. 990937.

Who regulates you?

The Co-operative Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (No. 121885), subscribes to the Lending Code and the Financial Ombudsman Service and is licensed by the Office of Fair Trading (No. 006110).

Lending Code

The Lending Code is a voluntary code that sets standards for good lending practice that all of its members have to meet. That way you can be sure we're doing things in your best interests.

We recommend that you read through the Lending Code (opens as a PDF in a new window - 0.3MB) or you can visit the Lending Standards Board's website to find out more.

For further advice, the following documents are available to download through the Lending Standards Board website:

For sources of free independent money advice for micro-enterprise’s please view the BBAs list of approved sources for advice.

The Money Advice Service

The Co-operative Bank is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

The Money Advice Service has impartial information and tools to help you when budgeting, borrowing money, taking out a mortgage or opening a savings account.

For more information please visit www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk, or call The Money Advice Service helpline on 0300 500 5000 (call rates may vary).

Where can I find out about the merger with Britannia?

Following the merger with The Co-operative Bank on 1st August 2009, Britannia Building Society became part of The Co-operative Group, which is the world’s largest consumer co-operative with around five million members, over £14 billion turnover, and core business interests in financial services, food, travel, pharmacy and funeral care. The Co-operative Group has over 4,500 retail trading outlets. You can find out more about the merger by visiting The Co-operative Banking Group website.

Information for non-UK mainland customers

Non-UK mainland residents who wish to apply for Co-operative Bank current accounts, loans, credit cards or mortgages should contact our Offshore Banking Centre in Guernsey, email: guernsey@co-operativebank.co.uk or telephone +44 1481 710527. Find out about our call charges

Online applications cannot be accepted from non-UK mainland residents.

Individual products may have specific criteria and are subject to status and conditions. Please see the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions of the product you are interested in.

How do I give you feedback or make a complaint?

Your opinions are very important to us. That's why we love to hear from you, whether it's good or bad. It helps us grow as a company and stay on track with what you, our customers, want. Give us feedback.

Or if we get something wrong, you may need to make a complaint. Be assured that we treat all complaints seriously and promise to deal with them fairly and promptly, and in many cases we'll resolve them right away. Find out more about our complaints policy.

How do you protect my information?

The privacy of Co-operative Bank customers is very important to us, and how we deal with personal information is outlined in our terms and conditions. We hope the way in which we gather and use your personal information addresses and respects any concerns you may have:

We will only use the personal information we gather:

  • in the normal course of our business to provide the products and services you have requested
  • to identify you when you contact us
  • to determine if we can offer you a better service or more relevant products
  • to send you e-mail updates of service changes which are important to you or which we feel may be of interest to you
  • for credit assessment, to review the conduct of and to administer/operate your accounts
  • for statistical analysis, including automated techniques (e.g. behaviour and credit scoring) and to monitor and analyse our business

We will disclose your personal information only to:

  • our agents and sub-contractors to administer and operate your account or to conduct our business
  • the insurer of any payment or card protection cover which you take out in connection with your account
  • our licensed credit reference agency who may keep a record of any search we make and your personal information may be shared with and used by other lenders in assessing applications from you or members of your household
  • any person to whom we transfer our rights or obligations under this agreement
  • for debt tracing or fraud prevention
  • to help desk advisers, minicom / typetalk operators or their equivalent
  • if required or compelled to do so by law

For full details of how your information may be used for credit reference and fraud prevention purposes please read the following document (this will open in a new window).

A guide to the use of your personal and business data by The Co-operative Bank and Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies.

What Law is applicable to my contract with you?

In legal disputes, the Law of England will apply. As required by law, please note any terms and conditions of your account will be in English, governed by the laws of England and Wales and we will communicate with you in English.

What happens to my money if the Bank ceases trading?

The Co-operative Bank plc is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which would pay compensation of up to £50,000 to eligible depositors in the event of the Bank becoming insolvent. smile and Britannia are trading names of The Co-operative Bank and, as such, protection provided to depositors by the FSCS is limited to £50,000 for the total amount of combined deposits held with The Co-operative Bank, smile and Britannia.

However, if you held accounts, which were covered by the FSCS, with both The Co-operative Bank (including smile) and with Britannia Building Society immediately prior to the date of merger of the two organisations on 1st August 2009, then until 30th December 2010 those accounts with each of the Bank and Britannia are covered for up to £50,000 i.e. £50,000 for your Co-operative Bank account(s) and £50,000 for your Britannia account(s).

Certain customers are not covered by the FSCS. The exclusions include large businesses or organisations, large companies, large mutual associations and local authorities: visit www.fscs.org.uk for further details.

How much will you charge me for phone calls to you?

Calls to 0845 numbers will cost no more than 4p per minute for BT customers. Call charges from other companies may vary and you may want to check this with your service provider.

Calls to 0870 numbers will cost no more than 8p per minute for BT customers. Call charges from other companies may vary and you may want to check this with your service provider.

Calls to 0800 numbers are free from a UK landline, mobile costs may vary. You may wish to check this with your mobile provider.

Calls may be monitored or recorded for security and training purposes.

Our disclaimer

The Bank has taken the greatest of care to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this website, but cannot accept responsibility (to the extent permitted by law) for any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors whether in respect of the information provided on the Bank's website or on any to which the Bank's website may be linked. The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. (the "Bank") is a United Kingdom bank and its products are only available in the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) to United Kingdom residents.

The information on this website may only be used by UK residents and expatriates for their own purposes. Permission must be obtained from the Bank for any other use.

Concerns with business practices?

If you have any concerns about our business practices or believe that a criminal act may have taken place (for example fraud, theft, bribery, etc), please report it via our helpline on 0161 839 6128.

All calls will be treated sympathetically and with the strictest confidence and anonymity.

Email security

For your additional peace of mind, every marketing customer e-mail sent by us, will include the last part of your postcode as it appears on your Co-operative Bank statement.