Co-op Bank to raise £400m as it confirms chair’s resignation May 9, 2014 It’s more upheaval for the beleaguered Co-op Bank. The lender’s announced this morning that it’s looking to raise more than £400m by the end of 2014, in a bid to bolster its finances. It's also confirmed that its chairman, Richard Pym, will step down by the end of the year, after holding the position since [...]
Myners: Co-op insiders must accept change May 7, 2014 THE CO-OP Group’s directors need to be swept out and replaced with experienced business people if the group is to begin to turn itself around, Lord Myners said in a strongly worded report published yesterday. But the peer fears that only Co-op insiders will get a vote on shaking up governance at this month’s annual [...]
Could you be more proficient than any of the Co-op’s regional directors? May 7, 2014 If there's a thread flowing through the Co-op Bank's problems – it's one of a skills deficiency. Much of the bank's senior management seems to have shown an appalling lack of basic experience. Speaking to the Treasury Select Committee today, Lord Paul Myners flags a neat example of this extensive failure. While on the Co-op [...]
Co-op Bank’s Flowers fined £400 after pleading guilty to drugs offences May 7, 2014 Former Co-op Bank boss Paul Flowers has been fined £400 after pleading guilty to charges of possessing drugs. Flowers was also ordered to pay £125 in costs at Leeds Magistrates’ Court. The disgraced Methodist minister was arrested in November, having stepped down from the struggling Co-op Bank six months earlier.
Ball in Co-op’s court as Myners slams “dysfunctional group board” May 7, 2014 Former city minister Lord Myners has said the Co-operative Group needs radical reform including smaller boards and greater attention to profitability. Lord Myners' report slammed the Co-op's governance structure, concluding it had a "manifestly dysfunctional group board." In what would be a significant departure from the Group's 150-year history, the report recommended that a smaller [...]
Co-op is told it must reform or it will fail again April 30, 2014 A SWEEPING investigation into the Co-op Group and Co-op Bank yesterday found years of bad decision making and poor leadership led to the enormous losses at the group and the near-failure of the bank last year. The report, by Sir Christopher Kelly, found directors and executives failed to take risk management seriously, and that only serious reforms to [...]
Damning report into Co-op Bank practices released April 30, 2014 Since the Co-op Bank revealed a significant capital shortfall last June, it's been up to Sir Christopher Kelly to look into failures at the organisation. He began his work last August, and has come back to say that the Bank has suffered from "a flawed culture" and "fundamental weaknesses in the governance and management [...]
Co-op director quits due to board leaks April 29, 2014 BOARD director Stuart Ramsay resigned his position at the Co-operative Group last night after an investigation into leaks of confidential board information. Ramsay’s exit is the latest in a string of embarrassing revelations for the embattled mutual business, and comes ahead of another report into the governance failings which led to the near-collapse of the [...]
Beleaguered Co-op reveals £2.5bn loss April 17, 2014 The Co-op has unveiled losses of £2.5bn. The group admitted it had been a "disastrous" year, going so far as to say it was the worst in its 150-year history. Interim chief executive Richard Penny cook, commented "these results should serve as a wake-up call to anyone who doubts just how serious the challenges we [...]
Co-op’s Paul Flowers charged with drugs offences April 16, 2014 The former chairman of the Co-op bank, Paul Flowers, has been charged with offences over class A and class C drugs. Flowers held the role until last summer, when it was alleged by the Mail on Sunday that he had been using illegal narcotics, including crystal meth. It was revealed in January that Flowers had [...]