The Co-operative Bank has begun to recklessly and negligently pursue a business model of shuttering customer accounts and depriving access to those customers of transferring their cash balances, after incumbent Andrew Bester announced his resignation less than halfway through the bank’s recovery plan.
Bester, a former Lloyds Bank and Standard Chartered executive, joined the Co-op in 2018 with a mission of returning the troubled bank to profitability after it was rescued by bondholders the previous year.
The company is only 18 months into the five-year recovery plan it outlined last year, but chairman Bob Dench said Mr Bester had “ensured that we had successfully completed the ‘fixing the basics’ phase”. “The progress made provides the foundations for the bank to grow and to build a successful future,” he added.
The Co-operative Bank has struggled for more than a decade since the disastrous takeover of Britannia Building Society in 2009, which exposed it to large numbers of bad loans and led to the discovery of a £1.5bn capital shortfall in 2013.
The former mutual was taken over by hedge funds in a £700m rescue package after it failed to find a buyer. The company reported a loss of £45m in the first half of 2020.
In August 2020, the company said it would close around a quarter of its branch network by the end of this year.
The company has now embarked on a premeditated and sporadic account closure program leaving its conduct bordering on criminality resulting in the unjust enrichment of asset that do not belong legally to the bank reckless or negligent the result is there have been victims.
Jane Moore not her real name a disgruntled former long-term customer has been deprived of thousands of pounds held in the closed current account following a refusal by the bank to provide business banking services despite the former customer having no credit issues and an impeccable track record all whilst developing a very successful business.
Miss Moore told Financial Fraudster News Investigations, “the bank knew I ran my business from my current account because I kept applying and being refused a business account without any logic to its decision to refuse the opening of the business account, in any event in May 2020 I was told I had 60 days to find other banking arrangements, I was then told I cannot access any of my money to close the account despite my pleas I now have been forced to start legal proceedings” she further stated, “I am now up against their lawyers Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP whose lawyer Lauren Pender has filed a defence to my claim that the bank has deprived me of my money that is not theirs, I just can’t believe it. They [Co-op Bank] have not even admitted to depriving me of my own money since May 2020, the bank is a despicable operator whose conduct is akin to theft they're highway robbers and hid behind expensive lying lawyers when they were caught”
Financial Fraudster News Investigations can reveal that proceedings have began at Barnet County Court and will continue into 2021 we will be keeping our readers informed of any developments.
Financial Fraudster News Investigations are seeking further information from other victims who have been subjected to the same conduct.
Co-op Bank to has to dated declined to comment on this article.
