Co-op Group’s former CEO says banking arm’s fate ‘a tragedy’

23 October 2013

LONDON (Reuters) – The mutually-owned Co-operative Group’s former chief executive Peter Marks told MPs on Tuesday the fate of its ailing Co-operative Bank was “a tragedy” and questioned whether it can be run on an ethical basis by the hedge funds poised to take control.

The move risks alienating the bank’s 4.7 million customers, many of whom were drawn to it because of its perceived ethical focus, and Marks said the changes left the principles and traditions of the 150-year-old Co-op movement under threat.

“Hedge funds are there to maximise profit; that is what their sole purpose in life is. I think to be truly ethical, you can’t do that,” Marks told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

Marks said the Co-op, the supermarkets to funeral services conglomerate which boasts of being owned by over 7 million customer members and an annual turnover of more than 13 billion pounds, can continue to be run with an ethical focus but said the same set of values can no longer apply at the bank.

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