Co-op Bank ‘must change its name’ after £700m rescue

THE struggling Co-op Bank was last night under pressure to change its name after agreeing a rescue deal which will see it 99pc-owned by US hedge funds.

Shareholders voted 90pc in favour of a plan to shore up the lender’s finances with £ 700m of fresh cash, ending months of doubt about whether it can survive.

But the Co-op Group’s stake will be slashed from 20pc to 1pc as a result of the rescue, with the rest owned by American vultures.

Labour MP John Mann yesterday said it was no longer a workerowned co-operative and had no right to masquerade as one.

Mann, a former Treasury Select Committee member expecting to be re-elected after the summer recess, said: ‘Now that the bank is almost entirely owned by US hedge funds, it would be misleading to call it a co-op.

‘To avoid any misunderstanding, it should now be renamed.’

Bosses have always insisted they have a right to keep the name as it reflects the bank’s ethical values rather than its ownership structure. It boasts of giving money to charity when customers open an account or take out a mortgage, and releases an annual ethics report on how much good it has done.

But the bank is still struggling to recover from near-collapse in 2013 after a £1.5bn black hole was discovered in its accounts.

Reverend Paul Flowers, who quit as chairman due to the scandal, was caught several months later with drugs and rent boys and dubbed the Crystal Methodist.

The bank suffered an exodus of 25,000 current account holders in the first half of 2017, and had £ 400m of instant access savings cash withdrawn. It lost £135.2m.

The bank yesterday insisted it should be allowed to keep its present name.

Chairman Dennis Holt said: ‘Nothing changes under this recapitalisation proposal and our unique ethical policy will continue to be at the centre of the organisation.’