The Co-op Bank refuses to accept this is an unethical practice and are in denial about the consequences of assisting this market to grow. Mind you, they also told me that they do not practice fractional reserve lending whereby they create money they do not have as credit to lend out as mortgages and loans (standard practice in the banking industry internationally unfortunately) but I have since found out from employees at the bank that they DO practice fractional reserve lending. The long-term consequences of this is to fuel inflation and especially property price inflation in more buoyant times.

Rather than “ethical” the best I’d describe the Co-op Bank as is the “lesser evil”. I really wish Triodos or the Ecology BS offered current accounts!

But this isn’t really the point. The point is: The banking division (not supermarkets) has an ethical policy which means your savings aren’t supporting arms dealing, sweatshops or animal testing (for example). I find this good and I don’t bank with other banks because they can’t promise this.