News / The Co-operative Bank comes to Shetland
THE LERWICK branch of Lloyds TSB Bank will become part of the Cooperative Bank from November 2013.
The Shetland branch on Lerwick’s Esplanade is being sold as part of a £750 million deal that will see 632 branches nationwide transferred to the Co-operative, known for its ethical banking practices.
The local branch employs around 10 people, all of whom will be transferred as part of the deal along with the bank’s customers.
As soon as the deal is finalised the branch will be rebranded as TSB along with the rest of the branches around the country. From November 2013 the Co-operative will add its name, but it is likely to take a few years for the bank to be known solely as the Co-operative Bank.
The sale was forced through by the European Union after the government bailed out Lloyds TSB with £20 billion of taxpayers’ money. It is a complicated arrangement with Lloyds TSB underwriting the purchase.
The Cooperative will now become the sixth biggest bank in the UK with around 1,000 branches. Its presence in Scotland will rocket from four branches to 189.
Vic Thomas, an elected member of the Cooperative’s north of Scotland/islands committee said the move was a great thing.
“They are taking a number of branches out of the hands of a rotten bank that’s not been looking after the interests of its customers or the country and putting them into the hands of the Cooperative Bank, which has a marvellous track record of good practice and ethical banking,” Mr Thomas said.
“I have been with the Co-op for nearly 30 years and I have never had one bad thing to say about them.
“It’s not just the way they treat their customers, but those customers have a role in decision making about where to invest money.
“For example the Co-op doesn’t invest in the desecration of land and the displacement of people, or land mines and armaments – things which the other high street banks are all involved in.”
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