The Co-operative Group’s announcement of a significant loss resulting from its shareholding in the Co-operative Bank should not be a surprise to anyone who has been paying close attention to.. read more

Speculation has intensified over recent days about the future of The Co-operative Bank.  According to The Times and the Sunday Times, the bank may be forced to close, or sell.. read more

These are difficult times for energy co-ops and they are set to get significantly worse.  It is not just that the Financial Conduct Authority is taking a tough line on.. read more

The building society sector is in surprisingly good health, according to the just published KPMG Building Society Database 2014. Of the remaining 45 building societies, 35 have reported increased profits.. read more

Globalisation, I suggest, is bad news for co-operatives and other types of mutuals. By creating a massive single market, globalisation favours the giant corporations that have the capital base to.. read more

Just how many businesses are there that trade using the ‘co-operative’ branding, yet are not co-operatives? The situation has reached what some might call crisis point, and others might play.. read more

Just how crucial were the banks in driving the reform process at the Co-operative Group? Very, is the simple answer. The background to the Group’s debt owes more to the.. read more

Let me declare a prejudice from the outset: I don’t like payday lenders. I admit they are better than the traditional loan shark, who pushes money into the hands of.. read more

KPMG is one of the ‘Big Four’ accountancy firms and is growing again after a blip during the recession. Its global revenues last year were $23.42bn (about £14bn).   In.. read more

Most of us can agree, I hope, that by any reasonable definition the Co-operative Bank is no longer a co-operative. For the time being, though, it retains the name and.. read more

Various suggestions have been offered in recent weeks about what the Rochdale Pioneers might be doing if they were alive today. I believe their spirit is alive and well in.. read more

TSB is the part of the Lloyds Banking Group that the Co-operative Bank would have bought, had Project Verde not gone all wrong. Instead, Lloyds has listed TSB as a.. read more