Net lending at the Co-operative slipped by £12m at the start of this year despite Santander, Nationwide, Lloyds and Barclays taking more than it from the government’s Funding for Lending scheme.
In the first three months of the year, the mutual took £900m from the FLS out of an industry total of £16.5bn. The FLS data revealed that tn the first three months of the year, Santander, Nationwide, Lloyds and Barclays took £1bn, £2.5bn, £3bn and £6bn out of the scheme respectively.
Co-op recently had to pull the plug on its plans to purchase 632 Lloyds branches following the downgrade of its credit rating to junk status by Moody’s. It abandoned the deal due to a difficult economic backdrop and increasing regulation.
Last week, the Co-operative Group appointed Niall Booker as bank chief executive and group deputy chief executive officer.
Mr Booker, who has held a variety of senior roles at HSBC in a career of more than 30 years, warned he would be able to provide no “quick fixes” to improve Co-op Bank’s fortunes.
