The Co-operative Bank has posted an annual loss of £610m, more than double the previous year as misconduct costs rose and the lender continued to shrink.
Losses ballooned last year compared with a statutory pre-tax loss of £264.2m in 2014 as income dropped after the sale of riskier assets in an attempt to return the bank to health.The bank took a hit from conduct charges, which increased over the year by £92.5m to £193.7m after it was forced to set aside further provisions for payment protection insurance mis-selling.
The Co-operative Bank was pulled from the brink of collapse in 2013 after a £1.5bn capital black hole was uncovered.
To argue, as the authorities belatedly did, that people who had the first clue about banking should be involved in the management of a bank is just neoliberal sophistry.
Yes but you don’t so much need to have a clue about banking as to be able to distinguish between right and wrong when it comes to mis-selling.
It can’t have helped having the Crystal Methodist running the place, of course, but turpitude as well as ineptitude were endemic.
“conduct charges” eh? Interesting the media have chosen to report on conduct of other banks (Libor, etc) and the Co-op goes unnoticed.
Anything to do with the 40 influential Labour MPs who stand on a dual Co-op Party ticket perhaps?
Damn. I was looking forward to a cushy second career as a banker. After all, no one knows less about banking than me. I was even willing to take up crystal meth.
Oh well. Back to the salt mines.
“After all, no one knows less about banking than me.”
Murphy?
At the higher levels of management in banking, you don’t have to much about banking, but you do have to be good at spotting and managing the bullshitters.
Banks can make money out of thin air. All the neoliberal sophists know this, though they deny it vociferously. The problem is that they give away too much money in bonuses, then they have the cheek to make a so-called loss just to avoid paying their fair share of corporation tax.
Andrew M, is that sarcasm or are you naturally just a dickhead.
I think neoliberal sophists is a heavy hint.
I say, steady on old chap… No one expects intelligent people to follow that dumbed down American practice of using /sarc and /murph tags?
Well they did also make a stand on Green stuff. They wanted to be ethical and there isn’t much money in being pious windbags.
Poe’s Law strikes again, Henry.
Henry, I think you have fallen in the water.
Does Henry not have form for this?
“Andrew M, is that sarcasm or are you naturally just a dickhead.”
Candidly expressed.
I don’t like this wet stuff
Glendorran, I have an extremely low fuckwit tolerance threshhold. One of the reasons I don’t go on Murphy’s blog at least since someone (Arnald?) blew Dr. Peter Venkman’s cover.
Henry, old sausage, calm down. Have a gorilla.
Try one of these monkeys, they’re milder.
Sorry, I think I may have inadvertently outed Dr. Venkman by quoting the famous “back off man…I’m a scientist” line. The fact that no one instantly didn’t recognize the non de plume on Prof.. Richie’s blog, struck me as supremely funny.