The Co-op Bank has announced its results for 2014. The bank lost money but much less than in 2013.
The Guardian (see link) focuses on the retention of Niall Booker and the possible pay package and quotes Peter Hunt of Mutuo who calls the package 'unethical'.
The bank gave Save Our Bank this statement:
"In summary, the Bank is stronger than it was a year ago. In 2014, we
strengthened our capital position through the £400 million of capital
raised last May and the £313 million final contribution from the Co
operative Group. We’ve also written back some of the previous credit
impairment provisions on Non-core assets and speeded up the deleveraging of
these assets."
The following statement was given to the media:
Key Points:
Operating loss of £55.3m in 2014 (£662.0m in 2013) is a significant
improvement due to reduced impairments partially offset by reduced
income from lower assets and high project costs.
Statutory loss before tax of £264.2m in 2014 considerably better than
2013 (£632.8m loss including LME gain of £688.3m).
Capital position of the Bank strengthened following the capital raising
and the capital injection from The Co-operative Group – Common Equity
Tier 1 (CET1) of 13.0% at the end of 2014 (7.2% at the end of 2013).
Total operating costs down to £594.6m for 2014 (£655.9m in 2013).
Increase in project costs to £226.5m (£164.7m in 2013) due to the need
to invest in systems, processes and platform.
Performance of the Core Bank stabilised in the second half of 2014 – the
number of primary current accounts stabilised and the mortgage pipeline
is improved when compared to the early part of 2014.
Total conduct and legal related charges, including PPI, £101.2m down
from £411.5m in 2013.
Non-core customer assets reduced to £10.3bn from £12.5bn at the end of
2013 (ahead of year-end target 2014 of £11.0bn) and resulting in a
reduction of £1.4bn of Risk Weighted Assets (RWAs).
Revised plan, as announced at time of Bank of England stress tests and
accepted by the regulator, designed to deliver a business which can
withstand a severe economic stress by 2019.
Strategy remains unchanged – the only material development is the
significant acceleration in the reduction of RWAs.
Focus for management in 2015 continues to be the turnaround of the Bank,
making it more resilient and implementing the revised plan accepted by
the PRA in December with a view to building a profitable bank focussed
on retail and SME customers over the longer term.
Reinvestment in the brand commenced in the second half of 2014, with a
new advertising campaign continuing in 2015.
Expanded Ethical Policy launched in January 2015, based on views of over
74,000 customers and colleagues in the Ethical Poll last June, will
provide a guide to the way the Bank is run including its products and
services.
In addition we have also announced, today, that the Board of the Bank has
agreed an employment contract to retain the services of Chief Executive
Niall Booker until 31 December 2016. Please refer to the separate RNS
announcement of 27 March 2015 for further details.
Further to the RNS announcement of 16 December 2014, The Co-operative Bank
is considering various strategies to reduce its risk exposure to its
Non-core residential mortgage portfolio (Optimum); these include the
structuring of residential mortgage backed securities (‘RMBS’) focused on
the sale of notes across the capital structure
Chief Executive Niall Booker said:
“Over the course of 2014 the management team has continued to take
significant steps to implement the strategy and to turn the Bank around.
The Co-operative Bank is stronger than a year ago and we end the year with
a strengthened capital position, ahead of schedule in the reduction of
Non-core assets and having made progress reducing underlying costs and
improving the day-to-day management and governance. However, we are in the
early stages of the turnaround and there is still much to do to transform
the organisation into a sustainable business. There are a number of matters
where the Bank does not yet meet FCA and PRA regulatory requirements and
expectations. The revised plan, accepted by the regulators, seeks to
address this.
Improving the resilience of the Bank remains key to delivering our revised
plan. This will be primarily achieved through the further reduction of our
Risk Weighted Assets and by improving the resilience of our IT
infrastructure. These actions will continue to build a stronger and better
business for all our stakeholders and are critical to providing the
platform to focus on what matters to our customers. In the second half of
2014 we began to invest in the brand, to more actively market our products
and also made a significant investment in our digital offering. The
performance of the Core Bank has begun to stabilise, and we aim to build on
this in 2015 by continuing to invest in our brand and developing our
products guided by our expanded Ethical Policy.
We have always been clear that the journey to reshape the business would
take time but I am confident that our approach to banking is as relevant in
today’s world as it ever was, and that we remain the bank of choice for
anyone who shares the values and ethics which lie at the heart of our
business.”
info@saveourbank.coop
@SaveOurBank
@saveourbank
