Ethos Public Relations Manchester

Co-operatives UK warmly welcomes Move Your Money – ‘the campaign for our times’

by Ethos public relations

Co-operatives UK, the trade association for co-operative enterprises, applauds today’s launch of Move Your Money – a new campaign encouraging individuals to switch to a more ethical bank.

Based on a similar campaign in the United States, the UK campaign aims to encourage people to move their current and savings accounts to fairer and more local forms of bank – specifically credit unions, building societies and The Co-operative Bank.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said: "We have co-operative and mutual options for current accounts and savings right across the UK and every pound is reinvested for good rather than for bad. At an individual level, you can't do everything to put an unfair economy right - but you can do something. Move Your Money is the new fair trade. It is THE campaign for our times."

Key facts on co-operative and mutual money are:

The demutualisation of some building societies from the late 1980s withdrew around 70% of assets from mutual building society and insurance sectors.

Since then, co-operative and mutual models have grown rapidly, focusing on a mix of meeting needs not met by mainstream banks, value for money and social responsibility.

Across Great Britain, there are now 465 credit unions that serve 870,000 members. £600 million is saved in credit unions. Building societies have £220 billion of UK savings.

Since the credit crunch, The Co-operative Bank has been named by the Financial Times as the world's most sustainable bank, while Nationwide Building Society has been listed by Global Finance Magazine as one of the world's safest financial institutions.

The UK Move Your Money campaign can aim to achieve the success of co-operatives on the continent. In the Netherlands, half the population is with the highly successful co-operative Rabobank, while in Germany co-operative banks have 30 million members.

Overall, European co-operative banks have 20% of the market.

To read other news from Co-operatives UK click here.

Posted at 31^st January 2012