no, but probably safe to surmise that it’s the same back end team setting up the co op and smile accounts?
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Thanks for reporting back in.
I think you’re probably right in assuming the same teams are involved with the Coop Bank applications.
With the Coop I needed a joint mandate when I opened mine, so I sped it up at the branch I used to work above. Used to be handy tbh, now I don’t work there, so isn’t so much.
Do you get all the post office benefits being with smile?
Yeah, it works just like a co-op card in the post office and in co-op branches.
Sounds a bit like last chance for the co-op. If Coventry walk away, I don’t know that they’ll survive.
Even with that, the co-op seem to think it’s a merger. It’s not. It’s a takeover bid.
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Why? They’re profitable:
The owners have been quite clear about their intention to stabilise and flip the Co-op Bank. None of what’s happening is surprising in that context. If the Coventry deal falls through, they’ll talk to other bidders. If no deal is possible, they’ll just go back in to ‘holding pattern’ mode.
It sometimes feels more like ‘circling the drain’ mode.
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It’s the same whirlwind all businesses spin around in. So long as you do enough to keep up momentum, all is good. The Co-op Bank’s recent financial performance does not suggest an organisation in any immediate peril.
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Wonder if they’ll dust off the Coventry First software and run with that or if they’ll use the co-op software for the accounts?
Does make their decision to pull out of current accounts only a few years back seem a bit daft now
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Hindsight is a wonderful thing; that said there is little evidence that their old platform is fit for purpose or is even easily scalable.
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I don’t think CF had an app and Coventry only recently released one. That does cover the present day versions of the CF account, but only with cash cards (fully operational for DD etc. though).
Might be that the debit card processing code is still behind the scenes, just not enabled anymore. They only dropped the debit cards two or three years back.
It was in 2019.
I’m guessing Steve Hughes must have pushed this through from start to finish because before he came on board The Coventry was absolutely adamant that current accounts were not the way forward for them,citing EVERY reason under the sun.I was a member of their online forum group during this period & I remember stating at the time that it was very shortsighted of Coventry Building Society to ditch current accounts & that they would come to regret it in year’s to come…well here we are!! Changing the subject slightly I was advised (through their online forum from a Coventry member of staff) that Coventry First current account was ultimately run via HSBC but that Coventry had a big input also.Im guessing that Coventry wants to become a much smaller version of the Nationwide…it seems quite feasible to me!!
Yeah, HSBC is where their sort codes come from. I’d say that will likely mean a move to the co-op sort codes and processing i.e. bringing it in-house.
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Just like the Yorkshire in fact. At least Coventry retained the ATM and overseas access whereas Yorkshire killed off two rather good (for their time) current accounts and ditched even ATM cards.
Agreed… Yes it will be interesting to see how this plays out for the Coventry,will it be a TOTAL re- brand in due course (obliterating the Co-Operative branding in its entirety) I believe the Co-Operative Bank still is one of the original ‘clearing’ banks although I guess this has now become less of a status symbol.Will Yorkshire Building Society now feel that maybe they too made a mistake
in dropping current accounts & should perhaps diversify or will they remain happily as they are?
My money would be on a full rebrand. They probably can’t stick with using Co-op long term as that’s an agreement with the actual co-op and I think it had an expiry date. Not sure if they’ll stick with Coventry or move to something new.
I said at the time that I believe Yorkshire will either wither away or be taken over if they dropped the ATM cards. Basically they’re just an internet bank for most people now and there’s an awful lot of competition in that arena now. I think that’s more why Coventry and Nationwide are diversifying. Yorkshire will have to as well I think, but they’re leaving it rather late. They’d need to take over TSB or maybe the Cumberland to get back into banking.
Ahh yes,I think you’re right…I’d forgotten about that agreement with the Cooperative group & of course that agreement wouldn’t be with the Coventry & so full re- brand would make more sense.I wonder if YBS did want to grow in a similar way to Coventry or Nationwide rather than takeover another bank or building society with current accounts (& other products) I wonder if they would just start from scratch & create their own current accounts.Id be very surprised if the Cumberland would be open to takeover as they are unbelievable entrenched in their “operating area” …I have my main current account with them & although it’s a bit ‘clunky’ it is surprisingly good (very cheap overdraft facility at 14.9% & no fees for using debit cards abroad…and they were doing all this way before Starling,First Direct etc etc!) .
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Of course, Norwich & Peterborough were doing all that before Yorkshire pulled the plug. Can’t see them restarting from scratch unless they went via a banking engine although I think they’d find the change in direction difficult to justify.
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