Membership
Despite its name, the Co-operative Bank is not itself a true co-operative as it is not owned directly by its members, but by a holding company which is a co-operative—it is wholly owned by Co-operative Banking Group, whose sole shareholder is the member-owned Co-operative Group. Its customers may, however, choose to become Co-operative Group members and hence indirectly acquire an ownership interest in the Bank, earning dividend on their account holdings and borrowing with the Bank.
Unlike other co-operative banks, such as the Dutch Rabobank, the Co-operative Bank does not have a federal structure of local banks, instead being a single national bank.
Read more about this topic: The Co-operative Bank
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)