14 July, 2004

Ethical Performance

The first Co-operative Financial Services (CFS) Sustainability Report is now available at http://www.cfs.co.uk/sustainability2003

Building on the strong Social Accountability and Partnership reporting traditions of its core businesses - CIS (UK 'Best Social Report' 2003) and The Co-operative Bank (UK 'Best Sustainability Report' 2003) - the report provides a 'warts and all' account of how CFS seeks to deliver value to its partners in a socially responsible and ecologically sustainable manner, including:

* for the first time, details of CFS' public policy lobbying activity;
* an analysis of the bank's Ethical Policy implementation (GBP 7 million/USD 12.9m of income foregone in 2003 for ethical reasons);
* details of CIS' voting record at over 8,000 UK and overseas AGMs of companies in which it invests;
* an analysis of the bank's support for activities that benefit society (47% of deposits and 24% of lending balances are derived from business activities that have a distinct co-operative, ethical or sustainability purpose; and
* details of the bank's provision of loans/overdrafts to small businesses in deprived areas (10.4% advances compared to 3.3% industry average).

The lobbying initiative has the backing of leading environmental commentator Jonathon Porritt, who states: "The pressure is now on for companies to be much more transparent about the way they lobby government. There are lots of companies out there saying one thing in private, and another in their public reports and comments. This kind of greenwash stinks, and I hope all NGOs will combine forces to secure much greater public policy disclosure."

The web-based version of the report has been designed to comply with web accessibility standards.

Ethical Performance : http://www.ethicalperformance.com