Jim Armitage: ‘Vultures’ co-operate in Co-op Bank deal

Back in 2013, when the Co-op Bank was on the brink of collapse, nobody would come to its aid. Not the Big Four high street banks, not those friendly challenger banks, not our pension funds.

Nope, in order to pull off this first ever bail-in of a UK bank, it was left to a bunch of evil US vulture funds to do the honours.

Liberal Co-op types assumed they would find some devious way to strip the carcass clean, making themselves billions in the process, before heading off into a Wall Street sunset.

It hasn’t quite turned out that way. As the bank’s prospects have worsened, the vultures are still there. And, as it faces another crisis, yet again Britain’s other lenders have refused to help.

In the end, it’s those same evil Wall Streeters who are stepping in to fund the rescue.

Sure, they’re not doing it for love: having already invested so heavily, it makes sense to pump in a few hundred million more to keep it going. Good Samaritans, they ain’t.

But you can’t deny the Co-op Bank, the one significant lender offering a real ethical alternative to British consumers, would have been long dead without them.