The Co-operative Bank last year turned away almost £100 million of business for ethical reasons.
The bank said on a national level it provided an additional £800 million worth of commercial loans to UK businesses total lending to £8.3 billion.
But it passed up on several chances to lend for ethical and environmental reasons, including 20 finance opportunities which conflicted with the bank’s ethical criteria on human rights and the arms trade 16 companies which breached its guidelines on environmental impact, for example through supporting oil and gas extraction, and four which breached its animal welfare policies.
Steven Pamely, senior corporate manager at the Birmingham Corporate Banking Centre of The Co-operative Bank, said: “These figures clearly demonstrate that there has been no relaxation in the implementation of the bank’s ethical policy and we continue to turn business away that conflicts with our customers’ concerns.
“Despite these actions, the bank’s corporate business goes from strength to strength with a growing proportion of corporate customers coming from sectors that make a positive contribution to society.
“The value of this policy was underlined by the flight to trust we witnessed following the credit crunch, leading to a 38 per cent increase in new current accounts opened.”
The bank revised its ethical policy in 2009 after a record 80,000 customers responded to a detailed questionnaire inviting account holders to express their views on topics as wide ranging as human rights, international development, ecology and animal welfare
