Caustic Co-operative reports set to see managers slammed

Co-operative Group will be rocked this week by the publication of two scathing reviews into the collapse of its banking arm and the governance failings at the wider group.

city and business, business, co-op, co-operative, coop, bank, report, management, takeoverTwo reviews set for publication this week will slam the Co-op's governance[GETTY]

Bosses at the Co-operative Bank and its former parent will be slammed by the reports, from former senior civil servant Sir Christopher Kelly and Lord Myners, an ex-City minister. Co-op Group had to surrender control of the bank as part of the lender’s £1.5 billion bailout by its creditors last year.

The Kelly review will blame the near demise of Co-op Bank on a handful of the mutual’s senior executives, as well as its disastrous 2008 takeover of Britannia Building Society and the ­acquisition of the Somerfield super­market chain a year later.

Myners’ review of the governance failings at Co-op Group is expected to be released days after Kelly’s.

It will say that the mutual’s byzantine organisational structure and convoluted governance processes have resulted in scores of individual fiefdoms being established by unaccountable Co-op managers, as well as unqualified ­people being appointed to senior positions solely based on their length of ­service or political connections.

The report will also highlight the mistakes made such as the “breath­takingly value destructive” Somerfield and Britannia deals.

Would you like to receive news notifications from Daily Express?