The Co-operative Bank holds 2023 AGM

The Co-operative Bank recently held its 2023 annual general meeting, where it announced the highlights for the financial year ended March 31, voted on a number of resolutions, and announced the results of the 2023 director election.

Sarah Haydon (pictured above left), The Co-operative Bank board chair, said the mutual bank has reported an $18.8 million in profit, contributed by an 8% growth in mortgages and 5% growth in customer deposits.

Some $2.5 million of The Co-operative Bank’s profits were forked out to customers in rebates in July, the bank’s third consecutive annual rebates payout, bringing the total amount of rebates since 2013 to $20 million.

Haydon also said that The Co-operative Bank continued to be in a strong capital position, was well-provisioned for future credit losses, and has a Fitch Credit rating of BBB with positive outlook.

Mark Wilkshire (pictured above left), the bank’s chief executive, highlighted the bank’s purpose and strategy during the AGM. Wilkshire talked about returning value to its customer-shareholders as well as supporting them through the rising rate environment – and with a new advice team available. He also spoke about the bank’s enhanced digital services and the key priorities for the year ahead.

A number of resolutions were passed during the meeting, with roughly 2,600 shareholders voting in person or by proxy. The resolutions are as follow:

• To receive and consider the annual report and audited financial statements for the year ended March 2023.
• To re-appoint KPMG as The Cooperative Bank’s external auditor for the year ending March 31, 2024 and authorise the board to fix its remuneration.
• To approve in accordance with the constitution a total remuneration pool of $630,000 (excluding GST) per annum with effect from the year ending March 21, 2024.
• To approve in accordance with the constitution a total electoral authority remuneration pool of $25,000 (excluding GST) per annum with effect from the year ending March 31, 2024.

Also announced during the AGM was the results of the 2023 director election, with existing directors Brett Sutton and Helen van Orton, who retired by rotation (as required by the bank’s constitution), re-appointed as directors.

Several questions from shareholders were answered by the chair and the chief executive during the AGM. The themes of the questions covered:

• Credit provision increases cover any possible future losses from economic conditions, noting actual losses have remained relatively low.
• Other services such as business banking and share trading are not in The Cooperative Bank’s plans given a clear focus on the personal banking market. Open banking is considered an opportunity for Cooperative as a challenger bank in the medium-term.
• Director fees were being set in line with independent recommendations and at the lower quartile benchmark of other organisations.

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