smile.co.uk

Type	Business of a consumer co-operative
Founded	1999
Headquarters	Stockport, Greater Manchester, England
Key people	Neville Richardson, Chief Executive Co-operative Financial Services
Industry	Banking
Products	Retail banking
Website	smile.co.uk

Smile, or smile.co.uk, is a British internet bank, and a trading division of The Co-operative Bank. It was established as the UK's first full internet bank in 1999. Other banks, like Egg and First-e, had opened in previous years but Smile was the first to offer full-service current accounts, savings, ISAs, investments and credit cards. The bank's principal offices are located in the King's Valley Pyramid building in Stockport.

The bank's offices

The Co-operative Bank is a subsidiary of The Co-operative Group, a consumer co-operative. Member customers of the Co-operative Group own the business and elect members of regional committees and directors from among their number. They receive a regular dividend payment related to their use of Smile accounts.

The Co-operative Bank operates an ethical banking policy, screening potential business customers against its standards, such as links with tobacco, the arms trade, and animal testing of cosmetics. Since 2001, the bank has consulted Smile customers in its regular reviews of this policy. The Co-operative Bank turned away £10 million of business because of their ethical policy during 2005.^[1]

Smile was the first UK online bank to be accredited with the ISO27001 Information Security certification.^[2] It has received several industry and consumer and ethical awards.^[3]

[edit] See also

• Co-operative Bank
• Co-operative Financial Services
• The Co-operative Group

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• smile.co.uk