Today’s post focuses on the news that the Co-operative Bank (the ‘Co-op’ bank) has had a £700 million rescue package approved by its members today. The bank, which has experienced a decline in its fortunes since the Financial Crisis, has presented this recent package as a viable method of stemming the bleeding that goes back to its merger with the Building Society, Britannia, in 2009. The obvious question is whether this latest attempt to halt the slide will be effective, or whether the associated 145-year history looks like it will be coming to an end in the not-too-distant future. As stated above, the co-op bank can trace its roots back to the Co-operative Wholesale Society of Manchester, which was established in 1872. However, this British institution as experienced dire times of late, and that is commonly traced back to 2009 when the company merged with Britannia, a large Building Society; the deal was heralded as the ‘ next step in the renaissance of the co-operative and m...