Britannia

Rewarding members

Membership

• Member democracy
• Sharing the profits
• Member communities
• Membership events
• Member benefits

Membership will continue to be a rewarding experience

If you already benefit from the Britannia Membership Reward scheme, you may wonder how the merger will affect your future rewards. There’s no need to worry.

Both Britannia and The Co-operative Group have a proud history of sharing profits with their members. It’s one of the benefits of being owned by our members and this won’t change. You will however need to be a member of The Co-operative Group to enjoy a share of the profits payment.

The Britannia Membership Reward scheme

The Britannia Membership Reward (BMR) scheme will continue as normal until 31 December 2009, with the final reward payment under the scheme being paid to eligible members by the end of March 2010.

From 1 January 2010, all members of The Co-operative Group will begin earning points on their eligible Britannia accounts under The Co-operative Membership. Members will receive their first share of the profits payment for these products, for the first half of the year (January to June 2010) in November 2010*.

* Subject to meeting the £2 threshold for the share of the profits payment.

Membership of The Co-operative Group

Membership of The Co-operative Group has been offered automatically to all former Britannia members that were eligible to vote at the Annual General Meeting and all former members over the age of 16 who received a payment in 2009 under the Britannia Membership Reward scheme. Normally, membership of The Co-operative Group requires a nominal £1 membership fee, but this will be paid for those who are offered automatic transfer to The Co-operative Membership.

These members had the right to opt-out of membership of The Co-operative Group. Details of how this could have been done were sent these members during June 2009.

We also wrote to all other Britannia customers, who are currently over 16 years of age and that didn’t qualify for automatic transfer, to give them the opportunity to join The Co-operative Membership following the merger. However, as they are not eligible for automatic transfer, they will be required to make the £1 payment should they wish to join and this will be deducted from their first share of the profits payment.

Currently, under 16s cannot legally become members of The Co-operative Group, under the rules of the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965. This law may be reviewed and if it changes and The Co-operative Group subsequently alters the terms and conditions of its membership, those Britannia members who are under 16 will be able to become members of The Co-operative Group.

If the law isn’t changed, The Co-operative Group will invite all former Britannia members who are under 16 to become a member in the year that they have their 16th birthday. The usual £1 joining fee will be paid for them, as long as they have remained a customer of The Co-operative Bank continuously since 1 August 2009.

For those Britannia customers aged under 16 and who currently receive BMR, until they can become a member, we have made a commitment that we will adjust rewards to seek to ensure that they are no worse off than they would have been had no merger taken place. We are currently working on the mechanism to put these arrangements in place and we’ve made a commitment to keep these Britannia customers fully informed.

Benefits of The Co-operative Membership

Quite simply, members will have the opportunity to enjoy more member rewards.

Unlike the current Britannia Membership Reward scheme, The Co-operative Group's share of the profits payment:

• Is paid twice a year
• There is no limit on the amount of points you can earn
• There is no minimum account balance on which you can earn points
• There is no qualifying period.

You could even earn greater member rewards through the broader range of products offered by the combined businesses. This means earning rewards on a wider choice of banking, savings, insurance and mortgage products.

And membership of The Co-operative Group means you could earn rewards on financial services, food, pharmacy, travel, funeralcare, legal services and electrical.

The rewards that you receive will be based on the financial products that you hold, the performance of The Co-operative Financial Services and how much you have spent across the businesses owned by The Co-operative Group (so there’s even more opportunity to earn compared to the Britannia Membership Reward scheme alone). Currently, membership points are paid to members in vouchers which can be redeemed for goods or cash in most of The Co-operative Group outlets. Members can also choose to receive their payment paid directly into their bank or savings account.

There are some differences between the Britannia Membership Reward scheme and The Co-operative Membership. Whilst some existing Britannia members who currently receive BMR could earn a higher share of the profits payment as a member of The Co-operative Group, some members could earn fewer points on their eligible Britannia accounts. We will calculate what you would have earned under BMR had the merger not taken place and compare this with what you will earn on your Britannia accounts under Co-operative Membership. If it is determined that under Co-operative Membership you will be worse off, we’ll seek to adjust your share of the profits payment. Any adjustment to your reward is subject to an annual review by The Board of The Co-operative Financial Services. Further details on how this adjustment will work will be made available nearer to the time of The Co-operative Membership payment.