smile Credit Rating
smile is not a bank in its own right: it is a trading name of The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. (FCA firm reference 121885), part of Coventry Building Society. Credit rating agencies rate the licence holder, not the brand, so smile has no rating of its own. The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. currently holds a blended long-term credit rating of A, which is investment grade; that is the rating shown on this page. smile was launched by The Co-operative Bank in 1999 as an internet bank and is still one of its trading names, but it no longer accepts new applications. The Co-operative Bank has been owned by Coventry Building Society since 2025; until the planned transfer of its business into the Society (expected 1 January 2027, subject to the court), smile and Co-op Bank deposits share one limit that is separate from Coventry's. A credit rating is an opinion on an institution's ability to meet its obligations, not a guarantee, and it is separate from deposit protection.
Co-operative Bank plc
FCA: 121885
24 October 2026
1872
Co-operative Bank credit ratings by agency
| Agency | Long-term rating | Outlook | Last confirmed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fitch Ratings | A+ | — | 14 Jul 2026 |
| Moody's | A3 | Stable | 10 Jul 2026 |
Rating History Chart
Rating History
| Date | Rating | Agencies |
|---|---|---|
10 Jul 2026 |
Moody's, Fitch | |
15 Jun 2019 |
Fitch | |
15 Sep 2017 |
Fitch | |
15 Jan 2016 |
Fitch |
Service record: complaints, incidents and customer survey
Complaints: in the FCA's 2025 H1 file (January 2025 to June 2025), Co-operative Bank received 9,034 banking and credit-card complaints, 2.62 per 1,000 accounts. The bank upheld 68% of those it closed and closed 72% within three days. The previous period was 3.00 per 1,000, so complaints fell. Compare all banks.
Latest News
Is smile safe? What the record shows
smile is a trading name of Co-operative Bank plc, so the record that matters is that bank's. Each statement below is taken from the source named beneath it, last checked 15 October 2026. It is information, not advice.
Banking licence
The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. (FCA firm reference 121885, company number 990937, registered in Manchester) is a PRA-authorised bank on the Bank of England's October 2026 list of UK banks. smile is a trading name of the same company. It has no connection with the Co-operative Group beyond its name: the Group's stake fell to about 1% in the 2017 rescue.
Source: Bank of England: which firms does the PRA regulate, 1 Oct 2026Ownership and funding
Coventry Building Society acquired the entire share capital of The Co-operative Bank Holdings on 1 January 2025 for a cash consideration of £780 million, of which up to £125 million was deferred for three years subject to performance (booked at £745 million). The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society, which is a member-owned mutual. Between 2013 and 2024 it was owned by US hedge funds, which took control after a £1.5 billion capital shortfall was found in 2013 and put in a further £700 million rescue in 2017.
Source: Joint statement: completion of the acquisition of The Co-operative Bank Holdings by Coventry Building Society, 1 Jan 2025Coventry plans to transfer the bank's assets and liabilities into the Society under a Part VII banking business transfer and bring eligible customers into membership. A court hearing to approve the transfer is listed for 2 December 2026 and, if approved, the transfer is expected to take effect on 1 January 2027, after which the bank would no longer be a separately licensed institution.
Source: The Co-operative Bank: Coventry Building Society transfer, 15 Oct 2026Size
At 31 December 2025 the bank had £20.8 billion of customer deposits (up 4.4% in the year), £20.3 billion of loans to customers and total assets of £25.0 billion. Its last published customer count was about 2.4 million retail customers and around 96,000 small businesses (March 2025). Within the Coventry group at 30 June 2026 the bank sub-group had total assets of £23.6 billion.
Source: The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 (Companies House), 31 Dec 2025Profitability
The bank made a statutory profit before tax of £53.3 million in 2025 (underlying £101.1 million, after £47.8 million of one-off acquisition and integration costs), £72.9 million in 2024 and £71.4 million in 2023 (after £29.3 million of remediation and redress costs that year). For the half year to 30 June 2026 the bank sub-group reported a profit before tax of £53 million, up from £25 million a year earlier.
Source: The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 (Companies House), 31 Dec 2025Capital strength
At 30 June 2026 The Co-operative Bank p.l.c.'s Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio was 19.3% (31 December 2025: 18.9%), its total capital ratio 23.3% and its leverage ratio 4.6%, on £968 million of CET1 capital and £5.0 billion of risk-weighted assets. Its owner Coventry Building Society reported a group CET1 ratio of 19.6% at the same date.
Source: The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. Pillar 3 disclosures, June 2026, 30 Jun 2026Regulatory record since 2020
No FCA or PRA fine or enforcement notice against The Co-operative Bank dated after 1 January 2020 was found. The FCA's public censure (August 2015) and the PRA's public censure (February 2016) over the bank's 2009 to 2013 failings predate that period. In August 2023 the Competition and Markets Authority recorded that the bank had failed to keep service-quality information on its website up to date for seven weeks in 2022 and reported it late; no penalty was imposed.
Source: CMA: action against The Co-operative Bank for breaching the Retail Banking Order, 15 Aug 2023Credit ratings
Moody's rates The Co-operative Bank's long-term deposits A3 with a stable outlook, having upgraded them from Baa3 on 18 December 2024 when regulators approved the Coventry acquisition; the bank's standalone baseline credit assessment is baa1, which benefits from assumed support from Coventry. Fitch upgraded the bank from BB+ to BBB+ in January 2025, withdrew its ratings in March 2025 for commercial reasons, then assigned a new A+ long-term issuer default rating with a stable outlook in July 2026, in line with Coventry's; the bank's investor relations page still showed Fitch A+ stable (dated July 2026) and Moody's A3 stable (dated December 2025) on 15 October 2026. S&P does not rate the bank.
Source: The Co-operative Bank investor relations: credit ratings, 15 Oct 2026Deposit protection
Eligible deposits with The Co-operative Bank p.l.c., including smile accounts, are added together and protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per depositor. Until the planned transfer, the bank and Coventry Building Society operate under separate licences, so a customer can have £120,000 protected with each. After the transfer a single £120,000 limit would apply to combined deposits with the bank, smile and the Society; the bank has said customers with both will get a three-month penalty-free window to move money once the court approves the transfer.
Source: The Co-operative Bank: customer letter on the Coventry Building Society transfer, 24 Aug 2026Operational incidents
In July 2020 smile's online and mobile banking were unavailable for several days, affecting around 40,000 daily users, with access restored on 11 July. A mobile app login fault was fixed late on 2 April 2023. On 21 and 22 September 2026, after planned weekend work on its digital systems, business online banking was unavailable for most of a day and payments could not be sent, according to a business customer's account and the bank's own service-status page. No data breach since 2020 was found.
Source: Which?: smile digital banking outage, 13 Jul 2020Frequently asked questions about smile
Is smile safe?
smile operates under The Co-operative Bank p.l.c.'s banking licence, and The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. holds a blended long-term credit rating of A, which is investment grade. A rating is an independent opinion on the institution's ability to meet its obligations; it is not a guarantee and can change. Separately, eligible deposits with UK-authorised banks and building societies are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000 per person per banking licence. This page is information about published credit ratings, not financial advice.
What is smile's credit rating?
smile has no rating of its own. Its licence holder, The Co-operative Bank p.l.c., has a blended long-term credit rating of A from Moody's, Fitch; the per-agency figures are shown above.
Which bank is smile part of?
smile is a trading name of The Co-operative Bank p.l.c., FCA firm reference 121885, part of Coventry Building Society. smile was launched by The Co-operative Bank in 1999 as an internet bank and is still one of its trading names, but it no longer accepts new applications. The Co-operative Bank has been owned by Coventry Building Society since 2025; until the planned transfer of its business into the Society (expected 1 January 2027, subject to the court), smile and Co-op Bank deposits share one limit that is separate from Coventry's.
Does smile share an FSCS limit with The Co-operative Bank?
Yes. smile and The Co-operative Bank all sit under The Co-operative Bank p.l.c.'s licence, so money held across them counts towards one £120,000 limit per person, not one limit each.
Does smile share a licence with Coventry Building Society?
No. Coventry Building Society is separately licensed even though it is in the same group, so deposits there have their own £120,000 limit, separate from smile's.
Is the Co-operative Bank a real bank?
The Co-operative Bank p.l.c. (FCA firm reference 121885, company number 990937, registered in Manchester) is a PRA-authorised bank on the Bank of England's October 2026 list of UK banks. smile is a trading name of the same company. It has no connection with the Co-operative Group beyond its name: the Group's stake fell to about 1% in the 2017 rescue.
Is the Co-operative Bank profitable?
The bank made a statutory profit before tax of £53.3 million in 2025 (underlying £101.1 million, after £47.8 million of one-off acquisition and integration costs), £72.9 million in 2024 and £71.4 million in 2023 (after £29.3 million of remediation and redress costs that year). For the half year to 30 June 2026 the bank sub-group reported a profit before tax of £53 million, up from £25 million a year earlier.
Has the Co-operative Bank been fined by the FCA?
No FCA or PRA fine or enforcement notice against The Co-operative Bank dated after 1 January 2020 was found. The FCA's public censure (August 2015) and the PRA's public censure (February 2016) over the bank's 2009 to 2013 failings predate that period. In August 2023 the Competition and Markets Authority recorded that the bank had failed to keep service-quality information on its website up to date for seven weeks in 2022 and reported it late; no penalty was imposed.
Who owns the Co-operative Bank?
Coventry Building Society acquired the entire share capital of The Co-operative Bank Holdings on 1 January 2025 for a cash consideration of £780 million, of which up to £125 million was deferred for three years subject to performance (booked at £745 million). The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society, which is a member-owned mutual. Between 2013 and 2024 it was owned by US hedge funds, which took control after a £1.5 billion capital shortfall was found in 2013 and put in a further £700 million rescue in 2017.