CO-OPERATIVE BANK AND CIS TO FILL 500 SERVICE CENTRE JOBS IN UK

Embargoed until 00.01 hours, Thursday 5 February 2004 CO-OPERATIVE BANK AND CIS TO FILL 500 SERVICE CENTRE JOBS IN UK At a time when thousands of UK call centre jobs are being lost on an almost weekly basis, The Co-operative Bank and Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) today (5 February 2004) announced that they will be recruiting over the next 12 months to fill 500 service centre jobs in North-West England. The Bank and CIS, which are now part of Co-operative Financial Services, employ some 2,000 staff at seven service centres at various locations across North-West England. The recruitment will take place for positions in Manchester, Skelmersdale and the famous Pyramid at Stockport. Sheila Macdonald, Chief Operating Officer at The Co-operative Bank, said: "I believe passionately that when a customer contacts us, by whatever means, they should be dealing with one of our own staff, trained and managed by us and with a dedicated focus on our customers' needs and our products and services. So whilst others are happy to use call centres in India and other overseas locations, we do not intend to. "In independent surveys, The Co-operative Bank is consistently rated as among the very best for customer satisfaction, and we firmly believe that staff are key to delivering the quality of service our customers have come to expect." For further information contact: 5 February 2004 Dave Smith/Paul Lawler Co-operative Financial Services Press Office Tel: 0161 829 5397/5091 Fax: 0161 829 4590 e-mail : DaveA.Smith@co-operativefinancialservices.co.uk ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/02/04/20040204BIT00740/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2004/02/04/20040204BIT00740/wkr0002.pdf