Former Co-operative Bank chiefs fined and barred as PRA deems them an 'unacceptable threat'

Two former senior bosses at the Co-op Bank have been fined and barred from ever working for a bank again for their roles in its near-collapse in 2013, saying they posed an “unacceptable threat” to the safety of the business.

Barry Tootell, who was first finance director and then chief executive of the bank between January 2009 and late 2013, has been fined £173,802 by the Prudential Regulation Authority.

His former colleague Keith Alderson, then managing director of Co-op Bank’s Corporate and Business Banking division, has been fined £88,890.

Both have been barred from working for PRA-authorised firms in any significant role.

The fines are the first the PRA has imposed on individuals and follow its censure of Co-op Bank, which needed a £1.5 billion bailout, last August.

The PRA said that Tootell had been “centrally involved in a culture which encouraged prioritising the short-term financial position of the firm at the cost of taking prudent and sustainable actions to secure the firm’s longer-term capital position.”

The regulator’s head Andrew Bailey said: “The actions of Tootell and Alderson posed an unacceptable threat to the safety and soundness of the Co-op Bank, which is why we have decided a prohibition is appropriate in these cases.”