ETHICAL Co-op Bank customers had further cause to fret yesterday as its boss’s latest scheme threatened to hand the firm outright to City profiteers.

Shareholders and customers were promised “a very solid future” in May of last year when then-chief executive Euan Sutherland announced an unprecedented entry into the stock market in order to plug a £1.5bn deficit.

But nearly a year on, the 142-year-old institution could be about to lose its ethical investment statutes entirely under the terms of a further £400m share drive.