The Co-operative Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to provide charity credit cards following last week's announcement by Lloyds Banking Group that it will stop providing them at the end of February.

Lloyds charity credit cards have provided over £450m to charities in the almost 25 years since they launched but the banking group said last week that there is simply not enough public demand for the cards, which account for just 1 per cent of all cards taken out with them.

The Co-operative, however has confirmed that it will not follow suit. Colin Welby, head of partnerships at the Co-operative Bank, said: "We remain committed to the charity credit card market.

“As a co-operative, our values are aligned to the charity sector and we plan to maintain our long-standing commitment to them, which goes beyond providing financial products.”

The Co-operative currently supports 12 charities through dedicated credit cards supporting the individual causes.

RSPB is one of the charities supported by Co-operative Bank. It receives £15 for every credit card taken out, a further £2.50 if the account is then used within six months and 25p for every £100 spent or transferred to the card.So far more than £8m has been raised for the bird protection charity through the scheme.

The same level of donations are received across all of the Co-operative charity credit cards. The other charities supported are Amnesty International, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Tearfund, Oxfam, RSPB, Save the Children, Shelter, WaterAid and Woodland Trust.