Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Bank of New York and the New York State Comptroller will be among the companies that will have a stake in the bank that is due to open in Rochester, New York on Wednesday.
The partnership will bring together two of the biggest financial institutions in the country to make it easier for customers to keep their money in their local banks and in the financial markets around the world.
Cooperatives are often seen as a way for the public to have a say in the banking industry, but in the past two years they have become a major source of controversy, and in many cases, political influence.
They also have attracted attention in recent years for the way they operate, with some banks trying to control how they operate by using “shadow banking” to control certain activities, including whether they have a legal obligation to pay workers, what the government can and cannot require them to do and the types of customer services they can offer.
In the past, co-ops have also faced regulatory scrutiny.
Last year, the New Jersey legislature passed a bill to ban the bank from creating a new subsidiary, as it was seen as too closely tied to the government.
It was later overturned in court.
In 2018, the state’s banking regulators launched a “shadow bank” investigation into the co-op’s business practices, and later that year, a court ordered the bank to pay $100m in fines.
Co-ops were also banned from taking on more than $1bn in direct customer deposits, a measure that was aimed at the bank’s business model of using its retail arm to provide banking services to consumers and to other businesses.
The banks then sued the state and the regulators, accusing them of trying to take control of the coop.
The bank has since been given permission to expand into other markets.