The Co-operative is set to offer legal services in all of its UK bank branches after being granted its alternative business structure (ABS) licence yesterday (28 March).

The Co-op's legal arm, Co-operative Legal Services (CLS), has since last year been piloting a scheme to provide legal services in 30 bank branches, offering advice on wills, estate planning, probate and bereavement and funeral plans, and will now roll it out across the UK.

The move, announced today (29 March) in the Co-operative Group's annual report, cements expectations that the reforms ushered in by the Legal Services Act are set to significantly shake up the high street legal market, with the Co-op now able to target 5.5 million existing Co-operative Bank and Britannia customers in almost 350 branches.

The Co-op is in line to expand further and has been holding talks with Lloyds Banking Group over the potential purchase of 632 of its branches.

According to the annual results, CLS operating revenues rose 15% in 2011 from £3.9m to £4.5m, and the business has around 500 staff. It is now expected to heavily expand, with the newly awarded ABS licence handing it the green light to provide all forms of legal services, including those that previously only lawyer-owned firms could provide.

It said: "The pilot has shown the value of collaboration across Co-operative businesses and will now be rolled out nationwide, while the service proposition will be enhanced to further customer needs and provide them with broader benefits from Co-operative services."

"[The] strategy, in the wake of the deregulation of the legal services market, is to provide consistent, competitive legal advice to the ordinary person, backed by our scale, reputation, systems, service standards and training."

"We aim to provide Co-operative members and customers with accessible, high-quality legal advice and services at a competitive price, challenging the legal 'postcode lottery'.

CLS, first launched in 2006, became one of the first three businesses to receive an ABS licence from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) yesterday. The other two were Kent family practice Lawbridge Solicitors and Oxfordshire firm John Welch and Stammers.