Co-operative Bank advisers could be left waiting for nearly a year before they find out if they have been reappointed to the institution's hotly anticipated UK legal panel.

The bank had been aiming to complete a review of its current roster – which was put together for the first time in 2015 – by the end of 2018.

It wrote to firms last summer to inform them that a review was due to kick off, with requests for proposals sent out shortly afterwards. The 11 firms appointed in 2015 were all approached, as well as several others.

But delays to the process have meant firms are yet to hear back about whether they have been successful. A Co-operative Bank spokesperson said the review was now likely to be concluded by the end of the first quarter.

Firms on the current panel include Clifford Chance, Allen & Overy, Eversheds, DLA Piper, Mishcon de Reya, Bates Wells Braithwaite, Hogan Lovells, Pinsent Masons and TLT.

Berwin Leighton Paisner also won a place on the panel in 2015, prior to its merger with US firm Bryan Cave, while the other firm appointed that year, Matthew Arnold & Baldwin, has since closed, with teams moving to firms including Dentons, Hill Dickinson and Veale Wasbrough Vizards.

The existing line-up is expected to be slimmed down in the current review, while volume repossession work, which has to date been handled by a separate group of firms, could be rolled into the main legal panel for the first time.

Since late 2017, the bank's legal function has been led by general counsel David Bagley, who succeeded Brona McKeown, now GC and company secretary at British Land.

Last year, the wider Co-op Group selected seven law firms for its restructured legal panel, with Fieldfisher and Squire Patton Boggs securing new appointments alongside Addleshaw Goddard, Pinsents, Hill Dickinson, Brodies and southeast firm Paris Smith.