JC Flowers and Bain Capital Credit, two asset managers, agreed to acquire a minority stake in The Co-Operative Bank, a UK based lender, from BlueMountain, a private equity firm. The deal remains subject to regulatory clearance. Financial terms were not disclosed. Along with smaller peers, the challenger bank has struggled to dent the market dominance of the UK's leading lenders, hit by low interest rates and the impact of Covid-19, leading some analysts to expect further consolidation in the sector. Loss-making heading into the pandemic, the lender announced job losses and branch closures last year as it sought to stabilise the business.