Former UKIP Leader, Nigel Farage’s, Banking Row culminates in resignation of NatWest CEO

Farage v Coutts has culminated in the resignation of a senior bank figurehead and raised questions about the conduct of government-owned organisations if they disagree with the political views of their customers.

The personal finances of Nigel Farage, the former leader of UKIP and the Brexit Party, have been caught up in controversy after the BBC reported earlier this month that his UK bank accounts were closed against his will. The incident has seen false reporting and a flouting of client confidentiality in the upper echelons of the bank, which has received significant criticism from the Government. Now, the CEO of a major UK bank has resigned after it was revealed that she dined with BBC journalists where she made “deeply inappropriate” and inaccurate comments about Farage.

Farage was a customer of Coutts Bank, a private bank owned by NatWest. Coutts closed both his personal and business accounts, downgrading Farage to the banking facilities offered by NatWest. Speculation surrounded Farage’s personal finances: the BBC published a story suggesting that his private bank account was shut down because he hadn’t met the minimum threshold required to access private banking services. This turned out to be false and the BBC backtracked.

Farage wrote a column in The Telegraph accusing the bank of closing his account due to prejudicial views of his politics– he was “debanked”–if you will– because his politics did not align with Coutt’s inclusive values. Farage gained access to a forty-page document compiled by the bank that details how Farage had sung Hitler Youth songs as a schoolboy, a claim which Farage denies, accused him of being xenophobic and recorded him retweeting transphobic jokes. The bank decided “it did not have the appetite to renew his mortgage or provide banking facilities”.

The controversy is significant for at least three main reasons.

First, taxpayers own a 39% stake in Coutt’s parent company NatWest and government officials have expressed concerns about refusing to conduct financial activity due to individual politics. They are considering introducing new laws to stop banks from closing customers’ accounts because they disagree with political views. Rishi Sunak commented that “this is wrong …no one should be barred from using basic services for their political views”. The CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority further pointed out that banks cannot discriminate against their customers, as payment regulations refer to the EU Charter of fundamental rights. One Cabinet Minister told The Times that the NatWest CEO Alison Rose who is at the centre of the Farage incident has “no integrity and has done material damage to the bank”. Downing Street’s concerns prompted the resignation of Rose. Last night (25/07), the board of NatWest expressed confidence in their CEO but sources close to the Chancellor expressed “significant concerns” over her leadership which prompted Alison Rose’s resignation.

Second, the scandal has prompted culture war debates. Farage condemned the apparent dropping of him as a customer because a bank abhorred his views rather than failing financial criteria, as the “the march of work corporatism”. He accused the Coutts and NatWest corporation on social media of being “more bothered about putting up rainbow flags and being popular in dinner parties in Chelsea than they are about actually making money”. Former PM, Boris Johnson, said that “this is about far more than the bank account of one person. It is about freedom under the law, for everyone in this country”. Jacob Rees-Mogg further argued, “If you cannot trust your bank to keep your secret, who can you trust?”.

Finally, the resignation of the NatWest CEO, Alison Rose, concerns her alleged improper practice in her whistleblowing to the BBC. Rose confessed that she had leaked private information about Nigel Farage’s finances to the BBC and admitted that she made a “serious error of judgment” by having a conversation about Farage’s banking arrangements with Simon Jack, the BBC’s business editor, at a charity dinner. While Rose denied revealing any private information, she left the BBC reporter with the impression that Farage did not meet Coutt’s wealth threshold. Rose was the source of an inaccurate BBC News report, later edited. The reporter tweeted that “the information on which we based our reporting on Nigel Farage and his bank accounts came from a trusted and senior source. However, the information turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate.” Farage said, prior to Rose’s resignation, that she had “broken client confidentiality”.