Britain’s biggest banks will be summoned to a meeting with the City minister after he raised “significant concern” over the recent closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account with Coutts.
Andrew Griffith will send a letter on Monday to the bosses of 19 banks including Barclays, Lloyds and NatWest to warn the government is prepared to “take the action necessary” to protect freedom of speech.
He has asked for a roundtable discussion with the banks at the earliest opportunity for assurances they would ensure customers “can access payment accounts without fear of being de-banked for their lawful expression”.
The issue of de-banking has been investigated by the government for some time. But it made headlines when Farage discovered his bank account was shut down by the private bank Coutts, which is owned by NatWest Group. Coutts judged that his public statements did “not align” with its values.
The Treasury announced last week that banks would have to explain why they were shutting down an account under the new rules. Previously they have not had to provide a rationale for doing so.
As part of the expected changes, the notice period for a forced account closure will be extended from 30 to 90 days. Ministers hope the extension will give customers more time to challenge the decision through the Financial Ombudsman Service or find a replacement bank.
The plans are unlikely to come into force until the autumn, given the House of Commons has broken up for summer recess.
In his letter to bank bosses, Griffith said he was aware of concerns about how the regulations regarding “politically exposed persons” (PEPs) were being applied by banks. These are typically political representatives, and their family members, whose accounts can be treated with extra due diligence by financial institutions.
Griffith said it appeared the regulations about PEPs were “being applied in a disproportionate manner” and that they should only relate directly to money laundering and anti-corruption. They “do not provide grounds for account closure on the basis of political views”, he added.
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Dame Alison Rose, the boss of NatWest Group, apologised to Farage after he used a subject access request to retrieve comments made by Coutts executives looking at his suitability as a customer.
The document said that to keep Farage as a customer was not consistent with Coutts’s “position as an inclusive organisation” due to his “publicly stated views”. There were also concerns that he was “xenophobic and racist”, with the comments citing a risk to the reputation of Coutts by keeping on Farage as a client.
Rose said they were “deeply inappropriate” comments and commissioned a review of the process for closing Coutts customers’ accounts.
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