The CEO of the NatWest bank, Alison Rose, resigned this Wednesday following a controversy over the closure of a bank account of the former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), the far-right Nigel Farage, who linked the measure to his political ideas.
Rose admitted to a “serious error of judgement” for discussing the closure of Farage’s account at Coutts Bank, part of the NatWest group, with a BBC journalist.
The board, which resigned this morning, had been criticized for being identified as the source of incorrect information released by a BBC journalist about Farage’s account. The public broadcaster was also forced to apologize for its misreporting, which indicated that it had been shut down because it did not meet the Coutts wealth threshold.
When the account case came to light a few weeks ago, the former UKIP leader reported that the private bank Coutts had closed his accounts at the entity due to his ideological positions and opinions on various issues, rather than for purely financial as initially stated.
After accessing the bank’s documentation on his case, it emerged that the bank had considered keeping Farage as a bank client inconsistent with Coutts’ “position as an inclusive organization” given his “publicly stated views.” with references to comments about trans women, Black Lives Matter protesters or his friendship with tennis player Novak Djokovic, who opposes covid vaccines.
Alison, for her part, had indicated that Coutts told her that the closure of the account responded to commercial reasons and that when she spoke with the journalist she had not seen the dossier obtained by Farage.
Following the announcement of Rose’s resignation, Nigel Farage has stated that “others must follow” and has expressed confidence that “this will serve as a warning to the banking industry”, as well as the need for both cultural and legal safeguards in a system that has unfairly left out thousands of innocent people.
Likewise, the Treasury and Financial Services Minister, Andrew Griffith, has defended that “it is right that the CEO of NatWest has resigned”, adding that this would never have happened if NatWest had not closed a bank account due to someone’s legal political opinions. . “That was and will always be unacceptable”, he has sentenced himself.
Last week, the United Kingdom Treasury presented a battery of measures to prevent the “unfair” closure of bank accounts in order to reinforce the tools available to clients who consider it necessary to oppose the decision of the entities.
“The Government has intervened to address fears that banks are canceling accounts because they do not agree with someone’s political views,” explained the Treasury, which will force entities to explain and delay any account closure, thus protecting the freedom of expression.
