Since when do banks have any “values” other than making as much money as they can, keeping customers’ money in a safe place, and occasionally recommending some sensible investment? Can they close the account of those who have political and social views with which they do not agree?
The question is relevant in the UK, because it is precisely what the private bank Coutts has done with far-right leader Nigel Farage, claiming that the campaign for Brexit, friendship with Trump, sympathy for Putin and tennis player Djokovic, skepticism about global warming and opposition to “inclusive” policies, such as equal rights for trans people, constituted a “reputational risk” for the institution.
But Nigel Farage – who currently does not play an active role in politics, but is toying with the idea of ??returning to the front line to give a string to anti-European and far-right approaches – is not the only victim of the politicization of banking in the United Kingdom and the reprisals against those who do not have “inclusive” positions on issues of race and gender. It has also come to light that the company PayPal closed the account of a group of parents who opposed the closure of schools during the pandemic, and that the same thing happened to groups that questioned the radical confinements.
Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government has taken note and is set to start legislating today to revoke the licenses of banks that discriminate against customers based on political views and deny them freedom of expression, and to make it clear that the only valid reasons for closing an account are strictly commercial or criminal behavior, but never those related to “values” or insufficiently “inclusive” conduct.
Coutts, called “the bank of royalty” because the Windsors have traditionally kept their millions there and it is part of the NatWest group, is not the only one that has discriminated against right-wing figures and they have taken refuge in regulations that allow “PPE” (politically exposed people) to be treated differently due to the possible impact of their opinions on the reputation of the institutions. Several lords and relatives of conservative politicians have come forward to report that the same thing has happened to them.
Coutts initially alleged that the closure of Farage’s account was in response to the fact that the level of his investments had fallen below the required minimum. But the politician has obtained the notes of the meeting of the bank managers where the decision was taken and a forty-page report on his person that “looks like a document from the old Stasi” (East German security services) and examines all the pronouncements with a magnifying glass. The words “Brexit” and “Trump” appear more than forty times as mortal sins. He says he was a fascist when he was young, and describes the former American president as “xenophobic and racist”.
Following the decision of his bank, and with which he had a mortgage, ten other institutions have denied him the right to open an account there. The architect of Brexit considers himself a victim of ideological persecution and claims that censors have investigated him and monitored his interventions on social networks as if they were agents of the secret services. “If no action is taken – he said – Great Britain is in the process of having a credit system like that of China, in which only those who hold opinions considered politically correct can participate as full members of society.”
The bank’s internal report, according to The DailyTelegraph newspaper, points out that “there are several factors and behaviors of Mr. Farage that could be argued are not aligned with the values ??that defend the common good and that allow people to be treated with dignity and respect”, and go against the entity’s principles on inclusive treatment of people of black and Asian ethnicity and members of the trans minority.
