NatWest Group’s decision to shut down Nigel Farage’s Coutts account showed “serious failings” in its treatment of the politician, an independent investigation has found.
But the probe also concluded that the move to shut the ex-Ukip leader’s bank account was both lawful and mainly a commercial decison.
Law firm Travers Smith – asked to review the banking giant in the wake of the Farage debanking saga – found the main failure was in how Coutts treated confidential information.
“Coutts considered its relationship with Mr Farage to be commercially unviable because it was significantly loss-making,” it said.
Mr Farage claims his account was shut because his political beliefs. The Brexit campaigner has called for NatWest to cut the severance pay of former boss Dame Alison Rose – accusing her of overseeing a “woke” culture at the bank.
Dame Alison resigned earlier this year after admitting a “serious error of judgment” by discussing with a BBC journalist Mr Farage’s relationship with Coutts, which is owned by NatWest Group.
The latest report follows a finding by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that Dame Alison had infringed on Mr Farage’s data protection rights when talking to the BBC journalist about him.
Mr Farage said he would now push the ICO to take “further action” against Dame Alison after the watchdog said it was waiting for the independent probe by Travers Smith to conclude.
“At every level they [NatWest and Coutts] have lied, they’ve twisted, they’ve tried to change the narrative and frankly the whole bank is a shambles,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programmme.
Nigel Farage says ex-NatWest chief pursued ‘woke agenda’— (PA Archive)
In an angry tirade against the bank earlier this week, Mr Farage revealed a series of internal documents he obtained – which referred to him a “crackpot”, “sketchy” and “a fool”.
Mr Farage was also described in one of the emails as an “awful human being”, while another said they would have paid a significant sum to have been the one to tell the GB News presenter his account was shut.
Mr Farage said Dame Alison had “dragged its name through the mud” and introduced a “woke agenda” at the bank, as well as breaking data protection laws by discussing his account with the BBC.
The ex-Ukip leader and GB News presenter added: “To reward these failings with a massive sum of money would be wrong. It is clear that, to some NatWest group staff, my debanking was a great big joke.”
Dame Alison Rose, who resigned as chief executive of NatWest— (PA Wire)
The Travers Smith report is the first stage of the probe which was commissioned by the NatWest board in July.
Commenting on the Travers Smith report this morning, Dame Alison said it “confirms everything I told the [NatWest] board in July was correct”.
The former bank chief added: “Both Travers Smith and the Information Commissioner’s Office have concluded that I inadvertently confirmed what had already been widely reported, that Mr Farage held an account at Coutts.
“The ICO also concluded the ‘impact around this specific disclosure was minimal’.
Travers Smith is clear that ‘there was no leak of specific detailed financial information’. Travers Smith also confirmed I knew nothing about the comments made by Coutts staff about Mr Farage, which were deeply unpleasant and unfair.”
Responding to the findings, NatWest’s chairman Sir Howard Davies said: “This report sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Mr Farage.
“Although Travers Smith confirm the lawful basis for the exit decision, the findings set out clear shortcomings in how it was reached as well as failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to client confidentiality.”
The NatWest boss added: “We apologise once again to Mr Farage for how he has been treated. His experience fell short of the standards that any customer should expect.”
The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said the latest report “has highlighted potential regulatory breaches and a number of areas for improvement”.
The report comes at a sensitive time for NatWest, which is due to announce quarterly results on Friday. The bank’s board is also set to discuss her severance package, which could reportedly be more than £10m in pay, stock and bonuses.
