Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest Group, has stood down after a row over the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts with the private bank Coutts, which NatWest owns.
Rose resigned from the banking group after the former Ukip leader complained to the BBC about a report that claimed his accounts with Coutts were closed for commercial reasons. The broadcaster has since apologised and amended its story.
Farage said Rose’s exit was “a start” but called for the whole NatWest board to go. He told GB News that the resignation “had to happen”, adding: “The first rule of banking is you have to respect the privacy of the customer.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the entire board ought to quit because it had approved a statement from Rose earlier on Tuesday in which she said she had not revealed “any personal financial information”.
He said this was at odds with the BBC’s letter of apology about its story. The letter said the BBC had checked with a senior source – whom Rose later confirmed was herself – that his accounts were closed because he fell below Coutts’s wealth threshold: a personal financial revelation.
In a statement released in the early hours of Wednesday, the NatWest Group chairman, Sir Howard Davies, said: “The board and Alison Rose have agreed, by mutual consent, that she will step down as CEO of the NatWest Group. It is a sad moment.”
In her own statement, Rose thanked her colleagues “for all that they have done”, adding: “I remain immensely proud of the progress the bank has made in supporting people, families and business across the UK, and building the foundations for sustainable growth.”
There was an announcement after markets closed on Tuesday that Rose was set to stay at the bank, but her resignation was confirmed just before 2am on Wednesday morning.
There had been a media storm, with several newspapers calling for her to quit. Reports late on Tuesday citing sources close to No 10 and the chancellor claimed there were “significant concerns” about her staying in her role. By 11pm, shortly after front pages were revealed, the board of NatWest was locked in emergency talks over her future.
The City minister Andrew Griffith tweeted: “It is right that the NatWest CEO has resigned. This would never have happened if NatWest had not taken it upon itself to withdraw a bank account due to someone’s lawful political views. That was and is always unacceptable.
“I hope the whole financial sector learns from this incident. Its role is to serve customers well and fairly – not to tell them how or what to think.”
Rose had admitted earlier on Tuesday that she was the source of a controversial BBC story about Farage’s bank accounts, for which she issued a grovelling apology.
Commercial considerations – falling below a wealth threshold – were one reason why his accounts could be closed, said a dossier obtained by Farage using a subject access request. However, the documents also showed that media coverage of Farage’s political views was weighed up while discussing whether to retain him as a client.
Farage had claimed that his bank account was closed on the basis of “blatant corporate prejudice” or because of rules about financial services for so-called politically exposed persons: people with political connections that could make them more at risk of receiving corrupt or illegal payments.
He said “I can’t get a bank account” in a video on 29 June. However, it is unclear when he was offered an alternative of accounts with Coutts’s sister bank, the high street arm of NatWest.
In a letter of apology to Farage sent last week, Rose said the bank would “reiterate” its offer for alternative banking arrangements at NatWest, but that it was sorry for “deeply inappropriate comments” about the political campaigner.
Davies said earlier on Tuesday that the board was giving its full backing to its 53-year-old chief executive, who had spent her career at the lender, and that she retained the board’s “full confidence”.
Farage said on Wednesday: “Anybody on that board that backed that statement that was put out at 17.42 yesterday, a totally unsustainable and untrue statement, anybody that backed that behaviour, should be gone.”
He called for “cultural change” at NatWest and in the wider industry, adding: “I think the politically exposed person rules need to be completely reinterpreted and I think we have to look at all the anti-money-laundering laws.”
Rose said in her own statement on Tuesday, prior to resigning, that she made a “serious error of judgment” during a conversation with Simon Jack, the BBC News business editor, in which she confirmed that the bank had taken a “commercial decision” in shutting Farage’s Coutts accounts and offering him a NatWest account. It was subsequently reported by the BBC that Farage had been expelled from the bank because its customers were required to hold £3m in savings, or to borrow or invest £1m.
Rose said that in speaking to the reporter, “I repeated what Mr Farage had already stated, that the bank saw this as a commercial decision. I would like to emphasise that in responding to Mr Jack’s questions I did not reveal any personal financial information about Mr Farage.”
She added: “Put simply, I was wrong to respond to any question raised by the BBC about this case. I want to extend my sincere apologies to Mr Farage for the personal hurt this has caused him and I have written to him today.”
Farage said prior to Rose’s resignation: “Alison Rose has now admitted that she is the source. She broke client confidentiality, and is unfit to be CEO of NatWest Group. Meanwhile, Coutts’ CEO, Peter Flavel, must take the ultimate responsibility for debanking me based on my political views. Sir Howard Davies is responsible for overall governance. He has clearly failed in this task, least of all by endorsing their conduct. In my view they should all go.”
NatWest’s board of directors said Paul Thwaite, the chief executive for commercial and institutional business, would take over Rose’s responsibilities for an initial period of 12 months, pending regulatory approval. The board said in a statement that appointment of a permanent successor would take place “in due course”.
Rose became the bank’s first female chief executive in late 2019, when it was known as Royal Bank of Scotland Group. The bank, which was bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis, is still 38.6% owned by the UK government.
Davies said the board considered the overall handling of Farage’s accounts had been “unsatisfactory” and led to “serious consequences for the bank”. He confirmed that the board would launch an independent review that would look into the closure and lessons that could be learned.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it welcomed NatWest’s independent review, which it had pressed for when it contacted the group in the wake of Farage’s allegations.
