The reason Nigel Farage’s account was closed is because it fell below the financial threshold required to hold an account at Coutts the BBC has reported. Mr Farage had accused his bank of shutting it down for political reasons and claimed he had been turned down by seven other vendors when he tried to open a new account.
However the BBC has said that the ‘royal’ bank has clear criteria for when people are allowed to hold an account with them. The BBC, quoting ‘people familiar with Coutts’ move’ said it had been a ‘commercial’ decision.
The criteria for holding a Coutts account are clear from the bank’s website,” they told the BBC. Coutts requires its customers to borrow or invest at least £1m with the bank or hold £3m in savings. The bank did not comment on Mr Farage’s account. It has been reported that Mr Farage was offered a standard account at NatWest which owns Coutts.
However Mr Farage denied this was the case saying on Twitter this afternoon: “At no point in the last 10 years did Coutts give me a min threshold. More importantly, the offer of a Natwest personal acct only came after I went public last Thursday.
“No business solution was offered, and they even denied I was a PEP, which is why 9 other banks have said no.”
Last week, Mr Farage said he believed his account is being shut for political reasons and he was turned down by seven other lenders when he went elsewhere. The former leader of the UK Independence Party and Brexiteer recently posted a six-minute video on Twitter blaming “serious political persecution” from an anti-Brexit banking industry.
He said that losing his bank account was the equivalent of being a “non-person” and that the decision may “fundamentally affect my future career and whether I can even go on staying living here in this country”.
Speaking to the BBC from France, Mr Farage did not dispute the fact that he did not meet Coutts’ threshold, but added: “They didn’t have a problem with it for the last 10 years.” He also disputed the fact that he was offered a NatWest account at the time his Coutts accounts were withdrawn. He says the offer of a NatWest account came late last week.
He said in a video: “I got a phone call a couple of months ago to say ‘we are closing your accounts’, I asked ‘why’, no reason was given.
“I was told a letter would come which will explain everything, the letter came through and simply said ‘we are closing your accounts, we want to finish it all by a date’, which is around about now.
“I didn’t quite know what to make of it, I complained, I emailed the chairman, a lackey phoned me to say that it was a commercial decision, which I have to say, I don’t believe for a single moment.
“So I thought, well there we are, I’ll have to go and find a different bank, I’ve been to seven banks, asked them all ‘could I have a personal and a business account?’, and the answer has been no in every single case.
“There is nothing irregular or unusual about what I do, the payments that go in and come out every month are pretty much the same, I maintain in my business account quite a big positive cash balance, which I guess with interest rates where they are is pretty good for the bank too.”
