NatWest debanking findings ‘a work of fiction’, says Nigel Farage

The former UKIP leader claimed he had been removed as a Coutts customer because of his political views - Julian Simmonds

Nigel Farage has described the latest findings of a review into Coutts’ decision to close his bank accounts as “a work of fiction” after it found no evidence of widespread political discrimination.

Coutts, which is owned by NatWest, said the second phase of the independent review by law firm Travers Smith looking at customer account closures over the past two years found none were closed owing to the political views or party-political affiliations of the customers.

However, the review found that the bank may have breached City watchdog rules by failing to tell customers their accounts were being shut down.

Under Financial Conduct Authority rules, customers must be treated fairly. By failing to communicate their exit, the bank may have broken the rules, the report found.

Mr Farage said: “The Travers Smith report is a work of fiction. It bears no relation to the contents of the documents disclosed by the bank as to the true reason why they closed my account. The report does however admit that there are serious deficiencies in the way NatWest closes bank accounts in such a subjective fashion. The NatWest group now needs to take a cold, hard look at their own procedures.

“At no point did Travers Smith speak to me, which I find strange. They are critical of NatWest account closures and a lack of due process, however the idea that they found no evidence of political bias is laughable.

“All they needed to do was to read my Subject Access Request. Of course they should publish the whole thing. I don’t have any confidence in that firm at all.”

NatWest commissioned the review in the wake of the Nigel Farage debanking scandal, when the former UKIP leader claimed he had been removed as a Coutts customer because of his political views.

The scandal eventually triggered the resignation of Alison Rose, NatWest’s chief executive.

Travers Smith reviewed 84 customer account closures, or 65 cases, over a two year period ending July 2023. These represented a sample of around 10pc of the 897 closures over the period which may have qualified for review. Of the 65 cases cases reviewed, around one in five may have breached regulations, Travers Smith found.

Despite finding no evidence that customers were removed for their political views, the review said a lack of written guidance created too much discretion for private bankers and Coutts’ internal reputational risk committee to decide who to remove as a customer.

Travers Smith also found there was little formal process in place at Coutts to determine how customers who may be removed were identified.

They said these processes could be improved by NatWest, and there was a risk low value customers could be treated differently to others due to a lack of formal guidance.

The review also found that two customers had been removed because they were inconsistent with NatWest’s “Purpose”, although the reasons were not related to political views and they did not breach the standards, Travers found.

In a small number of cases, the report said the customer had not been given the 60 days notice that the account would be closed and this potentially breached the Payment Services Regulations.

Coutts may have also breached FCA rules by failing to tell customers clearly they were being removed.

The first phase of the review, published in October, concluded there was no evidence that Mr Farage’s stance on Brexit or his political views were factors in the decision by Coutts to debank him.

Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, has pledged to tighten banking rules to make sure customers do not have their accounts closed just because they disagree with their political views.

NatWest said the bank would beef up its debanking standard following the findings.

Mohammad Syed, chief executive of Coutts, said: “This report reaffirms that there were a number of shortcomings in our approach to account closures at Coutts and, in particular, in the quality and consistency of our communications.

“The experience of some of our customers fell short of what they should expect, and we apologise to them.”

“We are committed to implementing all of the recommendations made by Travers Smith, including comprehensively reviewing and updating exit and communication processes, so that we deliver a better, more consistent experience for all our customers.”