The closure of Nigel Farage’s accounts by private bank Coutts was “predominantly a commercial decision,” an external review ordered by Coutts owner NatWest Group has found.
TS said while the evidence, including documents and witness accounts, “was not entirely consistent,” it considers “on balance” the decision to close the former Brexit Party leader’s accounts was predominantly “commercial,” while noting “there is no universally agreed definition” of the terms “commercial” and “political.”
Reputational Risk Not ‘Determining Factor’
According to a document from the bank’s Wealth Reputational Risk Committee (WRRC), previously obtained by Mr. Farage via a subject access requests (SAR) and published in the Mail Online in July, the committee said in November last year that “continuing to bank NF [Nigel Farage] was [not] compatible with Coutts” because his publicly-stated views were at odds with the bank’s “position as an inclusive organisation.”The document said the bank should exit Mr. Farage when his mortgage expired in July this year or earlier if an external team tasked to do monthly adverse press checks on him found things that amplify “the reputational risks” associated with banking him.
It also included a a third party comment that said there was “an extra cost attached to managing the accounts of high profile individuals such as [Mr. Farage].”
However, TS said it was a paper submitted to the committee ahead of the meeting, “not a record of the Exit Decision and its basis.”
According to TS, Coutts assessed the commercial viability of maintaining Mr. Farage’s account using “metrics which were of general applicability” to all politically exposed persons (PEPs) or high risk clients, and found the income Coutts generated from his account was “below (by some margin)” the costs it was incurring in maintaining his accounts.
The review said TS believes the concern over reputational risks was a supporting factor, not a “determining” one, as it was “highly probable” that Coutts would have kept Mr. Farage’s accounts despite the perceived reputational risks if the relationship was deemed to be commercially viable.
TS emphasized that it didn’t find evidence that Mr. Farage’s pro-Brexit stance or his party-political affiliations were factors in the decision to exit him.
Regarding the extensive references to Mr. Farage’s public-stated views in the bank’s decision-making process, TS said while “many people will regard these issues as political issues,” it believes “it is only in the context of the perceived reputational risk to Coutts and non-alignment with Purpose described above that the Client’s public statements on issues such as the environment, race, gender and migration played any role in the Exit Decision.”
TS said it believes the bank’s communication of the decision with Mr. Farage was “potentially” below standard.
“The Client was told that it was a ‘commercial exit,’ but this was not communicated in the exit letters,” the report said.
It also said Coutts wrote to Mr. Farage using its financial crime exit letter template “in error” while the exit was not related to suspected financial crimes.
Ex-CEO Conveyed Client’s Information
Just before the Mail Online published the WRRC document in relation to the exit of Mr. Farage, the BBC published an inaccurate story suggesting his accounts were closed because he fell below the bank’s financial threshold.The story cited an unnamed source, who was later revealed to be Dame Alison Rose, then-CEO of NatWest, saying the de-banking of Mr. Farage was a “commercial” decision.
TS said Dame Alison didn’t reveal “specific detailed financial information” about Mr. Farage’s accounts, but she did convey information concerning the client “whether expressly or impliedly.”
The report said Dame Alison mistakenly thought Mr. Farage publicly confirmed he was a customer of Coutts. It also noted that she had “not seen the contents” of the WRRC document when she spoke to the BBC.
In a statement published with the TS report, NatWest Group Chairman Sir Howard Davies acknowledged “serious failings in the treatment of Mr. Farage.”
“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,” he said.
Sir Howard said the bank is working to “make sure that does not happen again” by implementing all the recommendations in the report and making “substantive changes ”to the bank’s policies and procedures.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, Mr. Farage said: “The NatWest / Travers Smith report out this morning is a whitewash.
“They say my political views ‘not aligning with the bank’ was not in itself a political decision.
“They also find no evidence my ‘pro-Brexit’ views were a factor, despite Brexit appearing 86 times in the SAR.”
Mr. Farage has also repeated his distrust of TS because its Chair Emeritus Chris Hale was a vocal opponent of Brexit.
Commenting on the ICO’s decision on Thursday, Mr. Farage said it would be “wrong and a slap in the face to taxpayers” if NatWest, which is still partly owned by taxpayers following an emergency bailout in 2008, rewards “enormous failings with a huge sum of money” in Dame Alison’s severance package, which he said was at £11.3 million.
NatWest said it will “disclose the relevant outcomes” about Dame Alison’s remuneration “as soon as possible.”
