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Questions surface about whether Nigel Farage complained when UK banks shut British expats’ accounts
(leftfootforward.org)
this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
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Those accounts were closed because of rule changes post-Brexit. They weren't closed because the people had the "incorrect" views.
His account has not been changed because of his views. It was changed because he ran out of funds due to paying off his mortgage. His account was also not closed; he was offered a different service. These people actually had their accounts closed.
His account was closed because his views "don't align with their values". There was a 40-page document detailing this where they barely mentioned anything to do with his financial situation.
They also only offered him a personal account, which is useless because his income comes from businesses.
Again he did not have his account closed. They can not refuse a basic bank account; they can refuse you if you want more than a basic bank account, which is the case here. They denied him a service because is a xenophobic racist prick with dubious connections.
No one should have their bank accounts closed down because of their political views. Are you familiar with free speech? It's not a crime to have opinions.
As for the "dubious connections" argument, that doesn't stand up either. Coutts themselves acknowledged that there was no evidence of any direct or indirect payments from Russia. All they listed was conspiracy theories.
It annoys me when people base their views on a topic because of the person involved, not the actual issue. I don't have much time for Farage, but this is not about him.
The buses don't go where you live do they? I am going to type this really slowly so you do not miss it again. No one closed his account down. He was refused a service. Repeating the same stupid phrase over and over does not make it true.
I never mentioned Russia at all. Why did you mention it. Do you know something I do not?
You can change the wording all you like, being "refused a service" with a bank means you don't have an account with them. This also hasn't just happened to Farage. It's happened to people on the left of politics in the past, and I recently saw the "Wings Over Scotland" Scottish independence group had their bank accounts closed with no explanation as to why.
It's fairly obvious what you meant by "dubious connections", as it's a prominent conspiracy theory.
If you're fine with people losing access to an integral financial service based purely on their political views, then don't come crying on the day your views are classed as "incorrect".
I am generally in agreement that you should have a right to a degree of free speech without being impacted by things like bank restrictions; that said, he seems only to care in his instance. Private wealth clientele at almost every bank have traditionally been under a greater scrutiny due to the inherent risk of reputational damage they can inflict, and the standard for this has always gone UP for celebrities and politicians. The reason he hasn’t cared before is that most of these institutions are right-leaning if not right wing; they’ve therefore not used these rules on people to the right of the spectrum unless they were affiliates/members of a banned group. We should all be wondering how Nigel got so far right a bank full of hedge fund managers wanted to lose connection to him.
The thing I don't understand is that if his politics was such an issue, why did they give him an account in the first place? He was a more prominent political figure then and they knew what his views were.
And denying someone a new account is different to kicking out an existing customer.
KYC is an ongoing process though, that’s actually a statutory mandate in the UK as it closely ties into things like AML laws. That also means that, as the views of an organisation change, they come to reassess their business with people.
In another way, as the world changes, so does that person within it. Coutts might have had Mugabe when he was a knight of the realm, or pals with Maggie, but as the world changed I imagine they would have reached a point of no longer wanting a business relationship with him.
Thing is, Nigel knew and has signed that he understands, that as a public figure the bank may break ties with him over his public statements. He may have been more visible before, but if the ads I see on my mum’s YouTube are any indication, he’s making a lot of money from people selling financial snake oil; maybe that’s the straw that broke the Coutts’ back.
Edit: also, he wasn’t denied an account; he was denied some specific private wealth management perks.
This is what highly regulated companies like banks, law firms, insurance companies etc. do for all Politically Exposed Persons. It’s not about corporate values, it’s about risk exposure, especially if there’s the possibility of a conflict of interest.
For example, a bank will want to know if there’s a risk of that person being subject to international sanctions due to people they have met or accepted money from, or a risk that a person’s finances may be investigated for fraud, or if someone is suing that person using using the same lawyers the bank uses. They create a report of anything that may be relevant in future and keep it up to date.
The “doesn’t align with our values” is PR for “this guy’s too risky for the amount of money he has”