The City was rocked by the dead-of-night resignation of NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose on Wednesday after ministers piled pressure on her to go in a growing storm over Nigel Farage’s Coutts account.
Her departure was announced about 1.45am following an emergency meeting of the bank’s board. She was forced out after admitting a “serious error of judgment” when she discussed Mr Farage’s relationship with private bank Coutts, owned by the NatWest Group, with BBC business editor Simon Jack, at a charity dinner.
Sources close to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and No10 voiced “significant concerns” over the furore as she sought to stay in post yesterday. Her resignation sent further tremors through the Square Mile as the row threatened to escalate into a “war on woke” bust-up.
Shares in NatWest, which is 39 per cent owned by the tax payer, dropped almost three per cent in early trading, wiping more than £600 million off the value of the high street banking group.
By mid morning they were trading at 243.9p, down 7.3p. Other banks were also hit, with Lloyds down 2.7 per cent and Barclays just over one per cent.
Bank chiefs were summoned this morning for talks with City minister Andrew Griffith over their treatment of “politically exposed persons”, amid complaints from MPs that some of them and their families face difficulties opening accounts.
Before the meeting, he said: “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.”
Mr Farage, a key architect of Brexit which many experts say has dealt a multi-billion-pound blow to Britain, was this morning calling for a wider shake-up of the NatWest board, including for its chairman Sir Howard Davies to quit, after it had voiced “full confidence” in Dame Alison yesterday evening. He said: “Anybody on that board that backed that statement that was put out at 17.42 yesterday — a totally unsustainable statement — should be gone.”
Since Dame Alison left her post by “mutual consent” it is expected that she will get a pay-off, which was not expected to be disclosed until the annual report next year.
City experts, though, say a year’s money is typical, which in her case could be somewhere between £3 million and £5 million. Before her resignation, Sir Howard stated that the “events will be taken into account in decisions on remuneration at the appropriate time”.
Home Office minister Chris Philp signalled that the Government was not pushing for more heads to roll. But he took a swipe at “woke companies”, saying: “They’re undermining free speech, they’re undermining political freedom.”
The boss of Lloyds Banking Group insisted that the UK industry did not need to significantly change de-banking policies. Charlie Nunn said Lloyds primarily considers financial crime risks when closing a customer’s bank account, and does not consider their political beliefs.
He added: “At this stage, I have no concerns that the Government, or what we’re being asked to do, conflicts with our ability to protect the UK economy and customers from economic crime.”
Last week, Mr Farage presented evidence, in the form of a 40-page dossier, that his account at Coutts had been closed partly due to his political views conflicting with the bank’s values.
The evidence obtained from the bank through a data request contradicted a BBC News story, which initially claimed the account closure was motivated by commercial reasons only, citing Mr Farage’s failure to meet a £1 million borrowing requirement.
The BBC and its business editor, Mr Jack, apologised, saying the reporting had been based on information from a “trusted and senior source” but “turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate”.
Dame Alison, who in 2019 became the first woman to take the top job at one of the UK’s big four banks, accepted she had made a “serious error of judgment” in discussing Mr Farage’s relationship with the bank. She stressed that she had not “revealed any personal financial information about Mr Farage”.
But she recognised that she had “left Mr Jack with the impression that the decision to close Mr Farage’s accounts was solely a commercial one”.
Sir Howard has promised an independent review into account closure arrangement at Coutts.
Sheldon Mills, executive director for consumers and competition at the Financial Conduct Authority, said it had raised concerns about possible breaches of confidentiality by Coutts and its parent company NatWest.
“On the basis of the review and any steps taken by other authorities, such as the Financial Ombudsman Service or Information Commissioner, on relevant complaints, we will decide if any further action is necessary,” he said.
