Farage affair is ‘a monumental PR disaster’ for exclusive bank Coutts

Coutts on the Strand, London. The bank is caught up in ‘the depths of the woke wars’, one PR and branding consultant said. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

For 331 years Coutts’s reputation for guaranteeing the utmost discretion made it the bank of choice for the rich and famous – including King Charles and every member of the royal family since George IV.

Now Coutts finds itself a very high-profile target in the latest UK culture war, following a decision to cut ties with its former customer Nigel Farage, after a review by its wealth reputational risk committee decided thath his views “did not align with [the bank’s] purpose and values”. The affair, say crisis management experts, risks “destroying Coutts’s reputation, if not its entire business”.