Until recently Philip Cato, a member of the Windrush generation who emigrated to the UK in 1961, had nothing in common with Nigel Farage. In fact he had not heard of the politician. But now he does. Both have been debanked by NatWest.
The closure of Farage’s account with NatWest’s exclusive private bank Coutts caused a furore, leading to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, last week asking the financial regulator to investigate how frequently people were being debanked and why.
But Cato, a 92-year-old retired carpenter, found it harder than Farage did to get attention when the loss of his account of 50 years cut him off from his state pension – leaving him and his wife, Una, struggling to make ends meet.
After working as a carpenter in the UK for 30 years Cato returned “home” in the early 1990s to care for his elderly mother, and relies on his state pension and a small annuity for his income.
“Una is up all night worrying about this, wondering when this pension thing is going to be sorted out,” he said on a call from his home in Martha Brae, Jamaica. “Our medical fund is running out because we’ve been living on that to survive. The whole thing is putting such a strain on us.”
Last October a letter from the bank headed “important information about the closure of your UK NatWest account” started a chain of events that would leave the couple relying on financial help from friends and family.
The letter advised him the account would close in February because of the bank’s “difficult decision to reduce the number of countries in which we service our customers”.
Dated July, the letter should have given him six months to sort out his affairs. However, it did not reach him for three months, shortening the window to transfer his pension payments to a new account.
Cato tried to direct his state pension to a new account but struggled to make contact with the International Pension Centre, which deals with inquiries if you live overseas. In December, his state pension stopped, and by July he had missed payments totalling more than £2,000.
“Philip went to England in 1961 and worked very hard,” said an emotional Una. “He was never on the dole, he was always working because he had a son and his daughter to take care. We should not be treated like this.”
With her parents in an increasingly precarious financial position, Cato’s daughter Judy, who lives in London, also tried to contact the pension service but could not make headway and ended up making an official complaint.
“The situation brought me to tears quite a few times,” she said. “I started sending them money as best I could, but with the cost of living here it was difficult.”
“In Jamaica they don’t have the NHS so any medical care my parents need they have to pay for,” she says. “My dad is diabetic and my mum has a thyroid condition and they were having to use the money in their small medical fund to live on.
“The letter NatWest sent my dad last year was very basic and arrived three months late. I am sure they could see he was 91. You don’t think closing a 91-year-old’s account will have an effect? Come on.”
The Catos enlisted the help of Pauline Campbell, a London-based friend and lawyer, who contacted the Guardian. She has also made a formal complaint to NatWest over its handling of the account closure, arguing that given Philip Cato’s age it should have offered more support.
“He had no idea where to start and all his children were in England so he tried to sort it out as best he could, but it was difficult because this was his main bank account. Closing his account has resulted in a snowball effect,” she said.
“NatWest have failed to consider the vulnerabilities of an elderly man and how impacted he would be by closing his account of 50 years.
“As I watched the events unfold in relation to Nigel Farage, it highlighted that unlike Mr Cato, Farage had a voice, which enabled him to defend his position from a standpoint where everyone was listening.
“Mr Cato spent months trying to have his own voice heard, resulting in seven months of non-payment of his state pension. It’s terrifying to think how many others have been affected.”
A spokesperson for NatWest said the bank had “taken the decision to stop offering banking services to a number of personal customers in some countries of residence outside the UK” so it could focus on its home market.
“We will always get in touch directly with impacted customers if any changes are made to their account servicing arrangements. We will always treat customers fairly by giving them clear information and timelines about next steps,” they said.
NatWest did not address whether it had done enough to support Philip Cato or how many accounts in Jamaica had closed.
The latest data from the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – before Hunt’s latest requests – revealed that banks were closing close to 1,000 accounts every day, with just over 343,000 shut in 2021-22.
In recent years, Brexit has been a factor, as many high street banks closed the accounts of non-UK residents. More recently that retrenchment has gone global, with readers living New Zealand and Brazil contacting the Guardian after the loss of their account back home.
The FCA says whether or not banks extend services to customers outside the UK is a commercial decision. However, the watchdog expects banks to “treat their customers fairly, comply with equalities legislation, and provide adequate notice to the customer if they decide to close their account”.
“Customers who feel they have had their accounts closed unfairly have the right to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service,” it adds.
Martyn James, a consumer rights expert, suggested overseas closures were probably due to tightening of money laundering regulations and concerns about profitability.
“The FCA has issued numerous fines and warnings about large-scale money laundering, resulting in banks becoming super cautious about anything that might be a red flag,” he said. “It may be that banks have decided that expat accounts are too much hassle to monitor.
“Currency accounts, where you hold money in a different currency, make banks money through conversion fees but standard accounts might not be much value to banks these days.”
After the Guardian contacted the the Department for Works and Pensions about the missing payments the money was paid to the Cato family within 24 hours. A previous transfer had been rejected by his Jamaican building society.
The DWP has apologised to Philip and Judy Cato directly and in a statement confirmed: “We apologise to Mr Cato for the inconvenience caused. We have arranged for the funds to be credited to his account.”
