Reports vary as to why the private bank Coutts decided to close the account of former UKIP leader Nigel Farage. He claims he was excluded for his political views, the bank says the problem was a lack of funds. But either way, his case does highlight a wider and longstanding problem faced by so-called “politically exposed persons” or “PEPs”. Just a few days after the Farage story broke, the chancellor of the exchequer himself, Jeremy Hunt, revealed that he had been denied an account by online bank Monzo.
Hunt said of the incident, which happened before he became chancellor, that he was concerned that the rules around getting a bank account when you are a PEP could prevent people from wanting to take up public office.
Whether that is true or not, it is very much the case that PEPs face difficulties finding banks that are willing to take them on because of the way in which they apply certain banking rules.
