Treasury warns banks closing customer’s accounts over their political beliefs ‘will not be tolerated’ after minister ‘read the riot act’ to bosses at summit with Britain’s top lenders
- Executives from top banks were summoned to meeting to discuss Farage case
- City Minister Andrew Griffith cautioned there must be ‘no repeat’ of incident
Forcing out customers because of their political beliefs ‘will not be tolerated’ by the Government, Britain’s top bankers were warned yesterday.
City minister Andrew Griffith used a summit with the UK’s leading banks to caution executives that there must be ‘no repeat’ of the decision by NatWest subsidiary Coutts to close Nigel Farage’s account because of his political views.
Leading executives from Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander were among those summoned to the meeting to discuss the fallout from the Farage case, which led to the dramatic resignation yesterday of NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose.
A Treasury source said Mr Griffith ‘read the riot act to them’, adding: ‘He said the NatWest case should be a clear signal to the rest of the sector that this sort of practice will not be tolerated.’
The source said that bank chiefs had acknowledged that the row had ‘impacted public trust for the whole sector’ and pledged that they would adopt new government policy on account closures in order to ‘restore confidence’.
Mr Griffith said: ‘It is right that the NatWest chief executive 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.’
The Treasury revealed that the bank bosses at the meeting had committed to ‘the principle of non-discrimination based on lawful freedom of expression’ and would cease activities designed to police the views of their customers.
New laws to be introduced in the autumn will mean banks have to give 90 days’ notice before closing an account and spell out the reasons for shutting it down.
Banks will be able to avoid giving reasons only if doing so would interfere in a criminal investigation.
The Treasury said that banks would be expected to start introducing the agreed changes immediately.
Ministers are also said to be considering whether to make protection of free speech a condition of a bank’s licence to operate in the UK.
A review has also been launched into the operation of the rules around so-called Politically Exposed Persons.
These regulations, originally drawn up by Brussels, were designed to help tackle corruption.
But Mr Griffith said banks needed to ensure they were implemented in a ‘proportionate’ way amid concerns they are causing undue complications for politicians and their families.
