Nigel Farage?

This is a gross misrepresentation of what has occurred. The commercial circumstances of farage were discussed by coutts and different views seem to have been taken at different times. But the bulk of discussion concerned the « reputational risk » his public statements and behaviour apparently posed.
that is why Rose initiallly apologised to him; why the BBC apologised for reporting, incorrectly, that his account was closed due to his financial position; and why the public discussion has developed in the way it has.
the determination to keep insisting on untruth in face of the facts says done thing very disturbing about the so-called progressives.

I am so sorry.

I’d imagine it has something to do with what HSBC were calling a ‘better banking policy’ when they closed mine pre brexit. I’d imagine some accounts that were fine pre brexit suddenly flagged up after brexit for some reason. Presumably because these are Brits living in an EU country with a bank account outside the EU in the U.K.

Unlike Nigel I was just able to walk into the nearest bank and open a new account in no time at all though.

Pre brexit banks were free to trade across the whole of the EU. Now they're not. So if your address was in an EU country it got shutdown. I was a barclays customer for almost 50 years, now it's gone.

There really isn’t a basis for it. The CEO should not have broken confidentiality and is right to have resigned, but bank CEOs have done much much worse and not had to resign.

If Farage met the criteria Coutts require to hold an account with them, he’d still have an account regardless of his political beliefs. I don’t know why 10 banks turned him down. I doubt it is solely his political beliefs but since they haven’t broken confidentiality we’ll probably never know.

The idea that the overpublicised non-entity Nigel Farage doesn’t have freedom of speech is risible. Largely illustrated by one sided over reporting of this non story to distract from the Tory clusterfuck. I have no doubt the Tories will be taking full advantage of this to bring in further banking deregulation ASAP.

As an ex bank employee I can absolutely say we would have been sacked if we revealed confidential information.
I cannot understand why Rose was allowed to resign and not sacked. Obviously as she resigned she gets to keep her enormous pension etc 🤔

I hate Alison Rose for being this stupid as we live with my FIL who sits in the kitchen EVERY DAY with GB News AT FULL BLAST (because he’s hard of hearing) and THEY WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT THIS.

I’m no fan of Farage, but he has a right to be whatever he likes, as long as he exists within the law. So phrases like odious, racist and so on are placing YOUR value judgements against a person accusing Coutts/NatWest of WRONGLY doing just the same.
Would you fling the same insult to his face? Before you answer, question whether any response is made as emboldened by your social media anonymity?

What I can't stand about Farage is the coverage he gets from the BBC !

It's like oxygen for the raving pillock

Whilst in principle I agree with you, it all depends on whether those views are legal.

So there is a world of difference between disagreeing with say Black History Month and say dressing up in bedsheets with a burning cross and publicly calling for the harm to others (regardless of race or religion or whatever).

One is a personal view the other is an incitement to violence / harm and a criminal offence.

It's extremely concerning that banks now have a clause in their terms of service that they have the right to monitor your social media engagement, and numerous campaigning and feminist groups have had their accounts closed. If they can do it to someone high profile, they can do it to you and me. With the decline in cash transactions, how would you cope if your employer could no longer pay your salary into your account, and you couldn't then pay your rent or mortgage? It's social control and I don't want banks to be able to be the arbiters of what are acceptable beliefs.

I'm Asian and don't think anyone should have their account closed because of political beliefs, even if they are racist.
It's crossing a line. Once that's crossed and acceptable, who knows where they could move the line and close peoples accounts for any views.

There isn’t about any bank or company save insofar as their shareholders are concerned. But in a democracy people should have certain rights; the right to express political opinions freely are surely among them, and all legal persons, banks included, are expected to act in such a way as not to infringe such rights.
That is the basis for the accusation that coutts has acted undemocratically and there does seem to be a factual basis for it.

The CEO has resigned having admitted that she discussed confidential information with a BBC journalist over dinner. That should concern all of us.

Banks like medical records should be entirely confidential. Who has been effected is irrelevant. They broke data protection laws .

I object to his views, xenophobic at best, but think he should have a bank account.

Banks in a way have behaved towards some people because of laws requiring them in a way to do some work the police should be doing, same as some of the obligations on employers.

MrTiddles, what happened? I hadn't heard of that. I am furious about Brexit, but I hadn't heard of bank accounts being closed as a result of it?

I, like thousands of other brits, had my bank accounts closed because of brexit. Didn't see him all over the news complaining about that. Campaigner my arse, he's a self serving dickhead.

First Direct and Natwest closing bank accounts for political reasons inc being gender critical | Mumsnet

I am interested in the other people who have also had their accounts closed due to their personal and political beliefs. I can't stand the man, but I am glad there is going to be further investigation into the actions of banks wrt the personal beliefs of their account holders. HSBC got away with colluding with drug dealers and money launderers for years and were heavily fined for it. I sympathise with the employees who were terrified of the threats to their families, but the fact remains that none of those accounts were closed.

He's showboating. 10 other banks have rejected him. What does that tell you?

He has drawn attention to the fact that he is far from the only person to whom this has happened. Whatever anyone thinks of him, we should all be concerned when a person's account is frozen because of their personal beliefs.
There are a number of threads already discussing this at great length.

He can get an account with Nat West if he wants. He doesn’t, for reasons I’m not sure I understand, but don’t seem to have anything to do with Coutts treatment of him.

When you don’t meet the qualifying criteria is a pretty good line. Possibly a better question might be why some people who don’t meet the criteria are allowed to keep theirs because of who they are.

I think among all the slightly unnecessary apologies people are making to Farage because he selectively quoted a 40page document, people have missed why he had his account closed and are still focusing on his political beliefs being the sole reason. It’s a bit more complicated than that. The reporting is a total mess.

"he's no longer a politician but a 'campaigner'"
Politicians have to get stuff done, and are accountable to the public. He has tried and failed to do this over a number of years.

He is an excellent campaigner though

Can't he just get a basic post office account?