Yorkshire Building Society closing accounts down on people with views that don't agree with their policy

[Summer2023hasarrived]

So the story goes that if you have a view on Brexit or LGBTQ?+ that isn't inline or in agreement with the people that know what view is right at The Yorkshire Building Society then they can close your account?

AIBU - stick to the day job and provide mortgages and savings

YABU - they can decide if the values of their customers don't align to shut them down

I think this may be libel.

No. That poster said there was a high risk that they had got money from Russia and if banks suspect dodgy dealings banks are obliged to mitigate that risk.

At no point did they say that Tice or Farage definitely HAVE done anything wrong.

It's worded exactly in line with how the banks have to make assessments and is backed by information in the public domain which raises legitimate questions over whether both have done things which would expose the bank / are illegal.

Much more likely that people have made anonymous donations to controversial organisations, and the banks have closed the accounts because the source of the money is untraceable

If the people concerned have paid in large amounts of cash into their account you could be right as the bank doesn't know where the cash has come from. But if the money has come from income, other bank accounts then they know the source (I am not talking about NF here, this is the Yorkshire building society thread and is different).

So you are outraged at something you don't know the facts about The Yorkshire building society has admitted to closing accounts of people whose views it doesn't like. For example someone who questioned Pride flags in their branches. Sounds fairly fact-based to me.

And you need better source material than the Mail. Really, you do This is being covered in multiple news outlets, including the Times, which is a bit more reputable than the Daily Heil.

But this thread also shows how the Post Office and various councils and the NHS can get away with cover-ups. MNers are so accepting of organisations' "authority".

You don't know why it was closed down.
When you have some facts, when you have evidence, then you can be outraged.

I know it's easy to read something, to react and to jump to conclusions.

It would be a better world if people just took time to wait for evidence and to see all the facts before jumping to conclusions, getting outraged and then posting it on social media.

The only facts known are that the accounts have been closed down.

So what if it's being reported in other papers.
No journalist knows the facts - except that it's being closed down.

Anything else is speculation. Not that that stops papers speculating and people jumping to conclusions.

I’d love to know what he considers ‘LGBT ideology’ and what the contents of his email were

I suspect there are a lot of businesses who’d have reservations about continuing with a client who’s sending them complaint emails

fudged my quote and posted too soon.

Was trying to post about that vicar who had his bank account closed for sending a complaint to his building society about their promotion of ‘LGBT ideology’.

I’d have reservations about continuing to work with a client who was sending me similar emails TBH.

He said it was part of a feedback form though?

And I'm guessing you're not providing an essential service.

I worked for a bank call centre for a while. And it may well have less to do with the views being mentioned in the article, but how they have been communicated to the bank. For example were calls made that became abusive? Did the user make an excessive number of calls that made them a nuisance?

I can remember getting a call from a woman who wasn't happy that there was a pride collection pot in the Brighton branch. She was shouting, screaming and swearing over the phone as well as using some horrible slurs. We didn't make the decision to close her account after that one call, but her account was noted and if she'd made a habit of it her account would have been closed. Not because she held views that were different, but because she was a rude, aggressive, nasty piece of work. And I'm sure if she ended up having her account closed she would have told anyone who would listen that it 'only because she thought there was a more worthy cause than pride' and not the real reason.

The account holder responded to one of those customer feedback requests that are sent to your email -- in which he basically said that financial institutions shouldn't be social engineers (about pride month).

Try navigating your life today without a bank account. You cant even get a job without a bank account let alone mortgage credit card phone plan utilities...

It's a private business and they have the right to take or refuse business as they see fit.

I run a business and we have a clause in our T&C's that ensures we don't find ourselves providing services to, for instance, a fundraising event for a cause that I think would reflect badly on the business. There is a zero percent chance that I would provide services to a pro-Brexit, TERF or Tory fundraising event, for instance. If that means I lose money, I'm fine with that. I'd sooner sit on my behind and earn zilch than get involved with such a cause.

It's actually mutually owned by its members. I hope the pendulum prevailing political thought never swings in the direction that private businesses could render you an unperson in your own country but then I'm a bleeding heart liberal.

Well you could also be quite rightly sued if you discriminated on a protected characteristic. One of which is what your refer to as "terf" which in itself is a slur.

Being a TERF is a political belief.

Political beliefs are not protected characteristics.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics

Gender reassignment is a protected characteristic though - so neither of us could discriminate on the basis that a prospective client was trans (not that I would).

Carry on then

Try being a girl needing a period protection change in a mixed sex toilet at school, so you take the day off.

Try needing NHS care and not being able to access it as staff will carry out Annexe B, so you self exclude.

Nobody will do anything about bank accounts, they do nothing about schools or the NHS. Our army will be useless in a war because everyone is terrified of certain people who rule is all.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12255015/Soldier-saved-lives-Afghanistan-forced-quit-Army-agreeing-men-women.html

Actually gender critical views are philosophical belief. And protected unless I am mistaken and missed some development

Say you had an account at first direct or YBS and a disgruntled family member or colleague contacted them re your views. Would you deserve that??? You're not in the public eye. After all the reporting that went on during covid more people do have an appetite for it.

The law has only been tested in regards to employment law. My statement is about the refusal of B2B goods and services where it might tarnish the reputation of my own business.

I wouldn't refuse a sale of one item to someone who held TERF views - it's unlikely that I'd know anyway.

I would however refuse to associate my business with an event that is actively promoting, or fundraising for, a cause that I believe to present a risk to the reputation of the business. We are always very visible within events when we are there, and all it would take would be one picture on social media and we would lose contracts elsewhere.

More widely, by sheer chance, almost all my staff are either LGBT or POC. They're also on casual contracts and can pick and choose their shifts. I'd find it impossible to staff an event that my staff found personally offensive. Pretty sure they'd all laugh in my face if I asked them to work the Tory party conference...

And for that reason, we would be unavailable, or the quote request would mysteriously make it into the spam folder.

Calvin Robinson has a video on his Twitter feed with the Vicar, they discussed the feedback from and what was written.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12256943/Its-not-just-Nigel-Farage-daughter-blocked-opening-bank-account.html

PRO can include your grandfather being in the HoL and being a member of a political party.

I think that there are two issues, PEP and the Stonewall index.

PEP not PRO