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

[Snorkers]

Apprently First Direct have closed the account of the Wings over Scotland founder for his beliefs (He's Gender Critical), and Coutts, owned by Natwest, closed Nigel Farage's account.
Whatever you think of Nigel Farage he is entitled to a bank account.

This is really worrying.

I bank with First Direct. I am gender critical. Do I need to hide my beliefs to keep my bank account? Will tey stop me getting access to my money?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12249755/Nigel-Farage-claims-three-loved-ones-bank-accounts-closed-Brexit.html

I remember a thread, outside the naughty corner, a woman (who tbh seemed a nasty piece of work), who'd had her accounts closed. She was a difficult person to sympathise with and she wasn't getting much support in the comments. But it worried me. I didn't like the precedent it set. It seems I was right to worry.

I have no love for Farage, but his opinions are not outrageous, they're widely shared. If not by me, by lots of other people. He's committed no crimes. What right do banks have to judge their customers. Especially considering the shenanigans they get up to and the damage their policies can cause.

That they won't explain their action is also wrong. Judged, found guilty and you don't even know what your crime is.

I hope they sue. Farage has a big enough platform, that I hope they've picked on the wrong person.

How you view Farage should be out aside, this is bad.

I remember that thread, @IcakethereforeIam . Agree, it was a worry precedent. But hard to argue as she was some kind of Britain First type person so there was a lot of "if you want Nazis to have bank accounts..." type hyperbole.

The problem with making moral value judgements over who gets what taken away from them, is that you don't know which set of morals are being applied, and by whom.

Dreadful turn of events.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/06/30/nigel-farage-and-the-corporate-war-on-dissent/

It is political party leaders, Lawrence Fox and commentators like Triggernometry.

One bit in the article a bloke had his YBS a/c closed because he was rude about pride flags! Unless there's a lot more to the story, this seems wrong. Reminds me of stories I hear from Thailand, where you can fall foul of the law for being rude about the royal family or Pakistan's blasphemy laws.

I agree that this has to stop - it's not for banks to police their customers' beliefs.

Not sure why the FCA isn't doing more about this - there is a Consumer Duty after all, and banks should be closing accounts if they believe someone is guilty of a crime, not for any other reason. Farage may be a brexity idiot, but he's not as far as I know committed any crimes.

The Triggernometry podcast had their bank account cancelled by Tide bank recently too - I think they got it resolved by publicising it, but they did point out that that while they have the platform and resources to do that, most normal people (who might hold unpopular but perfectly legal views) don't.

It's really scary.

Although it doesn't surprise me that banks would be sucked into this kind of behaviour as they were captured by gender ideology long before any other corporates were (because they wanted to change their image to look more warm and cuddly after the financial crisis).

Isn't the FCA still captured too, though?

And if they regard gender-critical or similar beliefs as akin to Nazism, it's hard to convince them otherwise as they won't listen to anyone defending that bigotry.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/iceland-has-jailed-29-bankers_b_8908536

This is why I believe trans activists working with and harming the vulnerable should be taken out, we did not take out the bankers, now look!

It’s veering a bit close towards the intention behind the Chinese Government’s social credits system. You toe the party line (whatever they’ve decided it’ll be this week) or life is made very very difficult for you.

As PP have pointed out, it’s VERY hypocritical of banks, given their track record since the 80s, to be behaving in this way.

There is bound to be a bigger story here. Banks aren't known for morality. They are known for policing financially criminal behaviour. I suspect as so often with these individuals they are not telling the whole story.

There are loads of anti Farage comments on the Times article. They all seem to be accusing him of money laundering, something Chris Bryant said in parliament.

This is really worrying, how do you get redress if you aren't guilty? At what point do you get informed of your crime, who investigates.

All the second tier organisations, banks, universities, online businesses seem to have embarked on a coup.They will decide what is acceptable or not.

Dissidents may be second in line.

Once the woke allow the CCP walk in, the woke will be first in line.

They are NOT known for policing financially criminal behaviour. If anything they are known for facilitating it!

And if there is "more to the story" then there needs to be some clarity as to what that is. Or what actual laws were/are suspected of being broken. Rather than just an assumption if the banks are doing it they are doing it for the right reasons.

That's just it though, I expect for the big, truly amoral (although not illegal) people and companies it'll be business as usual. But the banks can polish their images and hide their own shady dealings by excommunicating a few small (or relatively small) fish. So Maya (for example) could win in court, get compensation but find her life blighted by becoming persona non grata!

A feminist group in Amsterdam had their bank account closed a few years ago. I can't remember the details.

For those who say that this stuff 'never happens', or we're overreacting, or there must be another reason - Barclays bank did this to a Christian group recently because it didn't agree with their beliefs about homosexuality and gender identity. They were 'alerted' to this by twitter users - surely banks should have better regulation than this?

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cddbd704-151b-11ee-b768-bb6d328f2d92?shareToken=8d6c82f8c87eb516b20f27463c9c97cb

I heard about it happening to Triggernometry, glad it got resolved!
It is scary though and also absolutely ridiculous.

I was just thinking that at least for normal people not in the public eye, their bank doesn't know their private views.

But of course, they do if you've ever contributed to a crowdfund or other campaign online.

This is like Terfblocker but it stops you being able to buy food.

Plus, it discourages people from donating to political campaigns so it potentially defunds all fighting back against gender ideology. Can you imagine where we'd be now if everyone had been too terrified about being able to feed their kids to donate to Maya's campaign?

It is really difficult when we don't know what the reasons are. This could be a revival of the claims made during the Brexit referendum about money from Russia.

This seems to have happened the last month or so.

Canada did this with truckers.

The banks may be monitoring if you are giving direct debits to religious institutions, crowd funders or locals.

Bloody hell, this is chilling.
I have lots of bank accounts so hopefully risk is spread, but agree this needs to be clamped down on. My Amex has regular/monthly payments to LGB alliance and sex matters.

That was the first thing I thought when Farage announced this last night.