Scots gender equality campaigner has bank account closed by RBS after 32 years

[IwantToRetire]

Professor Lesley Sawers and her husband Allan McKechnie have been told she has a 'mark against her name', apparently as a result of her work on gender and LGBT issues

Since the couple were put on notice they have held talks with a rival bank only to be told Prof Sawers had a "mark against her name", despite their account having a healthy balance of thousands of pounds.

There is an article about this in the Times, ie behind a paywall so this is the Scotttish Daily Express version. https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/uk-news/scots-gender-equality-campaigner-bank-30398305

Times link https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/natwest-closes-gender-equality-campaigner-s-account-83srm0d7x

I am not aware of her making an controversal comments.

Is it because she is part of the EHRC? https://www.gov.uk/government/news/minister-for-women-and-equalities-reappoints-scotland-commissioner-of-the-equality-and-human-rights-commission

Oh dear, that is putting your foot in it!

Surely this a new kind of fascism?
Not being able to have a bank account because of your political views is outrageous!

The cheek of RBS too after they caused a shit show with Fred the Shred buying ABNamro and needing the UK government to buy the wreck he created.

Now they don't consider EHRC commissioners impartial enough to bank with them.

They have lost the plot. Oh well, this is a wake up call for everyone over the influence of extremists in LGBTQ networks and the malign influence they can have.

It's bad enough in social media but this is getting into civil liberties territory.

The government are going to have to do something about this.

These are legal beliefs. This is non-personing. This is becoming extremely ugly and it's due to an extremist belief incapable of tolerance or co existence. In which case, it needs putting back in its box right now.

This is just the next step up from a few bullies online demanding fund raising sites or payment sites like PayPal block certain organisations, people, campaigns from their services.

There is nothing in the financial rules that states you should close the account of someone if their legal political views don't align with yours. Shame on that bank coming up with such tosh.

1930s Germany springs to
mind...

There has to be more to this story. Banks don't remove your account because you have controversial views. They don't even close your account if you go to jail.

I suspect like Mr Farage and his bank account there is something we are not being told.

🙄

Do you have a problem with comprehension?

This thread is about Professor Lesley Sawers and her husband Allan McKechnie. Not Nigel Farage

Metro Bank appear to have been very open with a gender critical parent's group that "the content of your website conflicts with the culture and ideas we are pushing" Apparently Metro have just become members of the controversial charity Stonewall that spends so much time challenging women's rights and persuading children that drugs and surgery is great to fix their "wrong bodies" so this group would not meet with Stonewall's approval

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/04/metro-bank-denies-gender-critical-parents-group-account/

There has to be some sort of potential class action against all the banks.

This is what happens when your ESG score is more important than the reason you exist.

These cases are blatant examples of discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the basis of a protected characteristic, i.e. religion or belief.

Time for the EHRC to send a shot across the banks' bows.

I've been reading about this happening for a really long time, in various Money/ Consumer Affairs sections of papers - i.e. bank accounts closing, often of charities or non-profits, but also individuals, for reasons they won't disclose.

It won't be related to their views necessarily, but some combination of actions that has triggered some security algorithm.

I can only see the truncated story in the Times - is there any indication this isn't the case here?

The Express story is barely readable due to ads loading, but all I can see is "apparently" and guesses about reasons rather than any communication from the bank.

I'd reserve judgement at the moment - obviously it's still a shitty thing to happen to any honest person, but it does happen a lot regardless of what the charity is.

The stories are very similar. Farage claimed his account was closed due to his political views.

Turned out to be bullshit - they closed his account because he didn't have enough money.

Then banks need to be forced to disclose to customers why their accounts ard being closed.

I think the argument is that that would expose the metrics they use to assess risk, and frauds could get around them.

There was a story about air bnb permanently closing the account of someone in a sort of similar situation - they lost the rental income they were relying on. No-one human would look at the case until the media got involved.

I'm reading an archived copy of the Times piece right now; it also mentions the Metro bank

It emerged yesterday that Our Duty, a support group for parents who want to protect their children from gender ideology, had been denied a business account by Metro Bank. The retail and commercial bank, which was made a “diversity champion” by the LGBT lobby group Stonewall, allegedly told the group that “the content of your website conflicts with the culture and ideas we are pushing”.

That is definitely an example of discrimination in the provision of goods and services on the basis of religion or belief.

Share token

RBS closes gender equality campaigner’s bank account

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/b4d26da6-1aa0-11ee-8198-bf96b6365670?shareToken=2ee6105e398c0564e3f80effd51d6a27

Time for some subject access requests to go in.

I'm not one to defend Farage but the amount of money he had in the bank was at the same level it had been for years. His account was closed for being a "politically exposed person" (PEP).

And presumably this is what has happened in this case, and the ones mentioned up thread.

We need to find out how Banks are assessing people to be PEPs and also, on the basis that we have the right to free speech in the UK, they can use their commercial monopoly to say who can or cant operate in the UK.

If someone who is an Equalities and Women's Rights commissioner is a PEP where does that leave us.

And although some of us might get a laugh out of Farage when it means small groups or lone individuals could be ostricised from financial services, this is an encroachment on our private lives.

And if, as some of us might suspect, it is because some lone Stonewall trained employee is dobbing people in, the Banks need to be exposed for failing to behave in a professional manner, and allowing politics to take precedence over what are the stated aims of the company. I bet nowhere in the rules and regulations does it talk about the right not to have customers whose politics they dont like.

And how many of these banks are cashing in on Russian oligarch money, or Gulf oil money.

The worry is that if they have share holders it may well be the case that these shareholders may also have been Stonewalled and think the actions of the bank are totally justified.

From the Times article:

RBS added that it was “not able to discuss this decision with you or provide you with any further information in relation to our decision-making”. … they had spoken to another bank about an account only to be told that Sawers has a “mark against her name”.

Metro Bank later wrote an email claiming that it “doesn’t currently allow organisations to receive donations if not a registered charity, and for community groups to be linked to, or influence political policies or legislation”.

It also emerged yesterday that NatWest is allowing staff to go to work identifying as men and women on different days as part of LGBT-friendly measures. The bank has offered double-sided lanyards to staff who identify as non-binary, meaning neither male nor female.

This is the trouble with the social agenda at