Farage Asked to Give Evidence to Regulator over Debanking Scandal

Kurt Zindulka

Brexit’s Nigel Farage has been asked to provide evidence to the UK’s top banking regulator as it expands its investigation into politically-inspired debanking in Britain.

On Monday, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) sent letters to members of parliament, political parties, the top brass of the armed forces, senior civil servants, as well as Mr Farage and the Reform UK party that he founded.

The FCA requested that they provide their experiences of having their bank accounts shut down as a part of its investigation into the politically exposed persons (PEP) designation, which is a holdover law from when the UK was a member of the European Union. Initially intended to counter money laundering and politicians accepting bribes, the classification has been accused of enabling banks to blacklist those whom they disagree with politically, or to cut their costs by offloading customers who require more due diligence than the norm by law.

The city watchdog has also written to at least 25 of the top banks and building societies in Britain, demanding that they reveal the number of accounts they have closed, suspended or denied access to in recent times and their reasons for doing so. The lenders were given two weeks to provide the information, which is set to be made public in September.

Commenting on the investigation, a spokesman for the FCA told The Telegraph: “We are reviewing how financial services firms have applied the Politically Exposed Persons regime and whether any changes are needed for UK PEPs.

“We are keen to hear directly from UK PEPs on their experiences, including any problems they have encountered – so we’re proactively reaching out to parliamentarians and other UK PEPs at an early stage. We will publish the full terms of reference for the review in September and report back by June next year.”

The government is expected to revise the standard for British-based politically exposed persons in upcoming legislation slated for the autumn. In addition, the politically-inspired debanking of Mr Farage has also spurred the government to back moves to mandate by law that banks provide customers with a 90-day warning before their account is closed and disclose the reason why the account was shut. There have also been suggestions that banking licenses could be tied to a commitment to the principle of freedom of speech.

Mr Farage revealed in July that he had his accounts at Coutts shut down over his social media posts, connections to former President Donald Trump and tennis star Novak Djokovic, and for expressing views that do not “align” with the bank’s values.

This kicked off a political firestorm in the country, with many others, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, coming forward about their own debanking experiences.

The Brexit leader is currently in talks with Coutts — a subsidiary of NatWest — to re-open his accounts, however, he has accused the banking group and regulators of engaging in an “establishment stitch-up” by intentionally slow-walking an investigation to reveal if executives at NatWest had also played a role in the debanking and to reveal any other documents relating to the case.

He has also demanded the former head of Coutts and Dame Alison and NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies have their honours revoked for their alleged role in leaking his personal financial details to the press.

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