The government has held meetings with bank bosses to discuss the fall-out from the scandal involving Nigel Farage and NatWest which saw Dame Alison Rose resign as chief executive of the high street lender.
The City minister, Andrew Griffith, hosted the meeting today explaining: "There are wider issues here as well concerning banks potentially not providing banking services to people because of their lawful political views."
“That is completely wrong,” he added.
Griffith's statement was also wrong, as Farage's Coutts account was terminated because the bank regarded him as a reputational risk and he did not meet published financial criteria, so was offered a NatWest account instead.
The parliamentary group on fair business banking announced that it is launching an investigation into the scale and practice of banks freezing, withdrawing or withholding bank accounts, following the NatWest saga.
Farage called for more heads to roll after Rose’s departure which was confirmed in a statement amid the row over his account at the Coutts private banking subsidiary.
Speaking to his employer, GB News, Farage said the government, being a shareholder in this bank “needs to appoint a new temporary board to take control of this bank, and then what we need to do is, starting very early in the autumn, is to put in place legislation that says banks cannot and must not discriminate against customers.”
In comments to Sky, Farage said Sir Howard Davies, the NatWest chairman, should “absolutely” resign while he believed Peter Flavel’s position as the chief executive of Coutts bank was no longer “tenable”.
Rose resigned as chief executive of NatWest early on Wednesday morning after admitting to sharing information about Nigel Farage’s bank account with the BBC.
In a statement, Davies, said: “The board and Alison Rose have agreed, by mutual consent, that she will step down as CEO of the NatWest Group. It is a sad moment.”
Rose had been chief executive since 2019 and had worked for the bank for three decades.
Government ministers welcomed Rose's decision while Downing Street seemed to add its view by axing Rose from Rishi Sunak’s business council.
A Number 10 spokesman said: “Following her resignation as CEO of NatWest Group, the government has confirmed that Alison Rose is no longer a member of the Prime Minister’s business council."
Lloyds Banking Group boss Charlie Nunn said: “I would just say, I’ve really respected Alison as a role model in financial services.”
“With respect to Lloyds Banking Group, we’re very clear that our policy on what choices and information we use when we onboard a customer or when we look at closing a customer’s account doesn’t include any consideration of their political or personal beliefs.”
City commentators felt the departure was inevitable but nonetheless a loss.
Danni Hewson at AJ Bell felt the decision to step down “was the only viable path.”
But “she will be a loss, having worked her way up the ranks and championed diversity and inclusion in the sector with a huge focus on getting more women in financial services,” Hewson stressed.
She suggested "the political and regulatory ramifications of this episode are likely to ripple out for months to come."
No doubt there will be further questions put to the NatWest board when it reports half-year results on Friday.