UK banks are not closing the accounts of politicians because of their views, a probe by Britain's financial regulator has concluded, according to a report in the FT.
Ministers ordered the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to investigate ‘debanking’ in August after an internal memo showed former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s accounts with Natwest subsidiary Coutts were closed because his views did not "align" with the bank.
Last night, Farage told the FT the conclusions of the FCA probe were “farcical” and that there were “plenty of examples of prominent Brexiteers being debanked”.
The Mail has already published a dossier of the internal meetings held by Coutts where Farage's political views were discussed.
As part of the probe, 34 banks and payment companies were asked to submit account closure data to the regulator but after scrutinising these the FCA found no cases where political views were the main reason cited.
According to the report, the period covered by the probe was the 12 months between June 2022 and 2023.
Farage though said he was only told by Coutts in late June that his accounts were being closed and they were still active at the end of July when it made an offer to keep them open.
Ministers are said to be "uneasy" that the FCA found no evidence of debanking, the FT added, especially given Farage's dossier, with one source saying “the FCA data might lack granularity”.
Natwest chief executive Alison Rose resigned after admitting to sharing details of Farage’s bank accounts with a journalist while Coutts' CEO Peter Flavel also stepped down.