Natwest said an independent inquiry has found no evidence that former UKIP leader Nigel Farage’s account with subsidiary Coutts was closed for political reasons.
Law firm Travers Smith looked at a sample of 10% of accounts closed at Coutts over the 24 months to 28 July 2023 – some 84 cases.
According to NatWest, the report “confirms that decision-making was consistent with relevant standards and otherwise appropriate and that there was no evidence of discrimination due to political views or affiliations, or any other protected characteristic”.
A full copy of the report has not been published, just a summary of the key findings and recommendations, leading Farage immediately to brand it as a “work of fiction” and that he was not contacted at any time regarding the report.
“It bears no relation to the contents of the documents disclosed by the bank as to the true reason why they closed my account.
“The report does however admit that there are serious deficiencies in the way NatWest closes bank accounts in such a subjective fashion.
“The NatWest group now needs to take a cold, hard look at their own procedures.
The then Natwest chief executive Alison Rose and head of Coutts Peter Favel both resigned in the aftermath of the Farage row.
Travers Smith said there were areas of concern over NatWest’s closure procedures, while it might also have broken City guidelines by not telling customers they were being 'debanked'.
In a statement, Natwest said it has accepted - and will implement - all the recommendations contained in Phases 1 and 2 of the review.
Mohammad Syed, Coutts’ new chief executive, said: "Following the publication of the Phase 1 reports in October, we recognised the need to improve our customer account closure processes and those improvements are already well underway.
"This report reaffirms that there were a number of shortcomings in our approach to account closures at Coutts and, in particular, in the quality and consistency of our communications.”