NatWest admitted to “serious failings” in the way its private bank Coutts treated Nigel Farage when it closed his account, and promised “substantive changes” to its procedures after the conclusion of a review by a law firm.
“Coutts failed to pay due regard to the interests of Mr Farage and failed to treat him fairly in the round,” the report concluded. Travers Smith said it reviewed 3.7mn documents and interviewed 28 staff involved.Paddy Cosgrave’s undoing exposes Web Summit’s glaring contradictions NatWest initially insisted that the decision was purely commercial. However, Farage obtained internal documents from Coutts that showed its reputational risk committee had accused him of “pandering to racists” and being a “disingenuous grifter”. It concluded that his politics were “at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation”.
“On balance, the exit decision was predominantly a commercial decision. Coutts considered its relationship with Mr Farage to be commercially unviable because it was significantly lossmaking,” Travers Smith said. However, it did find that “the risk Coutts perceived to its reputation in the eyes of its stakeholders” was a supporting factor, but that it was not what drove the decision.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, Farage said that the investigation by Travers Smith had “whitewashed” NatWest’s decision to close his account.