Debanking complaints up by 44% after Farage battle

COMPLAINTS about debanking have soared by 44 per cent, following Nigel Farage’s fight with NatWest.

Britons made 4,000 complaints about their bank accounts being shut down, figures show.

The row broke out last summer when Mr Farage’s account with private bank Coutts – owned by NatWest – was closed.

Former NatWest chief executive Alison Rose was forced to quit after she admitted telling a BBC journalist that the move against the leading Brexiteer was made for purely commercial reasons.

However, internal reports showed Mr Farage’s political leanings had been a factor in the decision.

The ex-Ukip leader branded an investigation a ‘ whitewash’ and last month said his battle with NatWest was ‘far from over’.

The scandal raised serious questions about the industry’s policies on closing bank accounts.

And the latest data from the Financial Services Ombudsman lays bare the scale of the problem.

There were 2,683 complaints to the watchdog in 2022/23, rising 44 per cent to 3,858 in 2023/24.

That figure includes an 81 per cent surge in the number of businesses objecting to the closure of their accounts.

Since 2020, the number of customers turning to the ombudsman for help with enforced closures has risen 69 per cent.

The portion of complaints upheld by the ombudsman has also increased in that time.

Bank accounts can be closed due to inactivity, incomplete information or commercial reasons.

But lenders can also close them for ‘ sensitive’ issues such as suspected money laundering.

A review by the City regulator last year found no banks had cut ties with a customer ‘primarily because of their political views’.

An angry Mr Farage condemned the Financial Conduct Authority’s work as a ‘complete and utter farce’ and a ‘whitewash’ and demanded ‘sackings’ at the regulator.

In February, a report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking found customers are being debanked due to their lifestyles or opinions rather than concerns, such as financial crime.

Treasury committee chair Harriett Baldwin said: ‘When we set out on our inquiry into financing for small and medium- sized businesses we weren’t necessarily expecting debanking to emerge as a key issue.

‘But as they say, you must go where the evidence takes you – and it’s clear there is evidence that some legally operating businesses are being unfairly debanked.

‘Banks should be doing all they can to support small business . . . not pulling the rug out from beneath them with little warning.’

‘Banks shouldn’t be pulling the rug’