The UK’s Treasury will ask the leaders of 19 banks and fintechs, including NatWest Group Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Barclays, to explain how they’ll ensure that customers aren’t “de-banked” for exercising free speech following a dust-up with Nigel Farage.
Andrew Griffith, economic secretary to the Treasury, will write to the banks Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. Farage, one of the most prominent politicians behind the UK’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union, said Coutts was planning to close his account over his personal views.
Coutts is a UK bank for the wealthy owned by NatWest, which reports second-quarter results on Friday.
The banks will be asked to show how they’ll ensure “that customers can access payment accounts without fear of being de-banked for their lawful expression,” the FT said, which reported the letter earlier, citing a draft of the letter.
Farage said in an email sent to supporters on Sunday that he is planning “to fight this all the way” and social media checks on bank accounts would mean the UK is no different than a “Chinese style social credit system.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has described Coutts’ decision on Twitter as “wrong,” and the social media platform’s owner Elon Musk supported that with “Hear! Hear!”
(Adds timing of NatWest earnings in third paragraph, Sunday email to penultimate paragraph.)
