'No evidence' customers debanked over political views, says City watchdog

19 September 2023, 15:21

By Jasmine Moody

There is 'no evidence' of customers being debanked due to their political views despite hundreds of thousands of account closures in recent years, The City watchdog has found.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said information given by 34 banks, building societies, and payment companies suggests that no accounts were "primarily closed" due to customers' political beliefs from July 2022 to June 2023.

The investigation looked at several cases where political views or other opinions were cited as a cause for closing an account.

However, its findings report that political beliefs were not the main reason.

The issues that did close these accounts included customer behaviour and "racist language directed towards staff", according to the report.

The FCA acknowledged findings had been "gathered from firms at speed" but they would conduct "further work" to verify data.

The FCA reported that 343,000 bank accounts were closed from 2021 to 2022, compared to around 45,000 in 2017.

There had been accusations of British Muslims and the British Nigerian community being 'debanked' disproportionately.

While the investigation looked at an array of cases, the City watchdog admitted they did not examine Nigel Farage’s case at Coutts Bank.

In July, Mr. Farage saw a report from the bank, indicating that his political beliefs were one of the reasons why his account was closed.

NatWest is currently carrying out its own review into the former Tory politician’s account closure.

In response to the investigation, Mr Farage posted a series of tweets, one of which condemned the FCA as "a deeply political institution" that is "part of the problem."

The law states that every person in the UK has a legal right to have a basic bank account, which gives them the ability to make and receive payments.

It details: "[Banks] must not discriminate against consumers legally resident in the United Kingdom by reason of their nationality or place of residence or by reason of sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion."