One of the roles I held in my career was COO of Wealth Management / Private Clients for a global bank. Beneficial ownership was always one of the biggest issue for banks when onboarding new clients, particularly where Trust funds are involved.

As regulation and governance has increased so has the need for KYC refresh / periodic reviews. The Farage issue has no bearing on that at all. It's now become part of ongoing Compliance activity - or at least it should. Banks continue to be penalised for lax AML controls.

When it comes to Farage v Coutts, Farage was correct in his assumption that he was being debanked for his political views. So Coutts were happy enough to take his money in the first place and have painted themselves into a corner by their actions. They are in the wrong and they know it.

The wider picture is this ; Coutts, owned by Nat West - the renamed RBS Group. It's difficult to offer much positive comment on this organisation given its unsavoury recent history. I know there was a view in the City that promoting Alison Rose to CEO was part of a charm offensive to demonstrate what an inclusive, diverse institution they now are. But something at the core remains rotten, and Rose may well not survive this and a number of other issues that have surfaced.

Badger, was that an American bank that had the whistle
blown on it by one of their Compliance people ?

I won't insult you intelligence by suggesting that you actually believe in what you have said here.

King of the one liners back again

Not strictly true. NatWest Group is.

A very good put-down, but I think you owe a royalty payment to the American writer, William Buckley.

I appreciate that you can't stop yourself from always demonstrating your superiority, however, I was referring specifically to politically-driven bank account closures and not to society in general. No doubt you are aware of hundreds of previous account closures to come back and hit me with.