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.

The number of times I have read outrage in these threads about how people should be free to say whatever they like and that nobody has the right to stop them because it offends them.

If you went into a shop which supplies T-shirts and offers to print designs or messages on them, paid them their price and then wrote down your message as "Brighton are a bunch of w-nkers" would you accept the store owner giving you your money back because he is a Brighton supporter? Or tell him that freedom of speech is a precious right and it's his job to do what he is contracted to do? You have bought the shirt. He has offered to print it. Your shirt. Your words. His job.

I would ask why a bank would actually need to give a s*** about the politics of someone like NF. It would never affect the business as the other account holders are using it as ‘a bank’. This was a vanity decision which some there thought would get them a pat on the back and well done for your stand against that nasty nazi. Well as you are seeing elsewhere with the green bollox and push back on it, money is the driver of life and no one would have closed their account if NF was or wasn’t an account holder. The left or far left if it fits and the out there climate groups are an insidious lot who are determined to portray anyone who doesn’t agree with them as the enemy who need wasting. Well atm the rest of us are fed up and slowly the worm is turning. Coutts fell into their trap !

Edited by cryrst (23 Jul 2023 6.06am)

That's untrue. Almost always these days when a vacancy occurs there are a number of suitable clients available and a choice has to be made. It would be the same if a cake baker could only make 10 cakes a week but had 50 people wanting them.

For a start, there is no outrage in my post.

I wouldn't care much about my custom being refused, I would probably find it amusing. I would simply find someone else who would accept the work and tell others to avoid the shop that turns down custom.

Edited by georgenorman (23 Jul 2023 6.49am)