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IPFS News Link • United Kingdom

Why Britain's most prestigious bank canceled Nigel Farage

• BY ANDREW MCDONALD AND HANNAH BRENTON

He always said the U.K. establishment was out to get him. Now Nigel Farage has the receipts.

Britain's most prominent Brexiteer has produced a 12,000-word document from the bank Coutts which, according to Farage, reveals the truth behind the forced closure of his account there.

The former Brexit Party leader has been embroiled in a row with the institution — so esteemed it has served successive generations of the royal family — after Coutts canceled his account earlier this month. Farage said at the time that no reason was given — but subsequent media reports, including on the BBC, cited a minimum wealth threshold Farage no longer met.

Now an internal document from Coutts, obtained by Farage through a subject access request he made to the bank and published in full by the Daily Mail newspaper, shows it wanted to drop him as a client long before — and used his controversial public profile as justification.

A briefing presented to the bank's "reputational risk committee" said Farage is considered by many to be a "disingenuous grifter" with "xenophobic, chauvinistic and racist views" and suggests it could dump him once he paid off his mortgage and dropped below its wealth criteria.

The document cites his comments on Brexit, his friendship with former U.S. President Donald Trump and controversial tennis star Novak Djokovic. It flags his views on the COVID vaccine and un-evidenced links to Russia.

"The committee did not think continuing to bank NF was compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organization," the report said. "This was not a political decision but one centered around inclusivity and purpose."

In a section entitled "key risks," the Coutts committee says "there is a lot of adverse press relating to NF," and states Farage is "high profile and actively courts controversy."

Referring to his support for Trump and defense of sexual harassment allegations made against the ex-president, the document states his comments "are distasteful and appear increasingly out of touch with wider society."


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