The board of NatWest Group Plc said its Chief Executive Officer Alison Rose made an “error of judgment” after she admitted speaking to a BBC journalist about the decision to close Nigel Farage’s bank account.
The board, which will commission an independent review into the account closure arrangement, could also cut Rose’s pay as a result, Chairman Howard Davies said in a statement Tuesday. But it still has full confidence in Rose, he said.
“As she recognises, she should not have spoken in the way she did,” Davies said in a statement Tuesday. “This was a regrettable error of judgment on her part.”
The statement comes after days of scrutiny over the decision and speculation about the source of a July 4 BBC story that said Farage was dropped by Coutts — a UK bank for the wealthy owned by NatWest — because he no longer met their financial requirements. The BBC subsequently apologized to Farage, one of the most prominent politicians behind the UK’s 2016 decision to leave the European Union.
Rose said in the same Tuesday statement that she told BBC journalist Simon Jack that the bank saw the move to close Farage’s Coutts account as a commercial one. At the time, she hadn’t seen internal documents from NatWest’s subsidiary Coutts, she said. Those documents have since been released by Farage, showing Coutts felt his values did not align with its own.
Rose emphasized that she wasn’t part of the decision-making process to close Farage’s account and said she didn’t “reveal any personal financial information” about him.
“Put simply, I was wrong to respond to any question raised by the BBC about this case,” she said. “I want to extend my sincere apologies to Mr Farage for the personal hurt this has caused him and I have written to him today.”
The statements have done little to placate Farage, who called for Rose, Davies and Coutts CEO Peter Flavel to depart. “They should all go,” he tweeted.
The statements on Tuesday came after an earlier apology from Rose to Farage over his treatment, which did little to stem criticism from lawmakers and regulators. Banking executives have been summoned to a meeting at the Treasury on Wednesday to discuss the matter while Farage has lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office over the dissemination of his personal information.
The Financial Conduct Authority said in a statement that it would decide if further action is necessary based on NatWest’s review and any steps taken by the ICO or the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The furore comes as NatWest prepares to report second-quarter results on Friday, with a management presentation scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
(Updates with Farage response, details throughout.)
