Coutts Bank’s 40-page dossier on Nigel Farage has shone a light on the nagging suspicion that banks may have been dropping customers over political views they have deemed unfavourable.
The high-profile de-banking of the broadcaster and former UKIP and Brexit Party leader has led to an apology from the bank’s boss, and the Treasury has announced plans to tighten the rules around accounts closure.
A financial lawyer told The Epoch Times that banks are private businesses, and apart from tinkering around transparency rules, not much can be done to stop banks from doing so unless they are re-nationalised.
A human rights lawyer said the UK would no longer be a democracy if banks have the power to bar people from the banking system over their views or political affiliation, and that banks should have to prove their own rules are enforced fairly across the board….