Private bank Coutts has apologised to Nigel Farage for closing his bank account, describing its assessment of him as “deeply inappropriate”.
The U-turn comes as the Treasury announced it will tighten rules on when and how a person’s account can be closed to protect “freedom of expression”.
Under new regulations announced on Thursday banks will have to spell out why they are terminating an account, and give customers a notice period of 90 days.
The change aims to give account holders more time to challenge decisions with the financial ombudsman.
It was revealed this week that Coutts, an exclusive private bank, decided to terminate Mr Farage’s account with them his views “do not align with our values” – though they offered him a normal account with NatWest.
But in a letter chief executive Alison Rose said “legally held political and personal views” were no bar to an account at the institution.
“I am writing to apologise for deeply inappropriate comments about yourself made in the now published papers for the wealth committee. I would like to make it clear that they do not reflect the view of the bank,” she said in a letter.
“I believe very strongly that freedom of expression and access to banking are fundamental to our society and it is absolutely not our policy to exit a customer on the basis of legally held political and personal views.”
The changes to the banking rules announced by the Treasury have been in the works since January, when the government issued a “call for evidence” in updating the payment services regulations.
In that document, the Treasury cited previous decisions by payment service PayPal to allegedly close accounts “due to the publicly held views of PayPal’s users and those associated with them”.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Andrew Griffith, said: “Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of our democracy, and it must be respected by all institutions.
“Banks occupy a privileged place in society, and it is right that we fairly balance the rights of banks to act in their commercial interest, with the right for everyone to express themselves freely.
“These changes will boost the rights of customers – providing real transparency, time to appeal and making it a much fairer playing field.”
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