FCA asks UK banks to hand over data on bank account closures
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has requested that the country’s largest banks and building societies provide information concerning account closures.
The FCA requests data regarding account closures
They have until 25 August to provide the watchdog with figures on the number of customers who have been terminated, suspended or denied services, the reasons behind each decision, as well as how many complaints they’ve received regarding this issue.
The regulator will also be asking if accounts have been terminated as a result of “political or other opinions”.
The move follows the highly publicised row between NatWest Group and Nigel Farage last month which resulted in NatWest chief exec Alison Rose stepping down.
Farage produced evidence indicating that his account with the group’s private banking business Coutts had been closed. He claims he was “de-banked” because his political views were at odds with the bank’s core values, while the bank says it was a commercial decision.
“We’re asking about both personal and business customers, including pawn brokers, charities and political parties,” the FCA says, emphasising that the request is to better understand the cause and scale of account closures.
The FCA intends to engage the largest payment firms in its investigation, and has confirmed that it will provide an initial assessment “by mid-September” and will share its analysis with UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
It signals the beginning of the regulator’s latest data exercise, which was first introduced in a letter sent by FCA chief exec Nikhil Rathi to Jeremy Hunt last week.
In it, Rathi said that amid the “significant increase” in the number of account closures, “it is less clear the extent to which banks may be terminating accounts for other reasons, which may be unjustified and which, in some instances, may contravene the law”.
“As the regulator, it is important that we understand the scale of the issue and the drivers behind a reported increase in account terminations.”
