The FCA is to probe potential regulatory breaches associated to NatWest’s unilateral closure of politician Nigel Farage’s Coutts checking account earlier this yr.

Dame Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest mum or dad Coutts, resigned in July after allegedly sharing details about the account closure with a journalist.

In an announcement as we speak, the FCA stated it had reviewed the findings of an preliminary impartial report from a regulation agency, commissioned by NatWest, into choices on potential account closures and information safety breaches.

It stated this report, and extra data, had highlighted “potential regulatory breaches” and areas for enchancment.

These embrace: 

• the corporations’ processes, programs and controls round how NatWest / Coutts considers the potential closure of accounts and handles complaints from prospects
• the allocation of obligations and effectiveness of the corporations’ governance mechanisms

The watchdog stated that each corporations have been now reviewing how their governance, programs and controls are working to establish and deal with any “vital shortcomings.”

This supervisory work will embrace use of the FCA’s statutory data gathering powers, interviews with related financial institution workers and evaluations of applicable insurance policies or procedures, the FCA stated.    

The investigation may even have a look at how the problems raised might affect on the broader honest therapy of shoppers. 

The FCA added, nevertheless, that any complaints about dealing with of particular person circumstances stay a matter for the Monetary Ombudsman Service though it could cooperate with the FOS.

Mr Farage, a former chief of the UKIP political get together and a distinguished Brexit campaigner, reported earlier this yr that his account with Coutts had been unexpectedly closed with out him being given a motive.

In July Dame Alison admitted to being the supply of an inaccurate BBC story which stated Mr Farage’s account had been closed as he now not met the wealth threshold for Coutts.

Dame Alison apologised for the breach of data. Initially the board backed her however she determined to resign.

Mr Farage has referred to as for the complete NatWest board to resign.

In the meantime, NatWest as we speak made an announcement on the inquiry it commissioned from regulation agency Travers Smith into the Nigel Farage account closure.

NatWest Group chairman, Sir Howard Davies, stated: “This report units out quite a few severe failings within the therapy of Mr Farage. Though Travers Smith verify the lawful foundation for the exit resolution, the findings set out clear shortcomings in the way it was reached in addition to failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to consumer confidentiality. We apologise as soon as once more to Mr Farage for a way he has been handled. His expertise fell in need of the requirements that any buyer ought to count on.

“Our job now’s to be sure that doesn’t occur once more. The financial institution is dedicated to implementing all of the suggestions made by Travers Smith and we’re making substantive adjustments to our insurance policies and procedures, particularly to make sure that the lawfully protected beliefs or opinions of shoppers don’t play any position in our resolution making.

“The board is contemplating the findings and deciding on the suitable outcomes on different issues. It will be important we’ve got regard to all crucial processes and due consideration of points, together with the financial institution’s obligations round privateness and confidentiality.” 

NatWest additionally introduced Q3 outcomes as we speak with complete revenue up by 8% yr on yr to £3.5bn, lacking Metropolis expectations.