Brexit’s Nigel Farage has accused a top British banking regulator of engaging in a “whitewash” after it claimed that there was no evidence of political figures being debanked for their political views, despite evidence indicating exactly that in the case of Mr Farage.
Briefing the globalist neo-liberal Financial Times newspaper on Monday evening, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) claimed to have found no evidence of politically-inspired closures of bank accounts, despite internal records from the Coutts bank released by Nigel Farage showing that the lender had decided to terminate his account because the Brexit leader’s views did not “align” with their own.
Mr Farage declared that the FCA review was nothing more than a “whitewash” and their findings were a “joke”.
Appearing on GB News, the former UKIP leader said: “What a complete and utter farce! What a joke! The FCA are told by the government that they’ve got to look into it. So the FCA go to the banks and say ‘Have you debanked anyone?’
“The banks say ‘Oh no we wouldn’t do that’ and the FCA say ‘oh that’s just great’. It’s nonsense!”
Describing the regulator as “not fit for purpose”, Farage went on to accuse the FCA of being biased themselves, pointing to Executive Director Sheldon Mills, who attended a London Trans Pride event during the Summer, proclaiming — as a gay man — to be an “ally” of the transgender community.
“When you ask a group of biased people to examine bias, don’t be surprised when they don’t find anything,” Mr Farage said, adding: “The problem here and this goes right throughout our financial services industry – the fish rots from the head down. It’s the FCA! That have been pushing onto the banks and insurance companies this extraordinary diversity and inclusion agenda.”
If you ask a group of biased people to examine bias, don’t be surprised if they don’t find anything.
The people running the FCA are not fit for purpose.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) September 19, 2023
In addition to the politically inspired debunking of Mr Farage, others including Reform UK party leader Richard Tice have alleged that the banking industry has targeted them over their politics.
Documents revealed earlier this month from the London branch of Swiss Re showed that the lender had refused a business loan to Tice’s business after determining that having him as a customer represented a “reputational risk” to the firm.
The true scale of the debunking issue in the UK has not been fully revealed, yet, when excluding political motivations, over a million people have had their accounts closed over the past four years, alone. Mr Farage has launched a campaign in response, vowing to represent all those debanked for political reasons or over issues such as banks refusing to work with cash businesses.
The government has vowed to implement reforms to the banking industry following the Farage scandal, including mandating that banks give customers a warning before closing their accounts and provide a justification for doing so.
There also may be reforms to the rules surrounding so-called Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs), an EU holdover law meant to prevent political bribery that critics complain has morphed into a means for banks to avoid the business of people they disagree with politically. The FCA regulator is currently reviewing the issue of PEP debanking, yet a report is not expected until next year.
Nigel Farage Debanked over Ties to Donald Trump and for Expressing Conservative Views, Bank Docs Show https://t.co/uSdvkT1uUV
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 19, 2023