Think it was Megan McArdle where I first saw this idea, decades back. The thing about the internet is that we all thought it was just us. But the ease of communication means we can find out that no, it’s more common than that. And so what is indeed still a small minority can find out that they’re part of a group when totted up nationwide. And thus there’s social and political power:
‘Help me to help you’
He believes the full scale of de-banking has only just come to light because most victims “don’t say anything to anyone”. “They are embarrassed, they are humiliated. And they fear that, if they speak out in any way at all, it will damage their credit rating for the future. And there is strong evidence that’s true.”The de-banking phenomenon, he thinks, has been driven by “complete overkill” in the application of anti-money laundering and “politically exposed person” directives, along with a creeping politicisation of banks.
Mr Farage claimed the latter issue is endemic throughout corporate culture, saying: “It has run through the public and private sectors at the most extraordinary speed, accelerated particularly by the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Frances Coppola in an interview with Nigel Farage explaining that his account closing had nothing to do with his political views.
On the BBC’s flagship evening current affairs programme Newsnight, I explained to Nigel Farage why his Coutts account was closed. It was not because of his political views, but because his account was no longer commercially viable. How did I know this? Because that’s what the Coutts documents he obtained using a “subject access request” (SAR) say.
https://coppolacomment.substack.com/p/i-told-the-truth-and-i-will-not-apologise
There’s a YouTube video titled: “Nigel Farage Gets Owned By Expert Over His Banking Problems!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3vk0ccDJR4
Farage’s problem is unrelated to the wider problem of some people unable to get a bank account (yes, even a “basic” one). The Guardian has a decent explainer here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/26/forget-nigel-farage-and-coutts-banks-have-been-locking-ordinary-people-out-of-accounts-for-years
Yes, one of the lovely things about that is that everything Frances said there, on live TV, has turned out to be wrong.
I don’t think it’s that simple, Tim. You do need someone to curate the information so it’s all available in one place & people can hear about it. Which is what Farage is doing.
I’m thinking back to my experience with a UK bank a while back. When I had my account arbitrarily blocked & was locked away from half a million of my own money. I was told that the reason the account was blocked was they wanted to verify my identity due to the UK leaving the EU & the forthcoming closure of non-UK resident accounts. First thing I heard about was when I tried to do an online transfer. No attempt was made to contact me despite the bank having an address they were sending statements to. A telephone number they’d previously contacted me on. My e-mail address. And the online message service on their own online banking site. This being an account I’d been using for a couple of decades & they’d previously been content with my verification to the extent of constantly marketing their products at me. And of course the difficulty of getting it unblocked. The hours spent hanging on the phone listening to their on-hold music (Repeatedly Sade’s Smooth Operator adding insult to injury. I knew the woman when she was in the studio recording it. A session guitarist was the son of a friend. The bank a smooth operator? Definitely in one sense) The notarised passport copy was sent registered post to the address requested that can be tracked all the way to that address, they mysteriously lost. Ditto the completed account closure forms also sent recorded & tracked.
I wrote about the experience here in these comments, at the time. I also had an exchange of e-mails with the lass at the Torygraph does their money problems page. She was most interested & requested copies of correspondence. I actually fortuitously unblocked it in the process of cancelling the bank’s credit card. I always ran a credit balance of a few hundred, so the girl I was talking with needed to transfer it back to my current account & unblocked it to do so. I spent the next week & half transferring my own money out of the bank 50 grand a day expecting the next transfer to fail. The final 35k it was drinks for all down the bar. I did leave £9.99 in the account though & there’s a long string of correspondence from the bank asking where they can transfer it so they can close the account. The latest may be in my PO box now. Must be costing them a fortune. Fuck ’em.
How many other people had the same experience? I would think thousands. This was policy. Change of conditions of use. I was fortunate that being locked away from my money was a mere inconvenience. I stash money in all sorts of places & like piles of cash about. How many people found themselves cut off from desperately needed funds? How many people posted on Twatter or Farcebook? Or all the other possible places on the net?
Yeah the interweb makes it quicker & easier. If you can find you’re not the only one in the first place. But what are the chances of stumbling across something you’re not looking for? What’s made the difference is Farage is a well known figure with good access to the dead-tree press. Journalists will run the story. From there the campaign could just as easily be conducted by snail-mail or pigeon post for that matter. But maybe not messages in bottles or Correos de Espana.
Ah Coppola! The Kentish piano teacher. Hit the wrong keys there, didn’t she?
And yet the elephant in the room, Farage’s claim that 10 other banks refused to allow him to open an account, remains verboten.
If untrue he richly deserves to be called out and surely there are still some real journalists who could have investigated the claim by now?
However, if true the likes of Newsnight and Coppola with her childish and hugely selective “gotcha” tactics should drop the grandstanding and address the far greater issue.
Farage’s claim that 10 other banks refused to allow him to open an account, remains verboten.
If untrue he richly deserves to be called out and surely there are still some real journalists who could have investigated the claim by now?
I think everyone knows, if you have an account closed by one bank, it’s not straightforward to open an account with another. I believe they ask the question on the application forms, don’t they? Same as with insurance? So he’s very likely to have been refused on first application.
It’s one of the problems with dealing with banks these days, isn’t it? Finding someone who’ll make decision. (Do they even have branch managers any more?) Everyone you’re dealing with is responding to a script. If it’s not covered by the script they don’t want to know. That’s on-line, on the phone or the monkeys on the counters.
Hats off to Farazzhh over this. He even had the wit to complain about that Gina Miller bore being mucked about by her bank.
Banks need banking licences. When banks get in the shit it’s my money HMG uses to “rescue” them. So I feel I can legitimately demand that they stop all this silly buggering about. They are not purely capitalist enterprises competing in a free market. They are, in part, wards of the state. In particular Nat West is especially a ward of the state being nearly 40% owned by “us”. So the Board should be sacked and some hard-headed people should be appointed to replace them.
@ dearieme
I’m starting to think break them up. Separate retail banking. Deposits & short term liquidity. Problem is they don’t give a fuck about their retail customers because it’s such a small part of what they do. They’ve grown too damned big & powerful. They should certainly never be in the mortgage business.
Seen just now: “Two experts, with opposing views on whether commercial firms should be able to choose their client, put their arguments forward in the Times.” But banks are not simply “commercial firms”. My taxes are used to back them up whether I like it or not. That changes the argument.
It’s one of the problems with dealing with banks these days, isn’t it? Finding someone who’ll make decision.
I find the best answer is to go straight to the top. I had a couple of problems with NatWest and having had no assistance from helpline minions directly emailed Alison Rose (as she was then, not yet Damed). OK the turkey from her private office that got assigned the case was pretty brainless – it took several tries to get him to even understand what the problem was – at least I achieved a result and a modicum of compensation rather more quickly than going into the system from the bottom up.
I find a conversation with my bank manager over a cup of coffee useful. As is being to withdraw 10k cash from the branch without ID, card or even remembering my account number. Periodic flowers for Pilar the pretty cashier helps. The wonders of Spain’s cajas.
“And so what is indeed still a small minority can find out that they’re part of a group when totted up nationwide. ”
Unfortunately its lead more to furries (and worse) than helping the oppressed.
But its much older than McArdle. Goes back to the beginning with ‘the long tail’.
asiaseen – seems to help of you can discover who the Head of Investor Relations is, and cc the PA.