Shades of Chinese Communist Party Social Credit: Brexit leader Nigel Farage had his bank account revoked in the end of June, as he revealed in a video. Now Farage has revealed the reason: According to the “Stasi-style” file Coutts bank compiled on him, he was targeted for his political views, including allegede “racism”, “Brexit” and interviewing vax-skeptical top tennis star Novak Djoković.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Farage says that his “fate was sealed” at a meeting of the bank’s “wealth reputational risk committee” on Nov 17, 2022. “Executives agreed that, once my mortgage expired, I was to be “de-banked”. I know this because, via a subject access request, I have seen the 36-page Stasi-style surveillance report used at that meeting to justify this extraordinary action. This report is, frankly, shocking.”
Stasi-style surveillance report
Contrary to claims by the BBC and the Financial Times, about Farage’s account falling below the bank’s threshold, the report states several times that his “economic contribution” is sound and his funds are “sufficient to retain on a commercial basis”, Farage writes.
“It even acknowledges that I am a positive net financial contributor to the bank. Whoever at Coutts thought it clever to feed friendly media outlets outright lies about me sorely misjudged the situation.”
Farage believes that his bank targeted him on personal and political grounds. “Its report reads rather like a pre-trial brief drawn up by the prosecution in a case against a career criminal. Monthly press checks were made on me. My social media accounts were monitored. Anything considered “problematic” was recorded. I was being watched.”
Monthly press checks were made on him
Thie report proves that any customer who holds “even vaguely conservative views” will be treated with disdain at Coutts bank, Farage writes. “My friendship with the family of Novak Djokovic, who stood firm over his belief that he should have the freedom to choose whether to receive the Covid vaccine, is mentioned on the charge sheet. So is my retweeting of a Ricky Gervais gag and my belief in leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. What do these things have to do with my bank account?”
Farage calles the report’s tone “accusatory and reproachful.” He notes that “Brexit” is mentioned 86 times and “Russia” 144 times. The report also repeats slanderous remarks by Labour MP Sir Chris Bryant that Farage received £548,573 “from the Russian state”, he notes.
“I have always said that after Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in America in 2016, the globalist elite worked hard to undermine those at the forefront of anything that threatened the status quo. In this, it was spurred on by the mainstream media in Britain and America,” he writes.
Farage was “appalled” that he was labeled as “racist and xenophobic”.
He believes “this says more about the mindset of the upper middle class types who work in London’s banking industry than it does about me. The truth is,” Farage observes, “that in recent years, most public and private corporate institutions have been captured by a new brand of extreme liberalism which is, ironically, highly illiberal.”
The Coutts file criticizes their prominent customer Farage for “not aligning with [Coutts’s] views” and suggesting he must be barred “because I do not support the diversity, policies and “purpose” of Coutts, as though Britain is a political regime and I am a dissident,” Farage charges.
“What should any of us make of this word “purpose”?” Farage asks since the purpose of a bank is presumably “to act with integrity and to make a profit for shareholders.” He notes that Coutts’ biggest shareholder is the UK state, which holds 38.6 % of Royal Bank of Scotland, to which Coutts belongs, along with major UK bank NatWest with its 19 M customers.
10 Other Banks Refused Farage
Farage points out that “taxpayers bailed out the banks after their executives’ greed and stupidity in 2008. Now, rather than making sure we get a decent return, banks like Coutts are busy playing political games. Their contempt for the public knows no bounds.”
Farage observes he is “the first public figure to challenge the behaviour of our banking industry in this way. It is clear Coutts thought it could spin its way out of my “de-banking” and perhaps even emerge with its image enhanced. Not this time.” He compares the scandal over his Coutts account to the Bud Light scandal in America which had to learn the hard way: “Go woke, go broke” .
Farage has been refused an account by 10 other banks, he remarks. “There is now little or no prospect that I will have a UK bank account again. Thank goodness that in the 21st century, via fintech companies, there are other ways to receive and make payments. It’s still not a bank account, but I will survive.”
“You could be next.”
However, the Coutts scandal is “not just about mem,” he notes. “You could be next.”
UK credit rating agenccy Refinitiv can “examine social media posts made by any of us on Facebook or elsewhere”, Farage writes. “If this situation is left unchecked, we will sleepwalk towards a China-style social credit system in which only those with the “correct” views are allowed to fully participate in society.”
As for Coutts, Farage says he is “extremely angry” at them – “and I will be consulting with my lawyers to decide what action is appropriate.”
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