The Debanking Scandal

 

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, Associate Professor

Maynooth University School of Law and Criminology

(academic title & affiliation for identification purposes only)

 

28 July 2023

 

The Guardian

Letter to the Editor

guardian.letters@guardian.co.uk

 

RE: Ann Francke, ‘Was Alison Rose held to a higher standard because she is a woman?,’ The Guardian (27 July 2023, 18:37 BST), <https://tinyurl.com/3a6xrycy>.

 

Ann Francke writes that: “Alison Rose, who resigned on Wednesday as chief executive of NatWest Group, which owns Coutts [Bank], clearly made a serious error of judgment in discussing the former UKIP leader’s [Nigel Farage’s] case with a [BBC] journalist. It was an error she accepted and for which she readily apologised.” If Rose had sincerely accepted that she and Coutts Bank had made an error, she would have offered Nigel Farage the opportunity to continue to bank at Coutts under the same terms which he had enjoyed prior to his being “debanked” along with a concomitant promise not to terminate his account in the future absent good cause and due process. Instead, Rose offered Farage only “alternative” banking arrangements—without explanation what that might mean and without any explanation why he should entertain accepting any private banking services, including confidentiality, amounting to less than what other valued bank customers receive as a matter of course.

Alison Rose’s offer was hardly recognizable as an acceptance of responsibility. [Post July 31: Alison Rose’s offer was hardly recognizable as an acceptance of responsibility. It is true that Rose’s successor at Coutts Bank has offered Nigel Farage his accounts back, but that only illustrates how poor Rose was in offering a timely and fundamentally fair response to a crisis she had, in large part, put into motion.]

Is mise, le meas, 

Seth Barrett Tillman

(academic title & affiliation for identification purposes only)

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘The Debanking Scandal,’ New Reform Club (July 28, 2023, 6:08 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2023/07/the-debanking-scandal.html>;