The Financial Conduct Authority has responded to the news that the CEO of UK high street bank, NatWest Group, has stepped down following a public dispute with political figure Nigel Farage.
According to an RNS statement yesterday (25 June), CEO Alison Rose agreed with "mutual consent" to step down, with immediate effect.
Rose had been under increasing pressure to resign after Farage, who was leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) until 2016 and leader of the Brexit Party from 2019 to 2021, produced evidence that NatWest's private banking business, Coutts, had closed his account partly because his political views conflicted with the bank's.
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The former CEO initially denied that this was the case, but later recanted and admitted that she had given a false impression to a BBC reporter that Coutts had made the decision solely based on commercial reasons.
Farage has since called for the entire NatWest board to resign over the incident.
Rose took over as CEO in 2019 and in her departing statement said she would remain "immensely proud of the progress the bank has made" in supporting people, and thanked her colleagues for their work with her.
Howard Davies, chair of NatWest, said the incident was a "sad moment", adding Rose had "dedicated all her working life so far to NatWest and will leave many colleagues who respect and admire her".
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The incident sparked concerns about customer's privacy from the Treasury and regulators, as NatWest's senior official has been the source of an inaccurate news report.
Sheldon Mills, executive director consumers and competition at the FCA, commented it had raised its concerns about the allegations relating to account closures and breach of customer confidentiality with both NatWest and Coutts directly.
He said: "We made clear our expectation that these issues should be independently reviewed and note today's statement from the NatWest group board confirming this will happen."
Mills said: "It is vital that the review is well resourced and those conducting it have access to all the necessary information and people in order to investigate what happened swiftly and fully."
The director said the regulator will decide if further action is necessary against NatWest following the review and any other potential steps taken by other authorities such as the Financial Ombudsman Service or Information Commission on any other relevant complaints.
