Coutts CEO Peter Flavel stands down over Nigel Farage row
C
outts’ chief govt Peter Flavel, the boss of the personal financial institution which closed Nigel Farage’s account, will step down instantly, NatWest Group has mentioned.
It follows the departure of NatWest CEO Dame Alison Rose, early on Wednesday, after she admitted a “serious error of judgment” when she mentioned Mr Farage’s relationship with personal financial institution Coutts, owned by the NatWest Group, with BBC enterprise editor Simon Jack, at a charity dinner.
In an announcement, on Thursday, Paul Thwaite, the NatWest Group CEO mentioned he had “agreed with Peter Flavel that he will step down as Coutts CEO and CEO of our Wealth Businesses by mutual consent with immediate effect”.
“Whilst I will be personally sorry to lose Peter as a colleague, I believe this is the right decision for Coutts and the wider Group.
Mr Flavel said he was “exceptionally proud of my seven years at Coutts” and wished to “thank the team that have built it into such a high performing business”.
“In the handling of Mr Farage’s case we have fallen below the bank’s high standards of personal service. As CEO of Coutts it is right that I bear ultimate responsibility for this, which is why I am stepping down.”
Mr Flavel is predicted to get replaced by Mohammad Kamal Syed, who’s at the moment the pinnacle of asset administration on the financial institution, on an interim foundation till a everlasting successor is discovered.
Last week, Mr Farage introduced proof, within the type of a 40-page file, that his account at Coutts had been closed partly as a result of his political opinions conflicting with the financial institution’s values.
The proof obtained from the financial institution by means of an information request contradicted a BBC News story, which initially claimed that the account closure was motivated by business causes solely, citing Mr Farage’s failure to satisfy a £1 million borrowing requirement.
The BBC and its enterprise editor Simon Jack apologised, saying the reporting had been primarily based on info from a “trusted and senior source” however “turned out to be incomplete and inaccurate”.
Mr Farage, a key architect of Brexit which many consultants say has dealt a multi-billion-pound blow to Britain, had known as for a wider shake-up of the NatWest board, together with for its chairman Sir Howard Davies to give up, after it had voiced “full confidence” in Dame Alison on Tuesday night.
He mentioned on Wednesday: “Anybody on that board that backed that statement that was put out at 17.42 yesterday — a totally unsustainable statement — should be gone.”