Bank of England boss refused to cease ‘political cleaning’ of Brexiteer accounts
Two extra main Brexiteers have revealed how the present Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey refused to intervene when Barclays determined to shut their accounts with out warning in 2018.
Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, associates of Nigel Farage, seem to have additionally been focused for political causes in 2018 and appealed to Bailey who on the time was head of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) which oversees banks.
But they declare that on the time Bailey refused to intervene.
Banks and Wigmore ran the Leave.EU marketing campaign earlier than and in the course of the 2016 EU Referendum and had been with Farage when he met Donald Trump however, like the previous Brexit Party chief, had additionally been topic to false allegations about Russia collusion.
Mr Banks claimed to the Mail on Sunday that his accounts had been closed due to his function in successful the referendum marketing campaign.
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The closure of Mr Banks’ accounts meant that his GoSkippy motor insurance coverage prospects had been at risk of not receiving their monetary help.
He claims that he found he was being ‘debanked’ in November 2018 when he was visited by a senior Barclays supervisor, who delivered 27 white envelopes containing letters of termination saying his accounts would stop to function in 90 days.
He added that accounts held by his ex-wife and different relations had been additionally focused.
This included one held by his brother’s legislation agency. Added to that the financial institution additionally “called in all loans and facilities I had with them after 20 years of blemish-free banking.”
The closures even included a financial institution on the Isle of Man through which Mr Banks owned a 28 % stake.
The row has exploded since Nigel Farage revealed how Coutts Bank determined to shut his accounts for political causes.
The scandal has already seen the pressured resignation of Dame Alison Rose as NatWest chief government for leaking non-public particulars of M Farage’s accounts to the BBC, and Peter Flavel, the chief government of Coutts, for his function in debanking Mr Farage.
Mr Banks has additionally revealed that Mr Bailey was made conscious of the debanking scandal when he met with Sir Mark Boleat, Eldon’s chairman, on the annual City Banquet in Mansion House on October 24 that yr.
In an e mail to Mr Banks, despatched the following day, Sir Mark stated he was “chatting about this” to Mr Bailey and “mentioned our problem”.
He wrote: “Unprompted, he said there was concern about decision-taking in Barclays.”
Sir Mark had stated he was sat subsequent to Mark Steward, then Mr Bailey’s Executive Director Enforcement and Oversight on the FCA.
Sir Mark urged that Steward “knew without prompting” in regards to the “debanking” which indicated that “top people in the FCA have been closely following Eldon”, including that he “got the impression we might be able to use the FCA”.
Meanwhile, Mr Wigmore, who was Leave.EU’s director of communications was additionally focused by NatWest.
He instructed Express.co.uk: “NatWest cancelled my account, my wife’s account, and even my kids last year.
“They froze my belongings after which with out discover killed our accounts.
“The banks went for us based on our politics. It is a form of political ethnic cleansing.
“It is a full-on persecution of Brexit gamers. I could not get one other account for six months, and even then not in my title.”
Mr Banks said: “As a highprofile participant within the Brexit marketing campaign, I’ve been focused by banks and regulators and lots of different organisations.
“It was my view at the time that Barclays had debanked my accounts for political reasons, and the recent Coutts scandal has shed new light on the whole banking sector. Eldon Insurance was a highly regulated insurance business. Barclays took the business to the brink of destruction, which was utterly disgraceful behaviour.
“It is evident that the Financial Conduct Authority knew about of the problem of debanking folks on their political beliefs and Andrew Bailey has inquiries to reply on why he did nothing.
“The City and FCA run a system of blackballing people they don’t like. We know big organisations such as Barclays donated cash to the Remain campaign.
“My solely crime was backing Brexit, which I’d do once more in a heartbeat – however it got here at a heavy worth.”
A Barclays spokesman told the Mail on Sunday: “While we can not touch upon particular person accounts, we adjust to our authorized and regulatory obligations. We would solely withdraw banking providers from a person or enterprise in distinctive circumstances.”