Banks AREN'T closing current accounts for political views, FCA says
Daily Mail Banks have not closed any current accounts over customers' political views, the financial regulator said today - despite a fierce political firestorm around the issue.
Earlier this year the issue of banks closing accounts, known as 'debanking', hit the headlines when former UKIP leader Nigel Farage claimed Coutts shut his current account due to his right-wing views.
In response, the Government asked the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulator to step in and investigate.
Today the FCA published a report saying it had found no evidence any bank had closed a current account due to political views.
Instead, the FCA said banks were only closing accounts for reasons such as suspected fraud and abuse of bank staff.
The FCA quizzed 34 banks about how many current accounts they closed, and why.
However, the regulator also said its report was rushed, and that the data supplied by banks was messy and incomplete.
