Nigel Farage, the former Brexit party leader, said on Tuesday that British private bank Coutts had told him it was closing his accounts and had offered him a standard one with its parent group NatWest instead.
A source familiar with the matter, who declined to be named, told that Farage’s accounts with Coutts, which is traditionally a bank for wealthy clients and once known as ‘the Queen’s bank’, had been closed mainly for commercial reasons.
A NatWest spokesperson declined to comment.
The move comes at a time of growing public scrutiny of banks closing customer accounts, with the government drawn into the debate and saying on Monday it was looking into the issue.
The BBC reported earlier on Tuesday that Farage fell below the financial threshold required to hold a Coutts account.
Coutts’ website advises its clients should be able to borrow or invest at least 1 million pounds ($1.3 million) with the bank or hold 3 million pounds in savings.
Farage told he had not been told these thresholds by Coutts and declined to answer when asked if he met them, but said he currently had more money in his current account than he had had “for most of the last decade”.
He said he had been offered a NatWest account on June 29 after he complained publicly about losing his accounts, adding he has been given a postponement of a few weeks before his Coutts accounts are closed.
Farage said he believed his accounts were being closed because he was deemed a ‘politically exposed person’, which means a bank needs to apply additional scrutiny.
The government has said it has passed legislation to make these rules less onerous, but they have not yet come into force.