Dame Alison Rose quits as NatWest boss after admitting leaking information about Nigel Farage’s ‘de-banking’ to the BBC
NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose has stepped down as chief executive effective immediately after admitting to being the source of the BBC’s incorrect story about a ‘de-banking’ row between Nigel Farage and Coutts.
The board of NatWest Group held emergency talks into the night on her future after she apologised for her ‘serious error of judgment’ in speaking to the broadcaster’s business editor Simon Jack about the bank’s treatment of the former Ukip leader.
Bosses at the bank, which is 39 per cent owned by the government, were locked in a power struggle after NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies criticised her ‘regrettable’ action but said yesterday the bank’s board had ‘full confidence’ in her.
But Dame Alison resigned in an embarrassing u-turn early this morning after pressure was piled on the beleaguered banking boss by No 10 and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt who briefed of their ‘significant concerns’ about her keeping her post.
Howard Davies, chairman of the NatWest Group Board, said in a statement: ‘The Board and Alison Rose have agreed, by mutual consent, that she will step down as CEO of the NatWest Group. It is a sad moment.
‘She has dedicated all her working life so far to NatWest and will leave many colleagues who respect and admire her.’
NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose (pictured) has stepped down as chief executive effective immediately after admitting to being the source of the BBC ‘s incorrect story about a ‘de-banking’ row between Nigel Farage and Coutts
The board of NatWest Group held emergency talks into the night on her future after she apologised for her ‘serious error of judgment’ in speaking to the broadcaster’s business editor Simon Jack about the bank’s treatment of former Ukip leader Nigel Farage (pictured)
Dame Alison resigned in an embarrassing u-turn early this morning after pressure was piled on the beleaguered banking boss by No 10 and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt (pictured) who briefed of their ‘significant concerns’ about her keeping her post
Dame Alison said: ‘I remain immensely proud of the progress the bank has made in supporting people, families and business across the UK, and building the foundations for sustainable growth.
‘My NatWest colleagues are central to that success, and so I would like to personally thank them for all that they have done.’
READ MORE: Nigel Farage says Alison Rose is ‘clearly unfit’ to run NatWest as she admits she WAS the source of incorrect BBC story on his ‘de-banking’: Bank’s board say they STILL have ‘full confidence’ in her as she apologises to ex-UKIP chief
NatWest’s board of directors also announced that Paul Thwaite, the current chief executive of the company’s Commercial and Institutional business, will take over Dame Alison’s responsibilities for an initial period of 12 months, pending regulatory approval.
The board said in a statement that a further process to appoint a permanent successor will take place ‘in due course’.
The resignation comes after Dame Alison apologised last night after it emerged she sat next to Mr Jack at a charity dinner the night before the BBC wrongly reported Mr Farage was dropped as a Coutts customer due to a lack of wealth.
It has since been revealed how Mr Farage was ditched by Coutts due to his political views.
Sky News has been told that a final decision has yet to be made on Dame Alison’s future and the bank declined to give them a comment.
Dame Alison’s resignation was a major U-turn for the banking group who had earlier said they retain ‘full confidence in Ms Rose as CEO of the bank’ – and it would also be an stark end to her four-year role as the only woman to run one of Britain’s biggest high-street banks.
Mr Jack had earlier apologised to Mr Farage for his ‘incomplete and inaccurate’ story about why his Coutts account was shut down, blaming a ‘senior and trusted source’ for the false information.
The original BBC report, which suggested Mr Farage was dropped as a customer because he fell below the prestigious private bank’s financial threshold, rather than for his political views, was published a day after Mr Jack and Dame Alison sat next to each other at a charity dinner.
It later emerged that staff at Coutts, which is owned by NatWest Group, compiled a 36-page dossier to justify ‘exiting’ Mr Farage as his political views did ‘not align’ with the lender’s values.
Last night Dame Alison finally broke her silence and confirmed that she had briefed Mr Jack before he published his story.
She said in a statement: ‘I recognise that in my conversations with Simon Jack of the BBC, I made a serious error of judgment in discussing Mr Farage’s relationship with the bank. Believing it was public knowledge, I confirmed that Mr Farage was a Coutts customer and that he had been offered a NatWest bank account.
‘Alongside this, I repeated what Mr Farage had already stated, that the bank saw this as a commercial decision.
‘I did not reveal any personal financial information about Mr Farage. In response to a general question about eligibility criteria required to bank with Coutts and NatWest I said that guidance on both was publicly available on their websites.
‘In doing so, I recognise that I left Mr Jack with the impression that the decision to close Mr Farage’s accounts was solely a commercial one.’
Dame Alison said she was not part of the decision-making process to close Mr Farage’s account.
She said she was informed in April that it was done ‘for commercial reasons’, but was ‘not in receipt of’ the 36-page dossier compiled by Coutts staff to justify closing his account when she spoke to the BBC journalist.
Admitting she was ‘wrong to respond to any question raised by the BBC about this case’, she extended her ‘sincere apologies’ to Mr Farage and her NatWest colleagues. Last week she apologised for the ‘deeply inappropriate comments’ made in the document, which branded Mr Farage a ‘disingenuous grifter’.
Sir Howard Davies said Dame Alison’s decision to brief a BBC journalist was a ‘regrettable error of judgement on her part’, but said the board ‘retains full confidence in her as CEO of the bank’.
Sir Howard, however, has hinted that Dame Alison, whose total pay package jumped nearly 50 per cent to hit £5.2 million last year, could have her bonuses docked at the end of the year, saying the events would be taken into account ‘in decisions on remuneration’.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has raised the possibility of taking ‘further action’.
Sheldon Mills, the watchdog’s executive director of consumers and competition, 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.’ Mr Mills stressed the need to ‘investigate what happened swiftly and fully’.
Mr Farage later issued a statement yesterday evening saying: ‘Dame Alison Rose has now admitted that she is the source. She broke client confidentiality, and is unfit to be CEO of NatWest Group.’
And on speaking on his GB News show last night, Mr Farage again called for the resignation of senior figures at NatWest and Coutts.
He added that the government, who own a 39% stake in the banking giant, should say the have no confidence in its management at an investors meeting due to take place this Friday.
The Brexit campaigner said: ‘It is perfectly clear to me that Peter Flavel, the CEO of Coutts, has not done his job at all.
‘It is perfectly clear to me that Alison Rose is unfit to be the CEO of a big group and that Howard Davies, who is supposed to be in charge of governance, has failed as well.
‘Given that we have a 39% stake in this, we the great British public, I think at that investor statement on Friday morning, the Government ought to say we have no confidence in this management.
‘Frankly, I think they should all go and that is my conclusion from what we’ve learned this afternoon.’
He also said that he had written to Coutts CEO Peter Flavel three times, and he claimed he had not acknowledged receipt of the letters, and instead other people had rang him as a result.
‘I did tell him in the last letter that if I couldn’t find another bank account I would be turning up in a few weeks at Coutts with a Securicor van to collect the balance of my account in cash,’ Mr Farage told viewers of his GB News show.
He accused the bank leadership of acting against the Financial Conduct Authority’s code of conduct.
‘I think they [the board of directors] are doing their best to prop up Alison Rose, her remuneration will be hit. She might not get the £5.2 million she got last year – gosh, my heart bleeds, I’m sure yours does to.
Tory party vice chairman Saqib Bhatti commented that Dame Alison’s ‘position would appear to now be untenable’.
In his column for the Daily Mail on Saturday, Boris Johnson called on Dame Alison to go if she was ‘in any way responsible’ for the false briefing.
The BBC updated its original story to clarify their information came ‘from a source’ rather than being factually accurate.
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