NatWest CEO resigns after admitting to ‘serious error’ over Nigel Farage leak

Alison Rose, NatWest chief executive, (right) departs 10 Downing Street in London, after meeting with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

James Manning | PA Images | Getty Images

NatWest CEO Alison Rose on Wednesday stepped down with immediate effect after she admitted a “serious error of judgment” in discussing former Brexit party leader Nigel Farage’s relationship with the bank with a senior BBC journalist.

The board appointed Paul Thwaite to helm NatWest for an initial period of 12 months, the company 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,” Howard Davies, chairman of the board, said.

The taxpayer-backed lender has faced intense political and media scrutiny over a decision by its private bank Coutts to close Farage’s accounts after the politician-turned-broadcaster obtained an internal document that said this was partly because his views were not “aligned” with the bank’s.

Rose has also faced days of speculation over whether she discussed Farage’s account with public broadcaster the BBC — which she admitted to for the first time on Tuesday.

Farage hit back at NatWest’s statement on his eponymous TV show on channel GB News and criticized Rose as “unfit” to run a bank, as well as lambasting NatWest’s chairman, Howard Davies, and Coutts CEO Peter Flavel.

“The government ought to say we have no confidence in this management. Frankly, I think they should all go,” Farage said, after declaring that Rose had breached an “essential confidence.”

NatWest’s Davies had earlier said that Rose retained the “full confidence” of the bank’s board and that it would commission an independent review into the matter.

Davies hinted that Rose — whose total pay package jumped nearly 50% to 5.2 million pounds ($6.70 million) in 2022 — could have her bonuses docked at the end of the year, saying the events would be taken into account “in decisions on remuneration.”

Rose confirmed in the statement that she had discussed Farage’s “relationship with the bank” with BBC Business Editor Simon Jack.

“I recognize that in my conversations with Simon Jack of the BBC, I made a serious error of judgment,” Rose said, but added she had not revealed any personal financial information about Farage and had answered a general question about eligibility.

The BBC on Monday also apologized to Farage after originally reporting that he had fallen below the financial threshold required to be a customer at Coutts in a story that Jack later described as “incomplete and inaccurate.”

Coutts’ website advises its clients should be able to borrow or invest at least 1 million pounds with the bank or hold 3 million pounds in savings.

Farage said the statements made by BBC and NatWest were “contradictory.”

Rose also said she was not part of the decision-making process to “exit” Farage’s accounts and said this was a decision made by Coutts.

Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it had urged the NatWest board to review the matter independently and welcomed its statement.

“It is vital that the review is well resourced and those conducting it have access to all the necessary information and people in order to investigate what happened swiftly and fully,” said Sheldon Mills, the FCA’s executive director of consumers and competition.

U.K. Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment in the wake of Rose’s resignation but earlier told Reuters that the government’s shareholding is managed “at arm’s length” and on a commercial basis by the UK Government Investments (UKGI).

UKGI’s role is to manage the shareholding, not the bank itself, it had then said.

Britain’s financial services minister Andrew Griffith is set to meet lenders today to discuss concerns that banks have closed customer accounts over their political views, ahead of reforms requiring banks to explain and delay these decisions.