UPDATE: Farage's bank has admitted that it ditched Farage because of his reputation and politics. This post, citing the BBC, originally reported that "Coutts closed the account because Farage could not maintain the exclusive bank's minimum balance," now clearly a technicality that's not a problem for many other account holders.
Nigel Farage, notable for his far-right politics, relentless pursuit of Brexit and being easily pranked, publicly accused his bank of a conspiracy to silence him by closing his account. His claim even elicited a statement from the current Conservative government warning banks not to close accounts for political reasons.
Nigel Farage fell below the financial threshold required to hold an account at Coutts, the prestigious private bank for the wealthy, the BBC has been told. It is understood that he was subsequently offered a standard account at NatWest which owns Coutts.
Mr Farage says he believes his account is being shut for political reasons and says he has been turned down by nine other lenders after trying elsewhere. But people familiar with Coutts' move said it was a "commercial" decision.
"The criteria for holding a Coutts account are clear from the bank's website," they told the BBC. Coutts requires its customers to borrow or invest at least £1m with the bank or hold £3m in savings.
Coutts' bosses were forced out over the imbroglio, and the BBC has apologized for sourcing a story to a bank insider without further evidence.
U.S. media is famous for both-sidesism and deferential interviews, but it has nothing on the sheer gullibility of British media. Anyone in its list of main characters can just put out nonsense and get it covered verbatim for days. When the facts emerge the story will either vanish like a ghost or transform weirdly into a totally different one.
.jpg){kind=link}