Banks closing accounts!

Offsideagain

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Turns out any Bank can close an account without giving a reason. Old Farage has had his Yorkshire Building Society account closed and they won't tell him why. He, of course, puts it down to his political views. A Vicar also had his YBS account closed because he made a comment about the 'Pride week' feature on their website. Comments were invited and he said that they should concentrate on looking after money instead os promoting gay ideology. As a Christian, it offended him.

Can it come to Banks closing accounts for customers supporting a particular football team? Stranger things have happened. That may be a fanciful remark but it is worrying that these institutions can have the power to do that. I believe they can do it if money laundering is suspected and/or a link to organised crime and even extreme political views.
 
Offsideagain said:
Can it come to Banks closing accounts for customers supporting a particular football team? Stranger things have happened.
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You might be on to something here. I know loads of Liverpool supporters and none of them have bank accounts. Or jobs, come to think of it.
 
First of all, YBS is a building society, not a bank. That means that it has members, not customers, and I think they have every right to cancel a membership based on the given reasons, discrimination is a really serious issue.

Second, on Farage's case, it's an allegation from Farage. There can be multiple reasons why this has happened, and in his case we can imagine a few potential ones (e.g. illegal money laundering from russian sources)
 
Putting alerts on this thread because I think we’ve caught a live one.
 
Offsideagain said:
Turns out any Bank can close an account without giving a reason. Old Farage has had his Yorkshire Building Society account closed and they won't tell him why. He, of course, puts it down to his political views. A Vicar also had his YBS account closed because he made a comment about the 'Pride week' feature on their website. Comments were invited and he said that they should concentrate on looking after money instead os promoting gay ideology. As a Christian, it offended him.
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I'm curious about what actually happened to Farage; I would never just trust a populist like him on these matters. But I read about the priest (https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1786541/bank-closes-vicars-account-after-farage-warning-spt) and I think you're being a little generous to him: he wrote a couple of a couple of paragraphs about the bank pushing 'transgender ideology', which in itself is a repulsive way to refer to the subject and to me sounds like he may have been denying the existing of the whole idea of transgender. So I'd question how inoffensive his comments really were.

Also, the bank has stated that “We never close savings accounts based on different opinions regarding beliefs or feedback provided by our customers. We only ever make the difficult decision to close a savings account if a customer is rude, abusive, violent or discriminates in any way, based on the specific facts, comments and behaviour in each case.” That again suggests he didn't write something quite as inoffensive as you're making it seem.

So at this point, I'd probably want to see his actual text before jumping to conclusions either way. (Which of course the media do - all of which who have published on this so far are right-wing and are pushing their usual angle, as far as I can find in a quick search.)
Can it come to Banks closing accounts for customers supporting a particular football team? Stranger things have happened. That may be a fanciful remark but it is worrying that these institutions can have the power to do that. I believe they can do it if money laundering is suspected and/or a link to organised crime and even extreme political views.
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But this is just silly. You're not being serious, are you? I also wouldn't be surprised, btw, if YBS responded to the backlash by apologizing and reinstating this guy's account.
 
Pexbo said:
WOKE
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Oh poor little rich boy Socialist making excuses for taking yet more money and pretending he can change their way of living. Personally, I find that interfering with other Countries way of life just because it does suit us is shocking. How would we feel if it was the other way around? Making a big deal of their view on LGBTGTYSFR people is just to please the WOKES and make him look cool. Stick to Football punditry mate.
Yes it's a quote from offsideagain
 
Gehrman said:
Happened to that triggernometry show as well.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/05/22/now-the-banks-have-joined-the-war-on-free-speech/
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That's a fascinating article. It gives three examples of PayPal blocking accounts and then reinstating them with an apology, one example of financial measures in Canada to try and stop an illegal blockade of downtown Ottawa, and then there's the Triggernometry case, which is under evaluation and might be rescinded as well.

If that's the dictatorial censorship they seem very worried about, then it looks no-one has anything to fear.
 
The Farage thing could very well be something I'm not going to mention on a web forum. And an outspoken man of the cloth getting up to some grubby business is a fairly common occurence.

Two vague anecdotes with one involving Nigel Farage doesn't sound like something you should be worrying about.
 
Offsideagain said:
Turns out any Bank can close an account without giving a reason. Old Farage has had his Yorkshire Building Society account closed and they won't tell him why. He, of course, puts it down to his political views. A Vicar also had his YBS account closed because he made a comment about the 'Pride week' feature on their website. Comments were invited and he said that they should concentrate on looking after money instead os promoting gay ideology. As a Christian, it offended him.

Can it come to Banks closing accounts for customers supporting a particular football team? Stranger things have happened. That may be a fanciful remark but it is worrying that these institutions can have the power to do that. I believe they can do it if money laundering is suspected and/or a link to organised crime and even extreme political views.
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You think this is bad? You won't believe what churches used to get up to!
 
dumbo said:
The Farage thing could very well be something I'm not going to mention on a web forum. And an outspoken man of the cloth getting up to some grubby business is a fairly common occurence.

Two vague anecdotes with one involving Nigel Farage doesn't sound like something you should be worrying about.
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You should read @Gehrman's article: five more anecdotes that amount to nothing! This is totally getting out of control, I'm telling you!
 
Offsideagain said:
Turns out any Bank can close an account without giving a reason. Old Farage has had his Yorkshire Building Society account closed and they won't tell him why. He, of course, puts it down to his political views. A Vicar also had his YBS account closed because he made a comment about the 'Pride week' feature on their website. Comments were invited and he said that they should concentrate on looking after money instead os promoting gay ideology. As a Christian, it offended him.

Can it come to Banks closing accounts for customers supporting a particular football team? Stranger things have happened. That may be a fanciful remark but it is worrying that these institutions can have the power to do that. I believe they can do it if money laundering is suspected and/or a link to organised crime and even extreme political views.
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Is that you Nige?
 
Wouldn't trust Farage, and not sure the bank would ever reply with specifics.

But a bank accounts a service no? There aren't under any obligation to provide an account to someone if they don't want to. In fact, judging by fact they aren't telling him the reason, I wouldn't put it past concerns about money laundering etc.
 
Cheimoon said:
You should read @Gehrman's article: five more anecdotes that amount to nothing! This is totally getting out of control, I'm telling you!
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I don't read any articles Gehrman posts anymore because he has shown himself to be lacking in critical faculties. I don't have the time to wade through alt-right spam anymore, thanks all the same.
 
I can weigh in on this, because I've had an account closed because of nothing more than a difference in opinion.

What I and the bank disagreed about was the urgency of me proving my identity, just because of some money laundering laws or something. Around a year later, a bunch of email and letters and a couple of phone calls, I got cancelled.
 
dumbo said:
I don't read any articles Gehrman posts anymore because he has shown himself to be lacking in critical faculties. I don't have the time to wade through alt-right spam anymore, thanks all the same.
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That's alright, you're not missing much. They gave examples of accounts blocked and then reinstated, and the repercussions of actual illegal activity; you'll survive not knowing this in detail.
 
If you launder money or lie about your finances, well, as the great Jamie Vardy once said, "chat shit, get banged"
 
He has a right to a bank ac. Holding unto different views is not a crime and the reality in life, the majority don’t tend to subscribe to the same views or values as the loud minority(media/government).
I disagree with basically every view point he holds in politics but that’s also with an acceptance that majority of the people around me think some of what he says is right. They just wont bother to engage my counter arguments.
There seems to be a general theme in the media of “but society has changed”, no it hasn’t. People just don’t see how something irrelevant to their daily lives of importance to a point of them being vocal about it, they’d rather others get on with it and nod in agreement to save themselves the hassle of defending themselves.
Going by what he is saying because there is no collaboration or rebuttal currently out there, the optics don’t look right and people should not celebrate this.
 
I'll believe the judgment of any bank before I believe a single word Farage says.
 
KikiDaKats said:
Going by what he is saying because there is no collaboration or rebuttal currently out there, the optics don’t look right and people should not celebrate this.
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Is usually a horrible way to go.

His finances have been questioned a number of times by politicians and news outlets.

I don't know enough to say that he is a financially dodgy bastard. I do know enough (as most people should), to say that anything that Farage says should go straight in the bin. He is not a reliable person or a good one.
 
Any company can refuse any service for any reason, all they have to do is not admit that it’s discriminatory in nature and they’re fine.
 
Cheimoon said:
That's a fascinating article. It gives three examples of PayPal blocking accounts and then reinstating them with an apology, one example of financial measures in Canada to try and stop an illegal blockade of downtown Ottawa, and then there's the Triggernometry case, which is under evaluation and might be rescinded as well.

If that's the dictatorial censorship they seem very worried about, then it looks no-one has anything to fear.
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Not to mention that most of the cases involve groups I wouldn't want to do business with if I could help it.
 
dumbo said:
Is usually a horrible way to go.

His finances have been questioned a number of times by politicians and news outlets.

I don't know enough to say that he is a financially dodgy bastard. I do know enough (as most people should), to say that anything that Farage says should go straight in the bin. He is not a reliable person or a good one.
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Seems you already have an idea.

Like it or not, he is public figure and a very loud voice. It is worth clarifying instead of laughed at because these things just don’t go away. They go hibernating in some conspiracy hole somewhere and ready to be weaponised.
 
Wibble said:
No he doesn't. Banks don't have to do business with any particular person.
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Yep he doesn’t but entitled to one. It’s not as simple as it’s not his right.

Obviously businesses reserve the right who they do business with and I wasn’t arguing that.
 
KikiDaKats said:
Yep he doesn’t but entitled to one. It’s not as simple as it’s not his right.

Obviously businesses reserve the right who they do business with and I wasn’t arguing that.
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Not sure what you're saying, but he definitely isn't entitled to have a bank account. If he's arguing that a bank account should be a right rather than a privilege then he's venturing into communism.
 
Bert_ said:
Not sure what you're saying, but he definitely isn't entitled to have a bank account. If he's arguing that a bank account should be a right rather than a privilege then he's venturing into communism.
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I made the statement of it being his right, did not quote him. Most of his rambling I had no interest enough to quote. I don’t like the optics and it’s not an opportunity to heckle him.
Societies have a habit of creating beasts and feign surprise when it rears its head.
 
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