The FCA is to probe potential regulatory breaches related to NatWest's unilateral closure of politician Nigel Farage’s Coutts bank account earlier this year.

Dame Alison Rose, CEO of NatWest parent Coutts, resigned in July after allegedly sharing information about the account closure with a journalist.

In a statement today, the FCA said it had reviewed the findings of an initial independent report from a law firm, commissioned by NatWest, into decisions on potential account closures and data protection breaches.

It said this report, and additional information, had highlighted “potential regulatory breaches” and areas for improvement.

These include: 

• the firms’ processes, systems and controls around how NatWest / Coutts considers the potential closure of accounts and handles complaints from customers
• the allocation of responsibilities and effectiveness of the firms' governance mechanisms

The watchdog said that both firms were now reviewing how their governance, systems and controls are working to identify and address any "significant shortcomings."

This supervisory work will include use of the FCA's statutory information gathering powers, interviews with relevant bank staff and reviews of appropriate policies or procedures, the FCA said.    

The investigation will also look at how the issues raised may impact on the wider fair treatment of customers. 

The FCA added, however, that any complaints about handling of individual cases remain a matter for the Financial Ombudsman Service although it would cooperate with the FOS.

Mr Farage, a former leader of the UKIP political party and a prominent Brexit campaigner, reported earlier this year that his account with Coutts had been unexpectedly closed without him being given a reason.

In July Dame Alison admitted to being the source of an inaccurate BBC story which said Mr Farage’s account had been closed as he no longer met the wealth threshold for Coutts.

Dame Alison apologised for the breach of information. Initially the board backed her but she decided to resign.

Mr Farage has called for the entire NatWest board to resign.

Meanwhile, NatWest today made a statement on the inquiry it commissioned from law firm Travers Smith into the Nigel Farage account closure.

NatWest Group chairman, Sir Howard Davies, said: “This report sets out a number of serious failings in the treatment of Mr Farage. Although Travers Smith confirm the lawful basis for the exit decision, the findings set out clear shortcomings in how it was reached as well as failures in how we communicated with him and in relation to client confidentiality. We apologise once again to Mr Farage for how he has been treated. His experience fell short of the standards that any customer should expect.

“Our job now is to make sure that does not happen again. The bank is committed to implementing all the recommendations made by Travers Smith and we are making substantive changes to our policies and procedures, in particular to ensure that the lawfully protected beliefs or opinions of customers do not play any role in our decision making.

“The board is considering the findings and deciding on the appropriate outcomes on other matters. It is important we have regard to all necessary processes and due consideration of issues, including the bank’s obligations around privacy and confidentiality.” 

NatWest also announced Q3 results today with total income up by 8% year on year to £3.5bn, missing City expectations.