The UK’s Latest “Debanking” Scandal Should Give Everyone Pause
First they came for Muslim activists. Then they came for Nigel Farage. Now, they’re coming for independent media outlets…
Not only has debanking continued but debanked customers now face the prospect of being blocked from setting up new accounts at other banks, as the Telegraph reported on Monday:
Banks are planning to block “debanked” customers from setting up accounts with other lenders, potentially leading to innocent people being effectively locked out of the financial system, The Telegraph can reveal.
Lobby group UK Finance is developing a platform that will allow banks to share data on their customers where they detect “markers of economic crime”.
Lloyds, Barclays and Revolut have already started sharing data about customers, leading to accounts being frozen or closed, The Telegraph understands, following a pilot in 2024.
The data-sharing platform will build on that pilot to make a UK-wide system, which could automatically bar people from opening another account.
But concerns have been raised that thousands of innocent customers and businesses who have been debanked unfairly could be barred from opening up an account with another bank, effectively leaving them locked out of the financial system.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/uks-latest-debanking-scandal-should-give-everyone-pause