Nigel Farage debanking scandal: Ex-NatWest CEO speaks out as she insists she showed 'courage and honesty'

The former bank chief went on to say she had always tried to act with “integrity, empathy and respect”.

Speaking about her leadership, Rose said: "I think you learn more by being the person who asks the question, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ or ‘I don’t understand how that works. Explain that to me’.

"It breaks down some of the hierarchy that naturally exists around the senior roles.

"But also being very candid about the mistakes I’ve made.

"I think humanising leadership and making it acceptable for people to talk about mistakes, because I don’t think it’s the mistake that defines you, that was always my message.

“Everybody makes mistakes whether they talk about them or not.

“It is not the mistake that defines you, it’s how you respond to the mistake or the error or the failure or the learning experience and what you do with it that defines you.

She added: “That’s how I always talked about the errors I made. I would bring them to life in examples of different points of my career when I did something and then what I did with that and how that shaped me.

“I think that type of courageous and honest leadership is really important because mistakes happen and if we don’t create a culture and environment where people can talk about them, learn from them, get the experience from other people, then those mistakes stay hidden and that’s bad culture and bad for the learning experience.”

In June last year Nigel Farage revealed his Coutts account had been closed.

He was initially told it was because he didn’t meet the exclusive bank’s criteria but documents obtained by the GB News Presenter revealed it had been because of his outspoken opinions.

Rose eventually resigned as CEO of NatWest, which owns Coutts, over the saga and admitted "serious error of judgement" by discussing Farage's case with a BBC journalist.

In a new candid chat with the In The Arena podcast, the former exec spoke about the effect banks like NatWest can have.

It comes after Farage told of the toll his debanking had on him, saying he was essentially a “non-person”.

Rose said: “I've seen the impact an organisation can have when it goes wrong. The financial crisis affected huge numbers of people’s lives.

“But I can also therefore see the impact of when you do it right.

“Any business leader, any business has no right to exist. It has to be relevant to its customers, to its employees, its role wherever it sits. Whether it’s a small business in the community or it’s a global business in the global economy.”

Last November it was reported the bank chief would not be getting a £7.6million payment after admitting to discussing Farage’s banking arrangements with a BBC journalist.

During the podcast chat, Rose spoke of possessing skills like ”perspective, resilience” and “recognising sometimes things aren’t fair,” adding “that’s just life”.

As part of the debanking scandal, Farage submitted a subject access request which provided him with all the conversations staff at NatWest had had about him.

The document showed the Reform Leader’s account had been closed because his views didn’t align with the bank’s.

Staff had labelled him a racist and a xenophobe citing his support of former US President Donald Trump and debates about Covid-19.

Speaking to CEO Cameron Schwab on his podcast, Rose discussed sacking members of staff.

She said: “I’ve had situations before where I’ve had someone who is utterly brilliant at what they do, but culturally not a fit, so therefore what you could achieve as a team would be knocked off course.”

Rose added: “For me it’s about always acting with integrity, empathy and respect and treating people well as they join you and as they leave you.

“I was always very open and honest. I treated people with respect and I treated them with respect when they moved on.”