Ex-NatWest chief in line for multi-million-pound payoff following Farage Coutts row
Dame Alison Rose
PA
Ex-NatWest chief executive Dame Alison Rose is in line for a multi-million-pound payoff following Nigel Farage’s debanking row with subsidiary Coutts.
Rose spectacularly quit as the bank’s boss by “mutual consent” in the early hours of yesterday morning amid pressure from the Government.
The 54-year-old could now receive a hefty payout after NatWest’s board agreed to let her leave with immediate effect.
The decision will likely enable Dame Alison to receive pay in lieu of her working notice, analysts have told The Times.
Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage in his local village near Westerham, Kent
PA
NatWest’s annual report has suggested the bank can make a payment in lieu of 12 month’s notice.
Rose received £5.25million last year, including a £1.1million base salary.
However, NatWest indicated it was looking to curb her pay package after she admitted leaking confidential information about Farage’s bank accounts to the BBC.
Sources have told The Times that NatWest would look to limit Rose's remuneration but the bank declined to provide an official comment.
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Dame Alison Rose resigned as chief executive of NatWest
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The ex-Brexit Party leader told the broadsheet: “She should not be getting a payoff at all.
“She has breached the most basic rule of banking and brought the NatWest group into disrepute.”
NatWest is now facing an investigation into whether it broke data protection laws over the debacle.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) yesterday said Farage’s trust had been “betrayed” by the bank.
John Edwards, the information commissioner, said on Wednesday: “The banking duty of confidentiality is over a hundred years old, and it is clear that it would not permit the discussion of a customer’s personal information with the media.
Nigel FaragePA“We trust banks with our money and with our personal information.
“Any suggestion that this trust has been betrayed will be concerning for a bank’s customers, and for regulators like myself.”
NatWest chairman Sir Howard Davies and the bank’s board is now under increasing pressure to join Dame Alison out of the door after she admitted to a “serious error of judgment” by leaking information to the BBC.
The ICO is more likely to slap NatWest with a civil penalty rather than bring criminal prosecutions, sources have told The Telegraph.
The bank has already been dealt a major financial blow from the scandal, with £850million being wiped from NatWest’s value.