Law firm set to miss first deadline on NatWest’s Farage review

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The law firm reviewing NatWest’s closure of former Ukip leader Nigel Farage’s account and the possible leaking of confidential information will miss this week’s deadline for completing the work, people familiar with the situation have said.

Travers Smith was appointed at the end of July to carry out an independent review after NatWest chief executive Alison Rose was forced to resign. She stepped aside after admitting she had discussed Farage’s account with a BBC journalist.

In the first phase of its work, the law firm was charged with evaluating whether NatWest and its private bank Coutts handled the closure of Farage’s account correctly, as well as whether the lender leaked confidential information about him.

The work was due to be completed in “four to six weeks”, implying a deadline of September 8.

Two people familiar with the situation told the Financial Times that this deadline would be missed. One said the work was now set to be completed by September 22. The other said the pace could be faster but work would not be finished this week.

The people said the scale of the work involved was not fully understood when the review was “hastily” announced. NatWest announced Travers Smith’s appointment on July 28 as it struggled to contain the scandal. Senior government ministers publicly denounced the taxpayer-backed bank’s chief executive over the affair.

The government has also promised a broader review of how banks deal with so-called politically exposed persons. The Financial Conduct Authority is due to give an update on that work on Tuesday morning.

One of the people said Travers Smith had already interviewed dozens of people about Farage’s account. The interviews examined whether Coutts’ policies were properly applied to Farage as well as why his account was identified for closure, how his case was evaluated, and the involvement of senior NatWest and Coutts’ executives.

In July, Farage published an internal Coutts memo which said a central reason for his account’s closure was that his political views did “not align” with the bank’s.

NatWest has committed to publishing the key findings and recommendations of the Travers Smith review once they have been considered by the bank’s board. But the published version is likely to be heavily redacted and will come several weeks after the report is completed.

Travers Smith was also contracted for a second phase of work, which looks at Coutts’ account closures over the past 24 months. It is due to be completed by the end of October.

Travers Smith did not respond to requests for comment, while HM Treasury, the government department responsible for banking issues, declined to comment. The FCA said that it was “in regular contact with NatWest”.

“We expect the firm to co-operate with the review team to produce a robust and comprehensive report, and we understand that good progress is being made,” the regulator said.

NatWest said that Travers Smith had advised the bank that it expected to complete the first phase in seven to eight weeks rather than up to six weeks. It insisted, however, that the revised timeframe was not a “significant change”.