Nigel Farage row wipes £600,000,000 off NatWest share price

The share price of NatWest has plummeted by £600million after the bank’s chief leaked private information about Nigel Farage to the BBC.

Dame Alison Rose, resigned last night after admitting to sharing information about the former UKIP leader which was the basis of an inaccurate story about Farage’s finances.

This caused the NatWest Group to drop down the FTSE 100 Index and suffer a 3.5% decline.

Farage has since called for the entire board, which owns Coutt’s bank, to resign following the scandal.

Last week, Mr Farage presented evidence, in the form of a 40-page dossier, that his account at Coutts had been closed partly due to his political views conflicting with the bank’s values.

This contradicted the BBC story which claimed he had not met a £1 million borrowing requirement.

Howard Davies, chairman of the NatWest Group Board, said in a statement: ‘The Board and Alison Rose have agreed, by mutual consent, that she will step down as CEO of the NatWest Group. It is a sad moment.

‘She has dedicated all her working life so far to NatWest and will leave many colleagues who respect and admire her.’

Dame Alison said: ‘I remain immensely proud of the progress the bank has made in supporting people, families and business across the UK, and building the foundations for sustainable growth.

‘My NatWest colleagues are central to that success, and so I would like to personally thank them for all that they have done.’

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it was concerned over NatWest’s sharing of personal information on Nigel Farage, and has written to banks reminding them of their responsibilities on customer data.

It said it had concerns NatWest could have breached banking confidentiality by sharing Mr Farage’s details with the BBC.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.