One of the U.K.’s largest banks refused to open an account with a conservative parent group because of its stances on gender ideology, the group claims.
Metro Bank, Britain’s seventh largest bank, would not open a business account for Our Duty, an international network of over 2,000 parents that advocates against gender transitions for minors, according to the organization’s founder Keith Jordan.
“The content of your website conflicts with the culture and ideas we are pushing,” a Metro Bank employee allegedly told the organization. “The bank has staff networks for diversity and inclusion including for LGBTQ staff.”
“The bank was making it patently clear that they consider only one worldview to be valid. If it were truly a champion of diversity and inclusion, it would accept our diverse views and be keen to include us,” the organization responded. “It seems that Our Duty is the latest casualty in the LGBTQ+ staff networks’ war on differing views.”
On top of the bank’s reported refusal to open a business account with Our Duty, Jordan said that their existing “community account” with Metro Bank is “under review.” The bank told Jordan via email that Our Duty’s account violated guidelines that forbid community account holders from being “linked to, or influenc[ing] political policies or legislations,” The Telegraph reported.
Last month, the bank of 2.5 million customers joined the Stonewall Diversity Champion Program, a controversial scheme that promotes left-wing LGBTQ agenda items in the workplace. In 2021, the BBC left the program over concerns that the publication could not be neutral in public debates due to its affiliation with Stonewall.
Metro Bank’s alleged denial comes amid reports of British banks shutting the accounts of people based on their political or moral views, including an equalities commissioner, fathers’ rights charity, and UKIP councilor.
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) recently shut down the account of Scotland’s Equality and Human Rights Commissioner Dr. Lesley Sawers, who works on women’s and LGBT issues. Sawers’ husband claimed RBS told him that she has “a mark against her name.”
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The CEO of Families Needs Fathers, an organization that helps children maintain relationships with both parents after a divorce, told the Daily Mail that HSBC shut down their account in April “without any warning.”
Former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage claimed that Coutts bank closed his accounts and that nine other banks refused to open accounts with him because of his political views.
The British government is currently investigating banks for shutting down accounts because of their customers’ views on politics, Brexit, and gender ideology. However, the issue of banks retaliating against its customers for their political views is not limited to the U.K.
According to the Daily Mail, a whistleblower from Santander — an American bank — said that the bank is on a “really toxic path” and has been “policing the political views of their customers.” He also said that LGBT activists pressured the company to close the account of a customer who told the company that “banks shouldn’t support political causes” in reaction to Pride flags at one of Santander’s branches.
In 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau worked with banks to freeze the accounts of those who protested his COVID mandates. According to The New York Times, Canadian police officers exchanged protesters’ personal information with banks, and insurance companies were required to revoke coverage for vehicles used in protests.