The chairman of NatWest faces increasing pressure to resign due to his handling of Nigel Farage’s “debanking scandal”.
Investors are worried that Sir Howard Davies has lost his authority as the head of the board at NatWest since 2015. The bank had to reverse its decision to support Dame Alison Rose.
Sir Howard Farage was also asked to resign by Mr Farage, who said that the “whole NatWest board” should be replaced.
Shareholders are worried that Sir Howard, who has been the chairman of NatWest for almost nine years, is losing control.
The newspaper quoted a major shareholder who refused to be named as saying: “He is clearly not in control.” Banking is all about trust and confidence. It’s important to start with the tone of the top.
Another person said: “My guess is that he’ll end up going but shouldn’t.”
Investors are worried after Sir Howard and the board said on Tuesday night that they have confidence in Dame Alison Rose, despite the fact that she had admitted to misleading a BBC reporter about the reasons for the closure of Mr Farage’s private bank Coutts.
The board led by Sir Howard had, according to Mr Farage, “made a complete, utter mess” of the situation.
He said to Sky News: “Howard Davies, who describes himself as the chairperson of NatWest Group is responsible for overseeing governance.
The statement released at quarter-six yesterday was Howard Davies’ endorsement of Alison Rose remaining in her position, despite the fact that they had already accepted that it was she who leaked information to the BBC.
“I honestly think that any member of the Border who supported that statement last evening simply shouldn’t have been there.”
He said that Sir Howard “absolutely” should resign.
The former Brexit campaigner who is also a GB News presenter has called for Peter Flavel, chief executive of NatWest owned Coutts to leave.
Sir Howard, 72, has announced his intention to retire in July of next year.
The uncertainty over the future leadership of NatWest saw the shares of the bank drop by up to 4.1 percent, reducing the value of the lender by more than PS850m.
Sir Howard, an economist born in Manchester, is a City of London heavyweight. He has held some of the UK’s most important regulatory roles.
He served as the first chairman of the Financial Services Authority (the predecessor to the City regulator we have today), and was a deputy governor of the Bank of England, and director of London School of Economics.
Other jobs include boardroom roles with Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley, pensions giant Prudential and stints as chair of Phoenix and UK Airports Commission.