NatWest Group Plc said it had yet to make any decision on whether to claw back the pay of its former Chief Executive Officer Alison Rose after she stepped down last month in the wake of a row over the way the British bank closed the accounts of politician-turned-pundit Nigel Farage.
(Bloomberg) — NatWest Group Plc said it had yet to make any decision on whether to claw back the pay of its former Chief Executive Officer Alison Rose after she stepped down last month in the wake of a row over the way the British bank closed the accounts of politician-turned-pundit Nigel Farage.
The UK-based bank said in a statement on Wednesday that any judgment on Rose’s pay would depend on the outcome of investigations into the closing of Farage’s accounts with the lender’s Coutts private banking arm, as well as her discussions with a BBC journalist about the matter.
For the time being, Rose will continue to collect her £1.16 million salary and her £1.16 million fixed share allowance and additional pension contributions, the bank said. However, NatWest added that these pay arrangements would be reviewed as the investigations into the Farage row continued.
Farage described Rose’s payout as a “sick joke” in an online post. “Any employee of NatWest that had done what she’d done would have been out the door, fired and would have not even received their month’s money,” he said.
NatWest also said that its interim CEO Paul Thwaite would receive a salary of £1.1 million and a fixed share allowance of the same amount having stepped up to replace Rose on a temporary basis.
Days after Rose left, NatWest said it had hired law firm Travers Smith LLP to conduct a “thorough and independent review” into the closing of accounts at Coutts. The law firm will also look at the circumstances surrounding the BBC article and whether any confidential information had been leaked.
Rose has already apologized for an “error of judgement” after admitting she had spoken to a BBC journalist about the closing of Farage’s accounts. However, Rose has denied she leaked private information related to Farage.
(Adds Farage response in fourth paragraph.)
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