The UK is reportedly closing many bank accounts of British Muslims without giving a reason, with numbers reaching up to 1,000 closures per day, reported Al-Jazeera.
The problem came to light when the Cordoba Foundation, a British think tank, found that it could not pay for an event in central London discussing political unrest in Tunisia. Its repeated attempts to make payments kept failing.
“Our attempts to pay kept getting declined, and donations to our NatWest account weren’t coming through,” stated Anas Altikriti, who leads the foundation. “Suddenly, we found out our accounts were closed without any warning or explanation.”
Altikriti did not receive any communication from the bank regarding the closure of his account. When he inquired about the reason for the closure, the bank only confirmed that the account had been closed, but did not provide any further information.
On 27 July 2023, Altikriti shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, how he faced similar issues nearly a decade ago.
“Nine years ago, my HSBC bank, which I had been with for 29 years, closed my family’s accounts. Since then, several other banks like NatWest Business, RBS Help, LloydsBank, and Santanderuk have done the same, without offering an explanation or a way to challenge their decisions,” he stated.
In 2014, his family’s personal accounts with HSBC were among those closed when several Muslim groups faced similar banking issues.
Banks refer to this action as “de-risking”. It’s a practice where they close the accounts of individuals or entities they view as financially or legally questionable.
Interestingly, Nigel Farage, a prominent Brexit supporter, recently faced a similar issue. Even though Farage and Altikriti are poles apart politically, Altikriti feels it is a chance to highlight the banking issues Muslims in the UK face.
In 2014, Altikriti went four months without a bank account, pointing to what he believes is “institutional Islamophobia” in the UK. HSBC, meanwhile, has not commented on his account closures.
