{"id":9460,"date":"2016-10-17T17:55:06","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T16:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=9460"},"modified":"2016-10-18T11:42:35","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T10:42:35","slug":"natwest-closes-rt-bank-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/natwest-closes-rt-bank-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"NatWest closes RT bank accounts"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Russia<\/a>
Russia Today is known as ‘RT’ and has become a ‘go-to’ place to escape the pro-Western diet of anti-Russia stories.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NatWest is to close the UK bank accounts of the RT news channel, known previously as Russia Today.<\/p>\n

The bank, part of the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) group,\u00a0wrote a letter to RT on Monday 17th October 2016<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

NatWest told its London office: “We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us and reached the conclusion that we will no longer provide these facilities.”<\/p>\n

The bank said its decision was final and it is “not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it.”<\/p>\n

Nor does it seem to have been prepared for any media questions about the decision. \u00a0More about that and the bank’s embarrassing u-turn below.<\/p>\n

RT has been a thorn in the side of the UK Government for some time. \u00a0The Russian government-owned station, broadcasting on Freeview channel 135, gives a pro-Russian slant in a UK media atmosphere dominated by a constant diet of anti-Russian stories from ‘official’ Western sources.<\/p>\n

Recently, with the Russian-backed Syrian Government taking ground from UK and US client jihadist groups, the\u00a0Foreign Office and US State Department have started to panic.<\/p>\n

\"NatWest's<\/a>
NatWest’s parent is RBS, itself 70% owned by the UK Government.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bank gave no explanation to RT. \u00a0But then they couldn’t tell the media the reasoning either, adding shambles to injustice. \u00a0The whole RBS group will refuse to service RT, and if other banks follow suit, it will effectively make its UK operation untenable.<\/p>\n

All\u00a0through Monday the RBS press office was struggling to put together some kind of reasonable spin on the matter. \u00a0But what can they say? \u00a0RT is a legitimate media channel. \u00a0It’s places like Turkey which close down media outlets because their slant doesn’t agree with\u00a0the government line, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

Downing Street has of course denied any involvement of the government in the NatWest decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a matter for the bank and it’s for them to decide who they offer services to, based on their own risk appetite,\u201d a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May told reporters, as cited by Reuters.<\/p>\n

The fact that RBS is 70% owned by the taxpayer raises suspicion that someone has had a quiet word with\u00a0Sir Howard Davies, the Chairman of RBS, and its Group Chief Executive Ross McEwan. \u00a0We know how the establishment works in this country.<\/p>\n

Dramatically, after waiting all day, at 6:15pm on Monday evening, NatWest appeared to back-track. \u00a0A statement from Sarah Hinton-Smith at RBS was issued. It said:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese decisions are not taken lightly. We are reviewing the situation and are contacting the customer to discuss this further. The bank accounts remain open and are still operative.\u201d<\/p>\n

We still do not know what was RT’s sin against political correctness. At least the RBS media machine has managed to string a few words together to express something coherent. \u00a0But it contradicts what NatWest said earlier.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the bank said its decision was final and it was “not prepared to enter into any discussion in relation to it.” Now, at the end of a trying day, the decision is suddenly open to discussion and under review.<\/p>\n

In 2005, this ministry had its bank accounts closed by the Coop Bank<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Our stance on homosexuality apparently breached their ‘diversity’ policies. \u00a0The bank subsequently suffered a string of embarrassments<\/a><\/strong> and financial losses<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The NatWest\/RT case may yet be resolved. \u00a0In the meantime, RT, welcome to the Club of the Outsiders!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join but tells you all about it.)<\/strong>
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Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NatWest is to close the UK bank accounts of the RT news channel, known previously as Russia Today. The bank, part of the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) group,\u00a0wrote a letter to RT on Monday 17th October 2016. NatWest told its London office: “We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[15,2152,2153,2151,1065,43],"class_list":["post-9460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freedom-of-speech","tag-christian-voice","tag-natwest","tag-rbs","tag-rt","tag-russia-today","tag-stephen-green"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":8,"rttpg_category":"Freedom of Speech<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"NatWest is to close the UK bank accounts of the RT news channel, known previously as Russia Today. The bank, part of the RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) group,\u00a0wrote a letter to RT on Monday 17th October 2016. NatWest told its London office: “We have recently undertaken a review of your banking arrangements with us…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9460\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}