Research by IEA Senior Research Fellow Jamie Whyte explaining how red tape has fuelled a surge in debanking has been referenced in a Daily Mail article discussing a Financial Conduct Authority urging banks to do more to protect Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) from losing their accounts.

The article said:

“Last year The Mail on Sunday revealed lenders were shutting almost 1,000 accounts a day – a seven-fold increase on 2016 – in a ‘shoot-first-ask-questions-later’ approach to anti-money laundering rules.

“Almost all accounts were closed because of ‘financial crime’ concerns. In some cases lenders are legally prevented from telling customers why they have been ‘debanked’.

“But the Institute of Economic Affairs estimates that enforcing them cost banks £34billion a year – almost double the budget for policing across the UK – despite no evidence that the measures cut crime.”

Read the full piece in The Daily Mail (19/07/2024, p.65).

Jamie’s research was also referenced in Mahalsa and Business Telegraph.

You can also read a full copy of Debanked: The Economic and Social Consequences of Anti-Money Laundering Regulation.