UK financial watchdog to look into closures of gamblers’ accounts

The Financial Conduct Authority has told the Gamblers Consumer Forum that it will investigate the issue.

UK.- The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has suggested that it will investigate claims that banks are closing customer accounts because of their gambling activity. Concerns about the issue were raised by the lobby group the Gamblers Consumer Forum (GCF).

In an open response to the GCF, the FCA says that it will look into the issue as part of its ongoing review of bank account access and closures. It wrote: “We are currently taking steps to understand the extent of denial, suspension and termination of bank accounts and have asked for information from the largest account providers to assess the impact on a wide range of customers.”

It added: “This includes the reasons firms close or refuse accounts and the impacts of this on different groups of customers.”

The GCF claimed that bank accounts were being closed ostensibly for anti-money laundering reasons, but it says that customers are being “de-banked” due to legitimate gambling transactions or links to the gambling industry.

It said that the situation “impacts the millions of ordinary gamblers in the UK who are simply partaking in a legitimate hobby, and one that supports many of Great Britain’s most iconic sporting industries, such as horse racing”.

It had asked to see the FCA’s guidance on how gambling transactions should be regarded by banks. It argued the National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing categorises the gambling industry as having a “low likelihood of being abused for money laundering purposes”. It also noted that the 2022 National Crime Agency Suspicious Activity report found gaming and leisure to be responsible for just 0.7 per cent of all suspicious activity reports.

The GCF has itself come in for controversy in recent weeks following a Guardian report on its links to Steven Donoughue, a gambling industry consultant and former secretary of the All-Party Parliamentary Betting & Gaming Group.

The group bills itself as the “voice of gamblers” and has campaigned against proposals for new affordability checks in the UK government’s gambling white paper. However, the group is run by Andrew Woodman, a parliamentary assistant to Andrew Bridgen, and Abbie MacGregor, a PhD student and former parliamentary researcher for two MPs.

The company behind it lists Donoughue as a co-owner and was established in May, the same month that Donoughue announced the disbandment of the All-Party Parliamentary Betting & Gaming Group, of which he had been secretary for 15 years.