Half a million customers debanked to avoid ‘expensive’ payouts

Half a million customers were debanked last year, the highest figure in almost a decade, figures show. An estimated 408,000 bank accounts were shut down, compared to just 45,091 in 2016-2017, figures obtained from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under Freedom of Information rules revealed. In all of these cases, lenders cited “financial crime…