Urgent letters have been sent to the Bank of England’s governor calling on him to investigate HSBC after it “arbitrarily and capriciously” shut down the account of Finsbury Park Mosque.
The mosque in St Thomas’s Road is one of several muslim organisations in the UK to receive letters from HSBC last week warning them that they no longer fitted with the bank’s “risk appetite” and their accounts would be closed.
The bank - fined £1.2bn two years ago in the US for laundering drug cartel money - gave no other reason.
Now the Town Hall’s crime chief Cllr Paul Convery and ward councillors Andy Hull and Richard Greening, have now written to HSBC calling on them to “put or shut” up and explain why the decision has been taken.
“It this is for some secretive security reason then they should say so,” Cllr Convery said. “To use the words ‘risk appetitie’ is weasily. It’s nudge nudge wink wink. But you cannot smear an organisation with innuendo like that.”
They have also written to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, arguing that HSBC is “arbtrarily and capriciously denying a community faith organisation banking facilities”.
Mosque trustee Khalid Oumar described the bank’s action as “shocking” and “Islamophobic”. He said there was no way any of the mosque’s funds could be used for anything other than charitable purposes.
“The letter came out of the blue,” he said. “It undermines social cohesion and the idea of multi-cultural Britain. There’s no explanation other than Islamophobia. The letter even ends saying ‘thank you for banking with us today’. The local council, the charity commission, the local MP Jeremy Corbyn and volunteer groups all recognise the work we do. HSBC should be ashamed of being part of something like this. The community here is in shock.
He added that the mosque had also written to HSBC demanding answers, and that it could even take a protest to its headquarters in Canary Wharf if they were unsatisfactory.
Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn also attacked the decision. He told the BBC: “Over the past 10 years, (the Mosque) has developed into a superb example of a community mosque supporting local people and providing facilities for all faiths if they need it.
“I am shocked and appalled at the decision of HSBC.”
Until 2005 the Mosque was associated with radicalism and run by Abu Hamza, who was this year convicted of terrorism offences in America.
But since then it has “turned itself around” ward councillor Andy Hull said, and is a well-run community organisation.
“This seems to be an arbitrary decision,” he said. “HSBC have some urgent questions to answer. The only reason they gave in the letter they sent during Ramadan to tell Finsbury Park Mosque that its bank account is to be terminated is that the charity now apparently ‘falls outside” the bank’s risk appetite’, whatever that is supposed to mean.
“If what ‘the world’s local bank’ is doing here to an important institution that serves thousands of residents in our local community is not as sinister as it appears, then they need to come up with a decent explanation for it, and fast.”
A spokesmen for the bank said decisions to close accounts were “absolutely not based on race or religion”.
“We do not discuss relationships we may or may not have with a customer, nor confirm whether an individual or business is, or has been a customer.
“Discrimination against customers on grounds of race or religion is immoral, unacceptable and illegal, and HSBC has comprehensive rules and policies in place to ensure race or religion are never factors in banking decisions.”