ALEX BRUMMER: NatWest boss Rose faces a bed of nettles

The biggest test for the CEO of a large company is how they handle a crisis. As Dame Alison Rose has learned to her detriment, chaos can ensue in the least expected part of the realm.

Private banks like Coutts are chosen for discretion, which is why the late Queen Elizabeth II entrusted her money to the bank, as did sports stars like Marcus Rashford.

One cannot imagine C Hoare & Co, which is most exclusive to private banks, allowing a dispute with a high-profile client of a similar stature to Nigel Farage behaving as insensitively as Coutts.

Bathing the shore in the softly focused image of LGBTQ, climate change and Black Lives Matter is appropriate for this time.

But applying these values ​​and making political judgments about clients in a free and open society is quite another.

Rose is not the only CEO who has had to deal with unexpected calamities in recent weeks. At ITV, Carolyn McCall took the spotlight on how the broadcaster dealt with uncomfortable revelations about presenter Phillip Schofield. Faced with hostile headlines, pressure on the stock price and a hearing in the House of Commons, McCall acted decisively and ordered an investigation of all events by independent attorney Jane Mulcahy.

That put out the fire, even though the share price remains disappointing. At Thames Water, chief executive Sarah Bentley, faced with an existential event at the nation’s largest water company, stepped down with immediate effect. She realized others might be better suited to mount a rescue.

So what about NatWest CEO Rose, owner of Coutts? There have been several slips. The suspicion that she discussed a Coutts client account with a BBC business reporter at a charity dinner is a potential problem in itself.

I was personally indignant (many years ago) when Clive Cowdery, then the boss of insurer Resolution, took the details of my gift policy with the group out of his pocket.

It showed that performance had not been affected by various ownership changes. However, it was an improper encroachment on my personal finances.

Rather than immediately address Farage’s public allegations about Coutts’ behavior, Rose, who has a phalanx of communications consultants, delayed until she had no choice but to pressurize her to do something.

Her public letter to Farage, delivered late in the day, did that rare thing, apologizing “for the deeply inappropriate” comments about the former UKIP leader. Companies avoid saying sorry in case it exposes them to legal recourse.

One of her predecessors at NatWest, Fred Goodwin, never took responsibility for the collapse of NatWest’s owner, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and the largest bailout of modern times. The scar, in the form of the British taxpayer’s interest of 38.6 per cent, is still there. Farage’s unkind response at least made Rose look better.

Still, her letter raises many questions. Most importantly, her offer of ‘banking arrangements at NatWest’, rather than the recovery of the account at Coutts, implies that Farage is no longer eligible. This is all a bit mysterious. In normal practice, one would expect a bank to give customers some leeway if an account were to temporarily default or become ineligible for the services of an exclusive bank.

The bigger mistake is Rose’s decision to order an internal review from Coutts, who reports to the chief executive.

That may seem commendable, but it’s a case of the boss checking her own homework and disregarding the role of Rose or that of the main board led by veteran City regulator and thinker Sir Howard Davies.

Independent probes go deeper and wider into dividing up responsibility for errors and how best to reshape processes.

One might expect that the board or its senior external advisors would recommend such a course.

As CEO, Rose must bear responsibility for botched responses, an unnecessary public row and an inability to curb the judgmental enthusiasm at Coutts.

But the broader context is that it has normalized NatWest and refocused on its role as a lender to small and medium-sized businesses. It would be a shame if Farage’s banana peel cost the CEO a job she has filled with reassuring confidence.