Prostitutes have accounts closed by banks in the United Kingdom – 08/08/2023 – Market

Marin Scarlett, a London-based sex worker, and Nigel Farage, a right-wing populist, would never be allies in a political campaign, but they share common cause when it comes to criticizing the UK banking system for closing accounts.

British law allows anyone to open a bank account, although banks can refuse customers who might damage their image.

Data from the Financial Conduct Authority, the industry regulator, indicates that account closures have increased since 2016-2017. In 2021-2022, the entity registered the mark of a thousand daily closures.

“It’s ridiculous that financial organizations can pass themselves off as arbiters of morality,” says Marin Scarlett, in her mid-30s.

His criticisms are reminiscent of those of Nigel Farage, the far-right politician who led the eurosceptic Ukip party. In July, the former leader denounced that a bank had closed his accounts because of his political views.

“Banks should be content with being banks, not moral arbiters,” he reacted.

The case has put the spotlight on the prestigious Coutts bank, a subsidiary of the NatWest group that was used in the past by Queen Elizabeth II.

For several days, the scandal opened the news, erupted in Parliament and led to the resignation of several leaders.

However, associations denounce that the closing of accounts generally affects people who work in sectors related to crime, such as sex work, much more.

“We feel stigmatized”

Scarlett, who has worked in the profession for about 15 years, accuses British banks of exercising “absurd and undue” vigilance over the profession, which she says has long suffered from account closures.

“Even knowing that everything we do is legal, we feel stigmatized”, explains this activist from the European Alliance for the Rights of Sex Workers.

Her account was first closed in 2018. For six months, the bank suspended her while carrying out an “evaluation”.

“Financial discrimination is an endemic problem in the British banking sector,” Audrey Caradonna, spokeswoman for the sex workers union (SWU), told AFP.

According to the union, account opening refusals and closures “increase” more and more and sometimes result in legal battles.

“Total discrimination,” said an adult content creator for the payment site OnlyFans, after her bank recently closed her accounts.

Sex work is legal in the UK, but associated activities such as brothels are not.

This situation creates a gray area that banks prefer not to venture into, explains Caradonna.

Money in a shoebox

Scarlett decided to keep her cash “in a shoebox” under her bed, for fear of depositing her money in the bank.

Caradonna believes the risk of closing accounts leaves sex workers more vulnerable, “terrified of waking up one day without access to their money”.

The result, he denounces, is that they are “forced to work in more risky ways to survive”.

After the Farage scandal, the British government proposed to impose longer notice periods and clearer explanations to banks about account closures.

He also emphasized the need to “protect freedom of expression”.

For Scarlett, the fact that the debate is being opened is positive, although she considers it “shocking that it is being opened because it happened to a person that society considers important, powerful or rich enough”.

PROSTITUTION OR SEX WORK?

In Brazil, on July 21, an unprecedented agreement brokered by the MPT (Ministério Público do Trabalho) in Campinas resulted in the formalization, last Thursday (20), of three sex workers from a nightclub in Itapira, in the interior of São Paulo. Paul. The MPT refers to women who now have a formal contract as sex workers, following the provisions of the Brazilian Occupation Classification.

In this list by the Ministry of Labor and Employment, from 2002, the main activity is “sex worker”, accompanied by several nomenclatures. There are call girls, harlots, messalina, hookers, women of life, prostitutes and sex workers, all described as synonyms.

“They look for sexual programs; they serve and accompany clients; they participate in educational actions in the field of sexuality. The activities are carried out following norms and procedures that minimize the vulnerabilities of the profession”, says the description of the classification.

There is no consensus, however, on the most socially appropriate terminology, since even among feminists and academics there are those who defend the existence of sex work (and therefore this nomenclature, which would be less stigmatizing) and those who consider that the activity, in itself , is exploitative (and, therefore, failing to call it prostitution would only be a cover-up for a type of exploitation).